Second Christmas

This year was SO much fun with Ryanne. She had a great Christmas - got WAY too much stuff, but seems to love every bit of it. Honestly, she still hasn't finished opening all of her presents. I think she's a little overwhelmed by the process. She got to the point on Christmas Day where she was opening stuff and throwing it aside to get to the next thing with paper. She loved the paper, but didn't stop long enough to even look at the toy inside. I gues she's still a little young to completely understand how it works. At that point, we distracted her and the present opening stopped. There are still about half a dozen presents under the tree for her. We'll make sure we open them before we leave.

Let's see, what did she get.

Santa brought her a Neurosmith Maestro set with 3 extra cartidges. She loves playing with the blocks. It's a little buggy, but I guess that's why they went out of business. It's still a neat toy. I don't know how long it will last.

Chrys and I gave her a baby doll and stroller. She keeps trying to give the baby its bottle (when she's not chewing on the bottle herself). She LOVES pushing the stroller around the kitchen and back yard.

Beyond that, she got Little People galore. Grandma and Grandpa G got her Noah's Ark and the extra animals. It was one of the later presents so she's not played with it much, but I know it will be a big hit at home. Aunt Fyoire gave her a Little People Knight and Dragon (shocker a dragon! hee) that RC shoved into the Ark, too.

She got quite a few books and seems to be enjoying them. She got some clothes - always good. She also got E-L-M-O (the dancing one) and seems as amused by that as she is the Chicken Dance one. I think that will stay here until next year. Lots of stuffed animals from Gammaree that she likes, especially the cat.

Unfortunately, she also seems to have gotten a stomach virus or something. She pitched her cookies this afternoon and hasn't kept anything down since. She also had a fever (103 by the time we got to the hotel) so we gave her some Tylenol and it's back down to 100 or so which makes us happier. The good news is that right before she got sick the first time, we found her a small Elmo that doesn't do anything for her to cuddle with.

The Baby Room

One of the more interesting aspects of every big store or location we've been to so far is the "baby room". I have seen them in every 'mall' setting and also at the Haneda airport. This is a room with, at the least, a changing table and a semi-private room for nursing. In the bigger stores, they have scales and measuring tapes near the changing tables. Often there are benches that are used while waiting for a room, dads waiting for moms or bottle feeding.

The nursing rooms vary from mini-cubicles without doors to curtained shower stall looking things. They always have a table or something and a little chair that is the perfect height for mom to sit in and nurse without a stool.

While this means I assume it's not ok to just latch her on wherever, it's kind of nice to have the bit of privacy, away from stray glances - not that they bother me anymore, but I know it often means others are bothered and, while it's none of their business, I hate making others uncomfortable. It can be semi-inconvenient to have to track down the rooms when RC's fussy and wants her milk, it's nice to be able to close the curtain and block out the distractions that make it take forever when we're out.

Oh, and thanks to yesterday's baby room, I found out that Ryanne is about 9.5kg with her clothes (no wonder the L 9-11kg diapers seemed too big) and about 75cm long with her shoes.

New tricks every day

Ryanne's vocabulary is suddenly exploding. Today she muttered 'sues' when I was putting her shoes on to go out. She's also working on "mini mmm" which is either Minnie or Mickey Mouse. She gets very excited about either one. "Dider" continues to come out periodically. Also today she popped off with "baby" and "dababy" while I was talking about her being the baby while I drove around. She'll say "dentle" while she pulls the cats' tails or fistfuls of fur. She even remembers to give up a "tantoo" every now and then when you give her something. She's working on Elmo - right now it's closest to "memo" - who is one of her favorites.

I'm also amazed at what she recognizes. She correctly retrieves a book and puts her arms up into chicken formation when I ask about the chicken dance. She knows what her toys are. She knows where the potty is. She knows what noise the cats make - "maaar" - and what noise the dogs make - "aaaaaf" in a shrill little girl voice. She'll lean forward with her nose out when I ask if she wants to smell something. She knows what it means to not throw stuff on the floor, even though she'll do it anyway. She also knows what I mean when I tell her to stay out of the cat's food, but will still pick it up piece by piece and move it around or put it in the water. She knows what the TV is *sigh*.

She still won't let me put clips in her hair, but I've been better about keeping her in girly clothing so I've gotten fewer questions about my little boy.

She still loves music and will quickly dance whenever any song comes on the radio or MP3, even if we're in the car. She's got quite a car dance.

She is also becoming more fascinated by other babies. Today she wanted to pet a little boy's head - he was older - and every time we saw another baby, she got SO excited. I wish there were more opportunities for socialization here, like Gymboree or a daycare I understood. I guess we'll have to settle for whoever we run into at the park and make an effort to get there more often.

Oh, and in the ever increasing repertoire of ways to wake mommy up (usually raspberries to any exposed skin with the occasional hug or kiss), dada has taught her that I'm a pony. Now she'll climb on my back or tummy and bounce up and down until I buck around and throw her off to fits of screaming and giggling. Must find way to repay...

Ok...it's not all roses

Ryanne's sleep patterns have been getting REALLY screwy. She transitioned down to one nap a few weeks ago. Actually, she had started while we were in Texas, but reverted when we messed her up coming here. It took a couple of weeks in Japan, but she now naps right after lunch, pretty reliably.

The problem, and I use problem loosely because I'm only slightly bothered by it since she sleeps with me and I can nap with her if she wakes too much, is that she is waking quite frequently at night. And she doesn't just wake and roll over and go back to sleep. She wakes up screaming in terror and wants to nurse for the comfort. Not nursing her results in an escalation of the screaming into fit stage with ragged breathing and coughing. This wakes up Chrys, which is really why I consider it a problem. If she just woke me, I'd be fine, but waking the 'dada' means he's not as well rested for work and that's bad.

She has gone from one waking at around 4-5am (understandable to be hungry after 10 hours at her age) to 2-6 wakings from 9pm to 7am. The nights with 6 are the hard ones. Typical has become around 3.

Honestly, this is part of why I look forward to really messing up her schedule. I'm hoping we can get rid of this mess when we fix the trans-Pacific flight issues. It worked moderately well before. In the meantime, I'd settle for her going down easily and only waking when I come to bed and at 5am.

Maybe it's the teeth, maybe she's growing (she has been eating a TON), who knows. I'd like my good sleeper back now, though.

Bar the door!

Maybe that will hold her. Unfortunately, the door knob doesn't seem to cut it anymore. The doors here (the ones that don't slide, at least) have french handles. Ryanne no longer finds those challenging. They are merely the mundane inconvenience that prevents her from running helter skelter throughout the house. She can j*u*s*t reach if she stands on her tippy tippy toes. At that point, leverage is in her favor and as she falls down and backwards, the door pops open. *sigh*

Unfortunately, ALL of our doors have this type of handle, including the front door. This means we have to be better about locking it so she can't completely escape. I intend to look at devices to assist in babyproofing when we're in the US.

Oh, and you want a fit...hold the door shut. Guaranteed on the floor, tears in the eyes, screaming tantrum. Fun...really.

Cat toy

We taught Ryanne how to play with the cats. I'm pretty sure it's more entertaining for her than it is for the cats, but it really amuses us and, in the end, that's what matters. We gave her a rope and taught her how, if she drags the rope around the apartment, the cats will chase the end of the rope. She just SQUEALS with delight over this. She'll pull it around the corner, feel the tension that means a cat got it and run back squealing which makes the cat run away. She'll play for quite some time with them. Even better is if we chase her with the rope so she can 'chase' the cats. I think she's going to fall over laughing one day.

She's also learning to ham for the camera. I am trying to get her to learn what "cheese" means so she'll smile extra big. Tonight, though, she was covered in spaghetti sauce so Chrys grabbed the camera. Without prompting, she gave him this huge spaghetti filled mouth grin. It's horrible and SO cute at the same time.

She's also got the chicken arms down. She'll walk around dancing like that and will give us a couple of flaps when Elmo plays. It's so funny.

She's still playing with blocks and stacking. Amazing to watch the brain development.

Oh, and today we got a Christmas card from my "mom's board" card exchange. Ryanne recognized Jaida from the board pix and got the BIGGEST grin on her face when she saw her picture on the card. She giggled and grinned and wanted the card. Once I gave it to her, she kept turning it over - maybe looking for the rest of Jaida? - she was just fascinated by the whole thing.

There's a person in there

Ryanne spent most of Friday playing with Weebleville. Its batteries are mostly dead and I'm still trying to decide if this is good or bad. She's not all that interested in the music, except to play with turning it on and off. Mostly, she likes the little town and the people and putting the people in the doors and slides and turntables, etc. I think the Little People she's getting for Christmas will be a big hit, suddenly. She must have spent an hour moving them around and playing by herself. Amazing...

She's also working on "diaper". I left her with Chrys today while L'il Bro went to the dentist. At one point he says she started pointing and they ended up in the bedroom changing her "dido". He repeated diaper and they went through various renditions. By the time I got home to the stinky diaper, she was up to "dider". This will come in QUITE handy.

She's also starting to differentiate her signs for "eat" and "water" which makes my life easier. "Eat" appears to be all of the fingers at the mouth, whereas "water" is one finger. She is still quite capable of signing for "milk" and does it often. She also has a variety of ways of signing "more", but all get the point across.

Turns out you can buy sand toys at the 100¥ store at the train station so she now has 2 buckets, some shovels and some molds. Cost 200¥ for 2 sets. We went to the park today so she could play with them and she had a great time. She dug in the dirt, ate some sand, played on the slides with Chrys, even went down sitting up many, many times. What really got me was that, despite the fun digging in and touching the dirt, there was NO way she was going to sit in it. I guess it's still too dirty. Nevertheless, all in all, it was a good time.

She's finally starting to play with stacking things and has managed to stack 2 objects a couple of times. There's nothing really repeatable, but I'm glad she's starting to work on those skills.

Oh, and everything is a purse. If it's got a handle or an opening, it will be on the arm. She loves my bracelets and watch and this canva Hello Kitty bag we picked up for 500¥ that now holds all of her sand toys. She loved toting that through the park...so cute to watch. She'll even sling my purse strap on her arm or around her neck and drag it through the apartment. She may be a girlie girl after all...who knows.

The park

On Friday (yikes, that was just yesterday), we went to the park and let Ryanne run around for about an hour. She thought this was quite possibly the coolest thing ever.

The park across the street is huge! They've got 3 playing areas for the kids, a pool (actually, I think it's 5 of them), and at least one stadium with a walking track on the outside of it.

Play area 1 was covered in fine gravel that R thought was great fun to dig about in. She started wandering through and collecting big rocks as we went. Eventually she ran out of room in her tiny little hands and started dropping them. Not long after that, she dropped them all and gave up. In this section, there are 2 old fire trucks and a train for climbing and playing on. We put her up in one of the fire trucks and she sat and turned the wheel and pushed on the horn (for which I uttered a honk honk). There are also rope ladders that she only had interest in chewing on. There is a maze made out of bars where she got great enjoyment out of running under the dividers while I chased her through the normal way. There were two types of teeter totters, one that bounced which she adored and one that was the normal lever set up which she didn't get much out of.

Then, we moved to area 2 which is the first of the sand pits. She LOVED digging in the sand and kept trying to steal the other kiddies sand tools - mental note for the summer that she needs some stuff for playing in the sand. This area also had lots of metal & plastic platforms and bridges and SLIDES. She loved the slide. She even made it down once still sitting up instead of having fallen over, making her quite pleased with herself. There was one from the platforms that she would go down, but the favorite went from play area 2 to area 3 and she got to walk up a ramp to get back...great fun. We even got to the point where I could ask if she wanted to go again and get an emphatic nod.

Area 3 had a wooden playscape with pulleys that the kids could use to pull buckets of sand up and play with them. Ryanne mostly enjoyed being on the ground and playing in the bucket as it got pulled up by L'il Bro. She tired of this area rather quickly, though.

All in all, a great visit. We got home and she took a 75 minute nap - her second nap of the day so that duration is unheard of. Guess we'll have to get to the park more often.

Pia pia pia

This has been one of RC's favorite things to say lately. We have been trying to figure out where it came from. All of a sudden, l'il bro looks at us one day as we're discussing it and says "that show we watched the first day...the guy with the piano singing." Sure enough the sequence came on the show again a few days later and Ryanne got all excited as she played her air piano. Chrys and I keep getting the song stuck in our heads and we sing it for her everyone once in a while...cracks her up.

She also says "bagah bagah bagah" sometimes. I'm wondering if this is from the Chicken Dance Elmo she has. Haven't field tested that one, yet.

There was so much more I wanted to say, but it's slipped my mind right now. Guess I'll owe another update soon.

Spinning...

RC has added spinning to her list of dance moves. Apparently swaying, bobbing the head, all-out headbanging and now, spinning - until she falls over. She quickly tries to get up to spin some more, only to bob about, slamming into things. Eventually she regains her balance and will spin some more. Great age...I tell you!

So much to say

Ryanne is becoming quite the little 'human' lately. It's so much fun to watch her interact with her environment and people around her. The personality that is emerging is quite entertaining, and she seems to know it.

Her favorite thing right now is beeping noses. She and I have a nose beeping session at least once a day. It's especially fun to try when she's not wanting to go to sleep. Unfortunately, it seems that the beeper sleeps before she does. That doesn't seem to stop her from trying, though.

She's also developed a new nickname that just cracks her up. "Bonkers" will get her giggling and ready to immediately head-butt you, preferably on your head. She'll settle for knees or walls or even floor, though.

Other favorite new activities that we're not too fond of are biting and pinching. The pinching seems to have calmed down the last day or two, but it was rampant for a while. The biting comes and goes - favorite locations are toes, fingers and arms with the occasional chop while nursing - OW!

She's also learned to hug and kiss. These are great. She'll do everything from throw herself on my shoulders with her arms spread to actually grab around my head and getting her little hands in my hair to give me a hug. Kisses are still open mouthed and a little messy, but still worthwhile.

She also loves to give her bears hugs and kisses. We started picking one "stuffy" per day to play with and that always gets a hug and kiss sometimd during the day. Winnie the Pooh seems to be a favorite - mama's happy. She is also entranced by the Mickey puppet that Uncle M gave her. She's still not quite sure how he knows her name, but he gets lots of hugs if he asks right.

The fascination with board books continues. She has numerous shelves on the bookcase and loves to go get books and bring them to me to 'read' to her. Usually she just sits in my lap and turns pages and I have to try to catch whatever goes by as she flips (quickly). She still seems to prefer single images on a page and having me identify them. There's not much interest in anything that tells a story. When I try to read stories (or recite Wynken Blynken and Nod, which I bought her for sentimental reasons), she quickly gets bored and wanders off. I guess there's too much to see still.

She has taken to playing with her shape sorters and blocks with renewed vigor. She even seems interested in learning how to play with them as shape sorters and blocks instead of just things to carry. She's trying to stack and is very adept at putting all of the circle objects into round holes. She gets VERY mad when the triangle won't go in the round hole, though. I love sitting on the floor and watching her play and she seems to like having me there more often. She'll frequently sit on my lap and bring me toys to help her with.

We're also working more on animal sounds and names. She's decided that the cats say "maaaa" and keeps trying to tell Max that it's "maaa maaa" which never fails to crack me up. She will tell you, when prompted that a cat says either "maaaa" or "maaaa maaa". I think this comes from hearing the cats really meow. She gets very close to the right noise. With less frequency, she can tell you that a dog says "aaaaf aaaf" in a really high pitched voice - there's a yippy dog that lives in the neighborhood and she spent lots of time with Kity's dog, both of whom sound about like that.

She's had two phone conversations. The first was with Auntie Jennifer and the other was with Gamma Ree on her birthday. She actually talked more to Gamma Ree, but I think that's because she understood better what was expected. She loved to listen to each of them say her name and tell her anything, though. I guess it made all of those hours playing with the toy phones worthwhile.

The potty fascination continues. She still takes me to help her a potty a few times each day. She doesn't stay dry, but still seems to love going on the potty. I hope this means she'll be easy to train when the time comes.

Also, her language seems to be coming back. We went through a very frustrating period shortly after arriving where everything was "da" and temper tantrums ensued when we didn't understand. She seems to be more interested in identifying words now and I encourage her to try to stay calm and not get frustrated when trying to tell me something. It's not easy for either of us.

She did say her first two word phrase on 11/19. She kept standing up in the little plastic chair I got for her. I would always tell her that "Chairs are for sitting" and put her down. After about a dozen instances of me telling her this, she stood again and I sighed and opened my mouth. She promptly looked at me, proclaimed "chay-uh siddy" and sat down. She hasn't repeated it since and we're not 100% sure that she really understands them as two distinct words. I think she was just mimicing my sounds. She does understand both "sit" and "chair", though, so only time will tell.

Lastly, she cut her 5th tooth - upper right front - on 11/17. It took forever to actually make it through. She chewed on anything she could find trying to help it along. It spent days swollen and with hunks of gum hanging from it, but eventually made it on through.

L'il bro's name

While the movers put our stuff in on Sunday, RC and I were locked in our bedroom with the cats. She moved from cat to cat saying "gentle" and petting them very carefully. Then she'd grin and reach down and give the cat a hug, try to pick him/her up and eventually settle on putting her head down on the cat's side and trying to rest. This would last all of 2 seconds and then the cat would move to get away and she'd move on to the next cat.

I think she's also figure out l'il bro's name. He's been pushing my buttons lately so I've been yelling his full name a lot. The other day after I had yelled at him, she turned around with as stern a look as a one year old can muster and yelled "MyToe". I just about died laughing, despite my frustration with him. Now she says it a lot and seems to even realize that it can be used to communicate with or call him as well as express one's frustration with just about anything.

Birthday cake

I completely forgot! On her REAL first birthday, we managed to find something labelled as a cheesecake at the grocery store (I think that one was MValue...I'm starting to forget which have what stuff). She LOVED it. It was teeny so Chrys cut it into quarters but then cut hers in half again. After a few initial yucky faces, she picked up the halves and carried them around excitedly eating them. I told Chrys that the mutual cheesecake affection clearly labelled her as his child despite her seeming taste for fish. I'm sad that went over better than the duck I made, but I guess it's all about what makes her happy. This one was certainly less overwhelming in size and shape so maybe that was what did it.

TOYS!!!!

Our stuff arrived from Texas today. RC was playing as if she'd never seen many of these before even though she had access to all of them only 2 weeks ago. It strengthens my resolve to start a program where we circulate through her toys on a weekly (biweekly?) basis so everything old is new again more often. I think I have the perfect opportunity to initiate that here...just have to get back to the 100¥ store and get some more baskets.

With the arrival of the stuff also came her booster seat. This is an item that I am THRILLED to have since it turns out that trying to feed a toddler without something in which to restrain her is not an easy task. She's been doing more snacking than eating lately and it's been driving me a bit bonkers. Mostly because since she tracks rice everywhere, I find rice EVERYWHERE. Cold, gummy rice is not a good feeling when you just step out of a nice hot shower.

The other thing is that she's been eating a TON these past two days. I think that 12 month growth spurt is right around the corner if not already in progress. That's the other benefit to the booster - I can put her in it and give her a plate with her meal so I know how much she's actually consuming. When she's just eating off of my plate, it's a bit hard to tell. The good news is that I gave her quite a bit for lunch and dinner and she devoured all of it (minus two TINY chunks of cucumber) so the eating is not a figment of my sometimes overactive imagination.

The movers also brought her wagon. I know it's not a steel wagon, but it had seat belts so it seemed a better choice for her first birthday present from mama and dada. Turns out those seat belts are worth their weight in gold! L'il bro and I assembled it (without the use of the recommended hammer...our downstairs neighbors must HATE us by now) and took her down to the San-Ai. For the first part of the ride, she tried everything to stand up, but the belt held strong. It was a wonderful thing. As I had hoped, there was room for her on one side and room for the groceries we bought on the other, making the trip home almost as stress free as the trip there (barring the beginning grunts of boredom from my passenger and efforts necessary to keep the groceries on "their side" despite the bumpy roads). The handle is long enough that I don't have to bend over, indicating that it was a purchase made on the other side of the water. I'm in love!

Speaking of the store...today marked my first attempt at buying non-clearly labelled kids finger foods. I picked up these little white dot things that look like hard bread - spherical croutons, if you will. Yeah...it's back to expensive boxes of crackers. These things are like hardened confectioners sugar...not ideal for an afternoon snack.

Now that's out of my system

On to other things

Suddenly, we have a lap baby. She will now pull me into the living room and to one of the floor chairs. Once I sit, she's off to get her Giggle Elmo noise maker (From Grandma G) or a book to show me. She'll sit there for up to 30 minutes so far. It's sort of weird, but I sure love the extra cuddle time.

She's also finally starting to make some new sounds again. Maybe the trip and stress was too much for her, but we had regressed back to everything being "da" which was NO fun for mama and dada. Today we got "urs" when she was after my purse and "own" when she wanted a telephone. We also got "oos" when she reached for dada's tea - had to tell her it wasn't juice and she couldn't have it. It will be very nice not to have everything communicated in whines and pointing.

Chrys had taken to shutting the door to the office when he was with her. It keeps her there where he can see her. Today, I tired of the screaming this caused and brought her toy basket in there - since that's where her toys will eventually end up, anyway. She pulled them out and left them everywhere, but apparently bored of that after a while and started methodically going around the office and putting them away. I was floored, but happily so!

Oh, we saw lots of dogs on our walk today. This was great stuff...she squealed and yelled at them playing, obviously very excited. I can't wait for the cats to get here.

My precioussssss

Ryanne seems to have developed a rather odd attachment...to my cell phone. Yeah, the brand new one. It's really weird. She will go after my purse and dig in the pocket until she gets it out. Then, she either pulls it to her chest and cuddles in to me with her head on my shoulder or pulls it open (delighting at the noise) and pretends to talk on it. It's the cuddling it to my chest that I think is a little odd. Oh well...I guess it's just a harbinger of things to come.

Oh...and if I take it away...I get this

Photo courtesy of the new, nifty phone...

Told you she was mastering the temper tantrum.

Queen of the Temper Tantrum

Yeah...that's right. In the past month, my daughter has truly perfected the art of the temper tantrum. She can throw them any time, any place over ANY little thing. Sometimes it's a book she's playing with, sometimes it's a basket she picked up, sometimes it's just being tired of riding in the cart or the car seat. She will wail and holler and CRY little tears down her cheeks. Like she's doing right now...it's bedtime and she knows it and she's exhausted, but she's going to fight this with every last fiber of her little being. Chrys is being a champ...he's in there rocking her, holding her, singing to her, trying to calm her down. I hate that she does it. I hope to one day become immune to these so I don't cave and let her have whatever just to keep her from crying, but it's SO hard...so very hard.

In the meantime, we've finally found a place for her to sleep where we ALL can get some sleep. We pulled up the extra more firm bottom half of a small (twin) size futon and she sleeps on that pulled up to our bigger futon. It gives her plenty of room to thrash about; me plenty of room to roll around and she can (and does) still crawl up to cuddle with me or nurse when she needs it. She ends up in some pretty funny positions, all of which make me VERY happy she has her own space, but I love having her so close. It's going to be hard to give that up in a year, but maybe we'll all be ready.

Another thing she seems to be loving more and more is 'bonk'ing her head into things...most notably our heads. She just cracks up. She'll smack her head into the wall, the door, the glass, the car seat, the table, the chair, my nose, my forehead, my chest...whatever. Then she'll just giggle. Sometimes I wonder if she's all there...

She got some new things on her birthday. None of them were tangible as our boxes still haven't arrived from customs. (They have all of our forms so it's just a matter of time.) She got to take her diaper off in the morning...then she beat on the door of the potty and ended up doing a pretty good job of going #1. I was very proud. She got to play in the tub (with mommy's water level that allows for more toy play) for an extra bit of time while mama showered. She even got to eat the fruit gels that are popular here. She really liked the peach, but did alright with the Lychee if I ate the fruit chunk out of them.

I guess I did get her one item...a little plastic red chair that I found for 198¥ at the San-ai. I was hoping that would put an end to her dragging around (and pulling over) our kitchen chairs. It has certainly reduced the frequency, though not eliminated. I guess I should take what I can get and be happy, though.

One year!

Well, here in Isahaya, it's October 29 10:41am. My baby girl is one.

It's hard to believe it's been a year that she's been in my life. A year that my job has been making sure she's happy and well-rounded. A year that I have been just overjoyed to have another being in my life.

One year...wow! She's changed so much, but that's what this journal is all about...to record those changes so I can look back and remember when she couldn't walk, she couldn't "say" anything, she could barely open her eyes. Just amazing.

One year...that magic date when the SIDS risk drops to 0%, when she can suddenly face forward in her car seat, when she becomes labelled as a toddler. It means a lot.

Another post later on various updates...for now, Happy Birthday, little one! Mama loves you very, very much.

Uh oh

Ryanne's favorite phrase. It gets said when she really does something on accident or any time she throws something on the ground. Sometimes I think she drops stuff just so she can say it. Cracks me up. She has the cutest little girl voice when she does it, too. "Uh oooooh" I'll have to see if I can record it one day...did I bring the voice recorder with me? Probably not.

Last night marked her first night of almost normal sleep. She woke twice, but didn't struggle going back to sleep from about 7:30pm to 7am. Beautiful stuff! We're going to have to work again on night weaning since she's back to waking around 1am, but I think we can handle that...somehow...with her right there in bed... Why do we complicate these things?

Ants and steps

I completely forgot...RC learned about ants our last day in Texas. I was running things out to the car to do the last of my errands and she followed me out the door as normal. Well, I didn't see her stop and start playing with the flowerbeds. Next thing I know, l'il bro yells that she's covered in ants. She apparently put her finger right into an ant hill and they swarmed over her. I ran her inside (stupidly) and started ripping clothes off as they were crawling. Got her down to her bare bum and wiped the last few off. Then, I put a diaper back on her and had bro watch her (off the floor, away from the ants I brought inside) while I beat the last of the ants out of her clothes and shoes.

I was worried they were fire ants since I've never seen normal ants swarm like that so I called the ped. She talked me through the scenario and we decided they were just regular ants that had pinched her skin. She had about a dozen and a half bites up her hands and arms. At this point, they've blistered, popped, scabbed and scarred. Someday, when she wonders why she has little scars all over her hands and fore arms...I can point her here. *sigh*

On a more interesting front...she's getting quite good at little steps. Our new apartment is riddled with steps to each room. The tatami rooms are 2-3 inches high. The rest are about a 1" threshold. Ryanne's already getting better at negotiating the thresholds and I figure she'll master the tatami rooms without hanging on for dear life in the near future.

Little crank

Ryanne's been cranky. It started the day before our plane ride to Phoenix when she got the sniffles and continues now. I don't know if it's the sniffles - which she always seems to get right before we fly...how does she know?? - or the teeth or what! She cries in the car, she cries at the apartment, she cries in the store...she's happy only when asleep and those periods feel all too brief.

Thankfully, we seem to have stopped at 2 teeth for now, but I think more are on the horizon. She's still gumming and gnawing on everything in sight.

Earlier this week, I tired of her constantly pulling my shirt up trying to get milk so I encouraged her to sign again. Now, she will very readily sign "milk" with both hands when she wants to nurse. Now, it seems like she's nursing more and that may be because she can communicate it or because she's not feeling her best. Today, she started putting her hand to her mouth, similar to the sign for "eat", whenever I asked if she wanted to eat. I'm going to take this opportunity to really encourage the signing and help her communicate. Her verbal progression has slowed some...most everything is back to sounding like "da" and I don't know if I'm just too tired to figure it out or she's not trying as much so I'm hoping the sign will help us both out.

She's sleeping with us, in typical Japanese fashion. We haven't yet decided whether or not this will continue once her playpen/crib gets here. Right now, she's still waking fairly often and, with me right there next to her, she wants her milk. I don't quite know how to deal with that with her in bed with us and, wouldn't you know it, I left the sleep book in Texas. *sigh*

There are some advantages to sleeping like this. Despite the night wakings, I'm asleep more. I don't have to listen to her cry from the next room while Chrys puts her back to sleep. I fall asleep while she nurses so I'm not waiting up while he puts her down. I think I might be better rested, but that's not the primary concern.

One disadvantage is that, since we have a futon, she can get in and out of bed as she pleases. The good news is that when she falls out of the bed (since it's still just a double) I don't worry about her...it's only a few inches. The bad news is that when she doesn't want to go to sleep, it's very hard to constrain her. We'll see how this pans out.

Another nice thing about Japan is that it's very child friendly. Ryanne LOVES to wave at everyone (and is doing so much more often) and most people will happily smile and wave back which only encourages her. She gets lots of extra attention...partly from being a baby and partly because they seem especially attracted to American babies.

One downside is that, despite their love of babies, baby things are insanely expensive. Like an idiot, I left the plug protectors in Texas and recently found out that they're about ¥800 for 4 (about $8), instead of $6 for 36 like I got at Target. Well, I know one thing that's on the list of things to grab at Christmas! On the flip side, I found door pinch guards in 2 packs at the ¥100 store...

For now, sleep calls (and the need to start the Japan blog) so I'll quit while I'm ahead.

New teef and long plane rides

Ryanne has cut two new teeth in the past week. One was on the flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and the other was the first night we were in Nagasaki. Luckily, it seems to have made very little difference in her personality on those flights.

Tokyo...yeah, I said Tokyo. We're here, in Isahaya, now. It's nice. It's very different and I certainly feel like the village idiot most days, but Ryanne is quite the star. The Japanese seem to just adore her - cute, American baby...hmm...imagine that?!

Ryanne did beautifully on the flights here. The flight to Tokyo she spent a lot of time running up and down the aisles. Since IBM sprung for business class for us, this wasn't as difficult as it might sound. The rest she watched some Disney channel and slept.

The first night in Tokyo, she was very cranky, but we ended up making her stay up until 7ish. She woke for the day at 2am. We were quite awake, too, so we didn't struggle with her.

The next day was our flight to Nagasaki...it was delayed by the typhoons. Ryanne wearied of the airport after a few hours and then fell asleep on the plane. We gave up on dinner and crashed as soon as we hit the hotel. She woke up at 3am and we wrestled her back down until closer to 6.

The next day, we got to the apartment and looked around. Ryanne and I went to the department store down the street and got lunch while Chrys got the lease signed, etc. More adoring baby fans were there to greet us. She ended up going down after a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant and, after the 3am wrestling match, was alseep until 6 or 7, I think.

Mercifully, last night, we had dinner with some American friends here in Isahaya and then crashed at our place around 8p. Ryanne woke at 6am and we just let her get up. I think the sleeping transition is almost complete!

I will post more details on our adventure in a new journal...the link when I get time. I want to try to keep this one pretty Ryanne specific.

P.S. Watch for a post before this one very soon. I have quite a bit drafted, but haven't had a chance to finish it out...

New words...more b-day stuff

So, back to Ryanne's birthday...

She had a new word of the day - Wooooooowwwwww - whenever she did, well, anything. It was very cool to have her open presents, see her cake, play with a toy and "woooooowwwwww".

Speaking of opening presents, that process took about 2 hours. We broke it up with lunch - hamburgers, hot dogs, tater tots - and cake.

The cake she wasn't too impressed with. I think she was getting kind of tired. She ran a hand through the cake, beat on it, smeared the fork I gave her (hoping that would help her eat and alleviate some of the sliminess) in it, and ate absolutely none of it. Oh well...so much for that.

That night, we went to the Light the Night walk. She waved and enjoyed the balloons, especially when they were lit. Then, she slept on and off through the walk. The sleep was fitful because of the constantly changing noise and lighting, but she wasn't too cranky. It was a good evening.

That Sunday, we went to the Big Event at church. Basically, it was a church fair thing. They had a petting zoo that Ryanne was pretty interested in. She liked to watch the various animals, but didn't really want to get down and play with or touch them. She would squeal - this little girl squeal - whenever one of them brushed up against her legs. It was pretty cute to watch. They also had a pony ride. We weren't sure they would let her since she's so small, but they had me walk alongside her. She liked it...or was generally not upset by it, which some days is really all I can ask for.

Her last day of Gymboree, she decided she wanted to kiss another boy. She and Andrew had an on again, off again relationship for most of our visits. They would steal phones and balls from each other and occasionally share. It was amicable. Well...Andrew just learned to walk, but happened to be down on the floor trying to get a toy. Ryanne walked over to him, lifted up his head (at which point he went rather limp) and planted a big kiss on his lips. Poor little guy got a little teary - why does she have this effect on boys? - and went to his mama. Ryanne was a bit upset by this, but ready to continue playing. The other mom and I looked at each other and just had to laugh.

Other things...she's started looking for dada in bed on weekdays and getting very excited when she finds him on weekends. She crawls over me and starts saying his name.

She's also decided she likes to give me hugs. If I squat down and hold my arms out, she'll come over to me (with her arms out) and give me a big hug. Great stuff!

She's also becoming quite the little mimic. She pulled a strand of my hair the other day and when I said "OW", she laughed and started saying "Owwwwww". Squirt!

The other thing I really have to comment on is how great she's been in the car these last days as we prepare to go to Japan. We've done a TON of driving around town and she's been very content to sit back and chill, play with toys, watch out the window, whatever. She's been to doctor's offices with no issue and many, MANY stores. In and out of the car and very few complaints. I am one very lucky mama.

1st party

We had RC's first birthday party today. It was a great time for all, I think. I wanted to quickly record what she got so I can write thank you notes...

Weebles, Kitty Texture book, Tweety slippers - J&JM
Precious Moments 1, Somebody in TX loves me T - L&TH
Care Bears Piano & Phone - AD & S
Going to Gmas T - AW
Dress & Baby Einstein Cards - H,M&SL
Chicken Dance Elmo - LF
Quack and Flap Duck - Mama and Dada
Cash - LM
Hugs & Kisses Blanket - L&JW

Now, I need to make sure that L'il Bro gets the Jack in Box that he wants for her. I'm also still debating going back to Target to get a wagon so the movers can take it to Japan. So much to do in the next week...it's insane!

What a girl wants

Ryanne just walked up to me, grabbed my hand and dragged me to the fridge. I tried to think of why she would want to go to the fridge since most of her food comes from the pantry. Then it dawned on me...water comes from the fridge. I gave her a glass of water and she's happy as a lark. She even stopped trying to crawl up on L'il bro's desk - likely looking for his glass of water that usually sits up there.

Of course, 5 minutes later she did it again so who knows what it is she's trying to tell me. I guess this part will stay a mystery.

Potty

For a while now, Chrys had noticed that R always seemed to go to the bathroom while he ran her tub water. In the past few weeks, he'd put her at the end of the baby tub (in the big tub) and she'd squat down and go. Once he started doing that, I realized that she'd frequently reach down and grab her diaper in the middle of the day and I'd notice it was wet afterward, if I remembered to check. Well, all of this combined and I ended up getting her a little toilet seat that sits on top of ours. It's bolted down so we just have to flip up one more thing when we go. Chrys has been putting her on it before her bath and I've put her on it once or twice in the morning. I think she frequently goes #1 on it and thinks nothing of it. Well, tonight, she decided that she needed to go #2, and did - on the potty!! This was much better than her holding it and going in the tub like she did on me. We were pretty excited and have a couple of cute gratuitous baby on the potty shots that I'll have to get linked - someday.

Also, Ryanne and I have done our part for breast cancer today. We took a shot for the blogger boobiethon. Can you find us? If you do, why not donate a few dollars to the Komen foundation?

Little girl

She's starting the change. Last night, she licked each finger after putting a piece of okra in her mouth. Today, she tried to tell me gentle as she was petting a cat. Tonight, she played in a sandbox with a two year old and didn't look a bit out of place. She's not going to be a 'baby' for much longer. I've got mixed feelings...I'm happy to see her grow up, but I'm going to miss those little pieces of dependence that are slowly going away. Of course, today, she wandered over to me every five minutes and wanted up in my lap to give me a hug and talk so I guess I get some new perks that make this not so overwhelming.

She's finally started blowing a few kisses. It looks a lot like when she puts something in her mouth so it's hard to tell, but I've seen a few deliberate repeats (like tonight at dinner when she laughed when I figured out what she was doing).

She took her first tumble down the stairs today. She was playing with a toy and climbing, as usual. I don't know if she slipped on the toy or fell trying to catch it, but she ended up rolling down a step or two. She wasn't hurt, but she scared herself a lot. Of course, she was right back trying to climb the gate within 5 minutes so it wasn't a deterrant... *sigh*

New pictures - 11 months

The invitations for the party are sent. The favors are almost done. I finally found a couple of rubber ducks, though they're HUGE. I think it will be a good time.

Her early 12 month doctor's appointment was yesterday. She's 19 lbs 5.1 oz and 28" tall. That's back to 40% on weight and 50% on height - my little average baby.

Er Duck Ee

That's the new 'word' of the day. While Chrys was giving her a bath tonight, she looked at the duck and announced "er duck ee". We've been doing lots of shopping for rubber duckies for her birthday party. Also, Chrys calls it a Rubber Duck that's yellow. Either of those are plausible explanations for the new phrase.

I got the first pieces of her Halloween costume cut today. It's the big pieces of the dress. Hopefully I can get the rest of it cut soon.

Other than that, not much going on. The invitations are ready and will be in the mail tomorrow. I'm working on painting favors for the big people. The quest for rubber ducks continues for the little 'uns.

More new words

We went to Gymboree again today. Poor R actually seemed a little bored by some of the things. I guess it will be good to move after all.

She and Chrys also went for a walk this morning. Well, let me start at the beginning. We've always talked about the trees and grass and stuff when we're outside. Today, she pulled out her picture book and flipped to the picture of the tree. She pointed at it and I pointed outside at the tree and said the word for her. Then, while she was out on her walk with Chrys, she said "tr" and pointed at a tree in someone's yard. Chrys acknowledged the tree and they kept going.

Later today, we went to the Pecan Street Festival. She rode in the stroller for a LONG time and took everything in. Then, she went around on Chrys' shoulders. When he first put her up there, she was leaning over and giving him kisses on the cheek as they walked around. She'd bounce from side to side. It was so cute to watch.

More evidence that she's moving to one nap. Yesterday's nap was right after lunch. She napped in the sling as I looked through Borders. Today, she was surprisingly awake after going to Gymboree. She got a little cranky on her walk so we gave her lunch and then she napped for 2 hours. I napped about half of it with her so I could help her stay asleep. She woke up so happy and ready to go. She went down for bed about half an hour early tonight, but I've read that happens when the one nap transition starts. We'll see what she settles in to.

I got all of the invitations for her first birthday party ready to go tonight. They'll mail out on Monday. The party is scheduled for lunch (watch, she'll be firmly in the one nap and want to go to sleep then...*sigh*). I'm pretty proud of the invitations - I made them. I also got the first layer of paint on some wooden ducks to use as party favors for the grown ups. I need to find real rubber ones for R and Sammy, but that's proving something of a challenge. I also want to get some bubbles and make sure we still have helium. I think I'm done with early party prep at that point. Then it's just waiting for responses and buying stuff to feed them.

Oh yeah...anyone looking for birthday present ideas - I've put a few on a wish list that I think she'll enjoy or that she seems to be ready for. You can check it out here. Or you can give her a cardboard box and donate a toy to needy kids - she'll be just as happy either way. Oh, and please feel free to shop for better prices...this was just convenient, in one place, and didn't interfere with MY amazon wish list. :)

Walking, talking

A little miracle. She's been changing so much every day, but I have a hard time remembering all of the little things. Sometimes I don't notice them for days and then realize she's been doing them for a while. It's tricky stuff, this trying to record someone's life.

Today I think I've heard a few new words. She was carrying around her little mesh bag that we use to give her ice to suck on. I took it and put some ice in it and she said, remarkably clearly, "ice". I told her that yes, it was ice, and off she went. Then, while in her high chair, the cats were wandering around. She saw one of the big girls under her chair - it happened to be Preta - and she said "de-ta". Then she saw Spot in the window and said "dot". Just now, she saw Minuit and I heard "de-ta" again until I told her that was Minuit, then it became "in-ee". I think the difference between Preta and Minuit will take a few years. Just amazing stuff, though.

Ryanne's entry:
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She's also become more conscious of whether or not I'm with her when she takes off on her own. I've seen her go to the stairs and, where she used to just start climbing, I now find her waiting and looking for me on the bottom step. As soon as she sees me, off she goes. Same thing for walking down the hall from our bedroom. Now if I could just keep her out of the bathroom with the cat food and litter box. Sheesh...

We're developing a morning routine. When she wakes up, she leans over and usually says "mama" at which point I can convince her to give me a kiss (which is her, open-mouthed, pushing her face to my lips). Sometimes she smacks her lips after I do the "mwah" sound. Then she crawls over me and slides off the bed. Once on the floor, she plays with her toys for about 30 minutes. Then it's down the hall to get her diaper changed. This has been reliable for the past week.

Her nap schedule is something else, though. Today, I went to put her down for her standard 10ish nap and she fought me until about 11:30. At that point, she fell asleep for over an hour. The rest of this week has been normal. There are these occasional days, though, that she wants the mid-day nap and by the time she gets tired again, it's too close to bedtime to let her go to sleep. I guess it's part of a slow transition to once a day naps. I'm torn on whether or not I'm looking forward to this. It will certainly change my routine, and I don't know if I'm ready for that or not. Of course, in 3.5 weeks, her schedule is going to be thrown to the wind so I'm not sure what I'm complaining about now. :/

Her tummy is still iffy and those darn teeth are still elusive. More and more, I'm thinking these are related.

I started prepping for her first birthday. Invitations should go out tomorrow for a party on October 9. Right now, we're scheduling a noon party, which is in between her normal naps. Watch, she'll be switched to a mid-day nap by then and blow the whole thing. *sigh*

Oh yeah...yesterday, she found her second picture book (it takes 3x5s so it has nothing in it) and was looking at it very confused. She toddled over to me with it, crawled up in my lap, and kept looking at me and pointing at the blank slots. I had to show her her other picture book (with the Gamazonas, Aunt Amy and Grandpa Fitz) to make her happy.

Daddy's girl

Despite his fears, I think Chrys has his daddy's girl. She is very adamant about getting her daddy time on the weekend. She deliberately walks over to him and stands there until he picks her up. She's getting better about not being as grabby, but not perfect. She also gets very excited when we go to get him in the afternoon. This morning, for example, he took the cats to the vet. When I heard the garage door go up, I told her that daddy was coming. She squirmed off of my lap and went to stand and watch the door. It ended up with both of us sitting there waiting for him to come in. Hopefully he knows he's loved.

Her tummy got better. Now, she's only semi-messed up. I think it may be teething, but it kills me how long this process is. The first two teeth were pretty easy on her. These top two (if that's what all this is) are really being cruel. I did learn that we'll never use Aveeno diaper rash cream on her ever again. She was pretty happy, despite the recent bout of diaper rash, until I coated it in Aveeno. She was just about ready to crawl out of her skin. I took her to a quick bath in a sink full of coolish water and she calmed down. We're back to the Boudreaux's Butt Paste that a friend recommended and that seems not to irritate her.

She's finally getting over her perpetual skinned knee. When she decided to walk more, she fell lots. This resulted in what seemed an almost permanent rug burn on her right knee. Now that she's spending more time walking and less time falling, this seems to be going away.

Along with walking came exploring new places to walk. She loves to walk across our bed. I think she knows it takes more effort and is impressive so she does it as much as possible. Of course, when she goes a decent distance without falling, I give her a tackle hug so that might help encourage it.

Last night, she walked in grass for the first time. She had her shoes on, but still took these HUGE steps. I don't know if she was trying to avoid the texture of the grass on her legs (which she still doesn't seem to like) or if that's just how she accommodated the depth of the grass. It was pretty cute, though.

She has taken off down the hall chasing cats twice now. She loves to slide off the bed in the morning and play with her toys. Eventually, one of the cats catches her eye and off she goes chasing the poor cat down the hall. We need to get the upstairs baby gate on the installed very soon.

She also decided at the mall that she wanted to push her stroller instead of ride in it. She likes to only push with one hand so, unaided, she walks in circles. This is pretty funny, but gets in the way of other shoppers. We had to pull the handles way down so they were about parallel with the floor for her to reach them. She thinks it's great fun, though.

She's giving more kisses now. Of course, this just means that she turns to me with her mouth (often open) when I pucker up and ask her for a kiss. I'll take what I can get, though. Now, I'm working on blowing kisses.

She's shaking and nodding her head more accurately, too. Thursday at the mall, she was being really whiny. I thought it was about time to nurse so we went to sit down and nurse. She would latch, suck, break and move. I finally held her tight and made her look at me. I asked her, looking into her eyes, if she wanted to nurse. She adamantly shook her head so I let her go and she was happy. Man, this is nice!

She told the cats 'buh-bye' last week. I haven't been able to get her to repeat it, though. Curses! ;)

While we were visiting Aunt Chris, we learned that R has a bit of knowledge of the ASL sign for 'no'. Chris was using her hand to talk to Ryanne, just 'blah, blah, blah' as she opened and closed her fingers. Ryanne just sat there with this 'are you nuts' expression on her face. Turns out, she wasn't doing anything at the time so we're guessing she couldn't figure out why she was being told 'no'. Poor kid.

Little ham

Yeah...that's what she is. She's a super ham. Last Saturday at Gymboree, we were singing our hello song and we got to the part about waving hello. Ryanne wanders out into the middle of the circle and starts waving her hands up and down and turning in circles. Everyone got a little chuckle out of her.

Tonight, she was chasing Chrys around the kitchen and living room. At first, he was crawling so Ryanne was crawling after him. Chrys stood up and Ryanne stood up. Of course, we realized this after she had done it, but we cracked up.

She skipped a nap today. She woke up a little late. After Gymboree, she usually falls asleep on the way home. She did, but only right as we got home so she woke up when I pulled her out of the car. She didn't sleep again until on the way to lunch. Then, no afternoon nap despite many efforts to find one. Needless to say, she went down quickly at bedtime and I'm honestly feeling lucky that she stayed awake that long. Granted it was no picnic because she was pretty clingy and whiny, but once she started playing with dada, it wasn't too bad.

Her tummy cleared up the day after I stopped drinking OJ so I guess that's what confused her. On the other hand, she's semi-messed up now and we had tomato sauce last night. I guess I'll have to see if I can track down further correlations.

Today at the Disney store, she grabbed a little purse and toted it around the store with her. I count myself lucky that there wasn't too much of a tantrum on her way out. She looked so cute walking around the store with her little clutch.

She's also getting very stable on her feet. She doesn't really crawl all that much anymore. Probably down to less than 10% of the time. Today, she swung by her usual crusing spot between the couch and coffee table. Well, she no longer needs to cruise so she put her hands out and tried walking faster instead - sheesh!

At the Discovery Channel store, she found a toy she really liked. It's by a company that's gone out of business and was on clearance. She would play with the blocks and dance. It was really cute. Well, I tried to drag her away from it to go look at other toys. She wrestled free of my hands and walked back over to that toy - repeatedly. Well, guess what she's getting for Christmas? ;) Now, I just need to decide if it's worth getting the extra cartridges for different music types - mostly for my own sanity - as stocking stuffers or just leave well enough alone. I think they're 50% off at Amazon so I may shop around a bit and see what I can find.

We had quite a scare yesterday. She did her standard walk across the office, pick something up, put it in her mouth, walk back over to me grinning routine. I reached into her mouth thinking she'd found more paper - having dumped the shredder on the floor again that morning. Instead I found one of L'il bro's Strattera. Scared me - lots! The gel was intact so I wasn't worried about her having ingested anything. I yelled at him to wake him up, but I really couldn't think straight enough to figure out how to punish him. The "What if"s on that scenario are just about endless.

I guess the good news is that she's developing habits like coming to see me when she knows she's done something she shouldn't. She hands me stuff off the floor quite a bit. She only really fights if it's something she knows she can have - like a Cheerio this afternoon that she didn't want to give up. She struggles a little on paper. Everything else is remarkably easy to retrieve.

She's also responding to things. She nods yes and no and seems to know the difference between them. She has quite a few commands that she understands, like "give it to me", "come here", "go get". It's getting to be more and more fun to interact with her.

Out of sorts

Ryanne has been sort of - off - the past few days. She's been very clingy, wants me to hold her hand to go places. She's been sort of whiny. She hasn't played as much. This is very weird for her. Usually, I put her down in the morning and she's gone. She'll check back with me every 30-60 minutes and I can play with her if I want, but she doesn't need me there. She's also had the diarrhea since Sunday and the diaper rash and bumpies. Given all of that, and my strep, I call her ped this morning.

I talked to the nurse and described what had been going on. She asked how her appetite was and I mentioned that R was shovelling Cheerios into her mouth as fast I as put them on the tray. She thinks it's a viral diarrhea plus a yeast diaper rash. Sounds awful, huh? I'm supposed to give R lots of starches, sitz baths 3x a day and use very gentle cleansers on her bum when changing her. I'm also supposed to watch very closely for dehydration (and stay away from juices). If it's still there in 2 weeks, I should call back. Except for the sitz baths, I had already been doing this - go me!

Now, I talked to Chrys last night and had sort of a revelation of my own. I drank 96 oz of orange juice in about 3 days. I do this when I get sick. It's the only time I crave OJ. I love the feel of the acid on my sore throat. I like the taste. It's lots of Vitamin C for my body to combat with. It's goodness...mostly. Usually when I do this, I end up stuck to the toilet from the excess vitamin C. Yesterday it dawned on me that I hadn't had any problems. Yikes - Could Ryanne be getting all of that vitamin C through my milk and be forced to deal with it?

The other thing that occurred to me this morning (when the nurse mentioned yeast diaper rash) was that I had a penicillin shot. Antibiotics usually give me a yeast infection. I noticed the tell-tale itchies yesterday (sorry, TMI). Given that penicillin isn't terribly picky as to what bacteria it attacks, I wonder if she had an allergic reaction and it's been continued with the vit. c and penicillin. Poor baby...all this suffering may be just 'cause mommy is sick.

Lastly, I know the ped here says that diarrhea is never a sign of teething, but there are SO many kids that get messed up tummies when they get teeth, I have to wonder. She's chewing on EVERYTHING (you should see the footboard of our bed). She had a runny nose last week and keeps getting little 99 degree temperatures. Only time will tell. I just hope she feels better soon!

OK...on to happier topics.

Ryanne has taken to shaking her head when I say no. I think she may also be starting to know what she should and shouldn't do. There are times I just have to say her name and she looks at me and shakes her head. I say, "that's right, no." and she stops. She's also starting to pick things up off the floor and instead of putting them in her mouth, as she has for the last 3 months, they get handed to me. Pretty cool stuff!

She's also rediscovering nuks. She decided pretty early on that she wanted nothing to do with a pacifier. Last week, she came crawling/toddling out of the kitchen with one in her mouth. Right now, she's got another one. They were in one of the cabinets she's allowed free reign of, but I still find it funny that they're ok now. She's always liked chewing on them so maybe it's just that. I figure I'll never really know.

I thought there was something else, but I don't have my little cheat sheet with me. I guess I'll just have to write about it later.

Sick

Thankfully, it's me and not Ryanne, but man this stinks. I found out today that I have strep throat. I opted for the shot of penicilling and 'feeling better in 24 hours' as opposed to 48 hours and still having to take a pill every 4-6 hours for 10 days. This is SO not the welcome home I had in mind. Plus, I have to pray that she doesn't come down with it. Blech! To top it off, I can't really take a break and take it easy because Chrys is out of town. L'il bro took her for a couple of hours this afternoon and let me have a nap and I am overwhelmingly appreciative. I woke up feeling a million times better, but still like crud. It's a weird feeling.

We had a great time in Boston. R was spoiled with attention by her aunties and a few gifts to boot. I took advantage of tax free clothing and the Labor Day weekend sale at Gymboree. I barely got everything back in my suitcase, but it worked! Even better, we got the bridesmaids all outfitted. I love my dress. I even bought shoes so I wouldn't have to worry about it later. We had great food, lots of fun and a bit of relaxation - all good things!

The bad part of Boston is that I think R ate something she's allergic to. The only really strange thing was some Indian food on Friday at lunch. She had palak paneer and just loved it, but I'm not sure it loved her. She's still got diarrhea and the day we got home, she was just screaming and twitching from the pain of the diaper rash and bumpies. She and I took a cool bath and she calmed down pretty quickly, but I felt so bad. I hope her system gets straightened out soon.

Last night, she woke up at 3a and just cried and wailed for an hour. I'm still not sure what that was about. She eventually calmed back down, but I think, compounded with my feeling sick, it just made me more miserable. I wish I could have figured out what was going on. Maybe just too many strange things recently.

She's still walking up a storm and loved wandering around all the dress shops feeling the fabrics. It was quite entertaining to watch her reach and touch everything.

I also let her try spoon feeding herself last night. It was quite funny to watch and she got, expectedly, quite messy! I have a few pictures of her covered in yogurt. She actually managed to get a few bites in before she resorted to playing with it. I was impressed.

Tonight, she was more awake than normal when I put her down. I left the room anyway and she didn't cry or anything. About 5 minutes after I came downstairs, L'il bro heard her music box come on. It played through and that was the end of it. Chrys and I had always hoped she would use that if she needed it, since she's long been able to turn it on, and it's pretty cool to think she did!

With that, I think it's time to be heading off to bed. More when I'm awake and feeling better.

First shoes

Well, today we bought Ryanne's first shoes. At Gymboree, we talked about where to get shoes. After Gymboree, she wanted to walk to the car. After lunch, she wanted to walk to the car. After that, I broke down and looked at her poor little blackened feet and realized she needed some shoes. Mostly I am terrified that she's going to step on something and hurt herself.

We went to the place recommended by one of the moms and he measured her and we bought a cute little pair of shoes that were black. I wanted something she could wear now, since it's still pretty warm and she's in summer clothes so we went to the mall to Stride Rite. On the way in, Chrys put her in her new shoes and she walked in, but was having LOTS of trouble. Inside, we tried on a pair of sandals and Chrys noticed they were a little big. I had them measure her again and it turns out her brand new shoes are a full size too big! She's a 3.5, which puts her right in between pre-walkers and walkers. We got some size 3 pre-walkers that fit fine (most are sized for baby to grow) and hopefully those will last until the summer. I guess I need to take the others back and see about something else.

A few little stories to tell...

In the car, the other day, she was sitting in the back seat playing with her toy cell phone. (Looks almost exactly like mine except it's red and yellow - she lets me switch it for mine without hassle.) Suddenly I hear her babbling and look back to see her with it up to her ear (upside down, but gotta start somewhere) just talking away. I guess we spend quite a bit of time on the phone! Very cute thing to see.

It also appears that cars are 'go's. After hearing her identify this, I realized that I always say are you ready to get in the car and go. Go, being the last word, seems to be the identifier. I guess I need to be more careful how I say things...

She's become quite addicted to straws, too. She loves her straw cup (FAR more than her sippy cups) and always wants to drink from our straws at restaurants. I usually get water so this isn't a problem. The straw thing started when she was about 5 months old and we were on our way back from Phoenix. She always chewed on my straw in a drink so I was letting her do that while we waited on the plane. Suddenly I see green liquid (I was drinking Mt. Dew) go shooting up the straw and she gets this really surprised look on her face and started sputtering. Ever since then, we've been much more careful about what's in the cup when she wants a sip.

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Boston. I need to get packing and get some sleep.

Toddler

Well, today I am the mommy of a toddler. She went from those few deliberate steps to taking many steps between things and even purposefully walking to get to something she wanted.

While we were out today at Hallmark, she wanted to be put down again. Once I did, she started pulling me around the store to look at stuff. Eventually, I didn't want to let her near a display so she pulled her hand out of mine and just walked over to it. She had taken a few steps earlier that morning, but this was impressive.

Once Chrys got home, it was apparently time to really show off the new 'skillz'. She decided to walk almost everywhere - around the kitchen, the living room, between rooms. I guess if I'm going to get some video or pix of her crab lady crawl I better get her on a hard surface tomorrow.

She's very close to having another tooth. I think her left front top tooth is about to break through. She's gnawing on anything she can get her hands on, including the foot rail to our bed (which now has LOTS of little baby teeth marks on it). I think this is also the cause for her snifflies. Poor baby! I just hope it clears before we get on the plane.

I need to go get some simply stuffy tomorrow and see if that will help her nose so she can get some better rest. The past couple of nights she's woken only because she can't breathe. After almost a week of sleeping 7:30p to 6:00a, this was quite a blow.

She went through a period of chewing on her blanket while she went to sleep. While not all that bad, she liked to get her bottom teeth hooked in the weave and tug. I don't want her to hurt her blankets from Grandma so I try to distract her with her teether bunny. The ears seem to make an acceptable alternative.

Also, she doesn't seem to like the feel of grass on her legs. We were at Kity's a few weeks ago and Kity kept putting her down in the grass. She would sit with one leg up in the air or try to balance on Kity's legs (which since she's about half the size of Kity is impressive). She wanted to play in it, though, so not wanting to sit in it while she played presented something of a challenge. She even holds her feet funny when we let her walk in it. Such an odd child.

Only a few more days until I head out of town with R on my own. I'm still semi-worried about how this is going to go. Lucky(?) for me, she's still very mommy-centric so we won't have too much separation anxiety to deal with. I think R will be fine (other than deciding to walk RIGHT before we get on a plane...ugh!), but I have no idea how I'll do. Between wanting to walk, teething and stuffy noses, this could be quite a miserable experience. I'm hoping for the best, though.

Not quite a duck

R has started getting very excited seeing birds in the street or parking lot. She calls them all ducks. I correct her to birds - not having any clue beyond that what most of them are. Nevertheless, the duck label perseveres.

Chrys noticed this morning that it seems most things she likes start with a 'd' sound - duck, down or done (can't differentiate yet), 'dat' (which is either cat or what), dada, dog. It makes it very difficult right now to understand what she's talking about, unless it's nini. I realize that it's very early, but we're so close to communication, I think I'm starting to feel some of her frustration because she wants to tell us what's going on and we have to guess through the list to figure it out.

I was also reflecting today on how her nap structure has evolved. For her early months - until 6 to 7, I think - she lived on 4-6 30 minute naps spread througout the day. While it meant we didn't get much time to ourselves during the day, it was what worked best for her. Slowly, her naps got a bit longer; she started sleeping better at night; and lo and behold, she's down to 2 (sometimes 3) naps a day. Even better, they're pretty scheduled. She takes one around 10a and one around 2p. Those may adjust if she wakes before or after 8a, but that's pretty rare.

Yash

Today Ryanne was trying to get into a pile of papers on the end table and I told her "no". She looked at me and said "yash" and went back to doing it. Eventually she stopped, but GOSH, I had no idea this would start this soon. I just got my first book about dealing with toddler behavior in the mail, though. I guess I better start reading.

Right now, she's playing catch with one of the cats on the stairs. I throw the ball up the stairs, Spot bats it back down, Ryanne gets it from behind the gate and hands it to me - Repeat! I think all 3 of us are having fun. Ryanne is also learning about how to pick up the big object through the gate bars and not get her hand stuck. She's also realizing that the gate is sturdy enough that she can pull herself up and not have to balance on the step to avoid falling so she just ends up hanging there - Monkey!

Earlier, she was playing fetch with herself. She'd get a ball, roll it across the floor, crawl to catch it and roll it again. It's so funny watching her entertain herself. She already comes up with little games - amazing to watch the creativity develop.

Well, she just moved on to eating bits of carpet off the scratching post again. Off I go to stop that. :)

Steps

Ryanne has taken about a dozen very deliberate steps this morning. She gets someplace with a toy, stands up, takes a few steps and then sits back down. I think her self-confidence is finally on the rise. I sort of hoped that Gymboree would really encourage her to walk, seeing all the other kiddies walking. I have no idea if that's it or if she's just finally ready, but every day we're a little closer.

In fact, the other day at the mall, she didn't want to be carried or put in the stroller. She would go ballistic until I put her on the ground and held ONE hand and let her walk. She refuses that other hand and really doesn't need it unless she's tired, which she was. I kept having to pull her back up with the one hand so it made the walking rather awkward. Couple that with the fact that she wanted to walk most of the length of the mall and it was a tiring trip. Too bad she didn't think so.

Poor little girl woke up all sneezy, sniffly and snorty this morning, too. I don't know if she's got another cold or if it's more teeth. She's had cold symptoms before all of her other teeth, but usually Chrys or I (or both - ugh!) show some symptoms, too. I hope that's not the case this time. Chrys has been really tired, but I hope he's not getting sick.

Yuck

Last night, Chrys went to give R a bath and she saw the rubber ducky on the window sill. She yelled "yuck" and then started calling it a "du". Oh well, I guess we take what we can get.

Right now, she gets very excited over seeing dogs. She correctly identified the bulldog statue at Benny's Bagels this morning. She also saw the dog on Homeward Bound at Sears today and kept saying "daw" whenever it came on the screen. The link in the title goes to her new Sears pix.

The language explosion is truly remarkable. As Chrys said, "Now we just need to work on enunciation."

Oh...and we had a first today that goes along nicely with the new word. She decided that the bathtub would be an excellent place to forget she wasn't wearing a diaper. Why she can't do this when daddy bathes her, I don't know. All mommy could say, though, was "YUCK." ;)

Ni Ni

Well, I'm convinced that Ryanne knows what "ni ni" means. Yesterday afternoon she was getting really whiny. After a few minutes of me trying to calm her, she looked at me and said, "ni ni." I took her upstairs and she was down for a nap within 10 minutes. It's SO cool having her begin to communicate.

Last night, we worked on going to sleep. She actually crawled off my lap and went to her books while I was trying to get her to nurse. We looked at a book for a few minutes and she nursed later. We've tried reading to her since that's the recommended thing to do, but usually she doesn't have the patience for it and wants nothing to do with the books. It was very cool to know that, even though we haven't followed through completely, she still knows they're there and wants to look at them on her own.

She also has put herself to sleep the past two nights. On Sunday, Chrys had to talk to his parents so he let her cry for a few minutes and eventually noticed she had stopped. Upon checking on her, she was asleep and he realized she had only cried for about 15 minutes. Now, we've never been big fans of "Cry It Out," but I want her to learn to put herself to sleep. The fact that we kind of stumbled across it is interesting. Last night, we put her in her crib and I think she was quiet within about 10 minutes. I looked in on her and she was awake, just stretched out in her crib staring at the wall and blinking kind of slow. I ran out of the room and wasn't caught. When I went back later, she was out. I guess we'll try it for a few more days and see how she does. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of her learning to put herself to sleep more reliably. Now, I just have to hope that travelling doesn't break it too much.

Speaking of travelling, I booked tickets to go to the Boston area for Labor Day. This is just Ryanne and me. I'm terrified. I wonder how I'll get a shower, whether she'll be able to sleep next to me in the bed, how I'll get through the airport, whether she'll be a wreck when we get back - AUGH! Oh well, I guess I just have to hope for the best. I'm sure I can do this...I've been alone with her before, but she was a month old. Man...what was I thinking? I guess Chrys and I were just discussing how she hasn't slowed us down so we'll just have to put that to yet another test.

I have to comment on how independent R is. There was a poll on my mom's board about kids playing by themselves. R has always done pretty well playing alone. She used to sit in her swing or bouncy for 10-20 minutes as a tiny babe and just be content rocking and bouncing. Now, she crawls around and plays with stuff in the house for what seems like forever. I guess she periodically comes to check on me, but it's not very often. I guess she just knows I'm there and doesn't worry about it. She expects me to respond to sneezes and stuff, but not much else, it seems. I don't think we did anything to promote this. We've just always put her down to play frequently and she's been happy. At the same time, she spent a great deal of time being held those early months because she didn't like being put down and we were ok with that, too. Maybe we're lucky and she's just a good kid. Maybe we unknowingly did something to promote it. Either way, I think she's turning out ok.

Nicknames

There was a poll on the board I frequent the other day about nicknames for your child. Chrys and I have been trying to figure out all of the little names we have for Ryanne. Here's our list so far:

R, RC, Rye, RyRy, Sleeper, Bitey, Fang, Little one, Banshee, Parasite, Pumpkin, Baby, Stinky, Stinkerbelle, Tinkerbelle, Whiny baby, Angel, Poopy baby, Stinky baby

I'm sure there are others, but that's what we've come up with.

Aunt Lisa is visiting us this weekend. Last night, she stayed with R while Chrys and I went to see Bourne Supremacy. That was SO nice. We got bad seats, but we were together, alone and watching a real movie. It rocked! As much as I love R is was just wonderful to have a night out with my hubby.

Lis said that when she tried to put R to sleep last night, R was just screaming "Na na, da da." Every night, we tell her something like, "Dada's going to go put you night, night." I have no idea if she's actually made the connection, but it seems almost too coincidental.

R has also decided that cruising is the way to go. She crawls to stuff to stand up and use it to walk. Getting closer to a walker every day, I think.

Lis also pointed out this morning that R seems to be asking 'dat'? It sounds a lot like 'dog', which she knows, so I kept telling her that there wasn't a dog. Lis pointed out that she seemed to say it when she found something weird so maybe it was, "What's that?" She seems to appreciate that much more.

Lastly, yesterday we went to Dave & Buster's. They have a claw game with this HUGE claw and big stuffed animals. Chrys and I worked together and R went home with a stuffed dog the size she is. It's SO cool and I was pretty proud of myself for moving the claw and Chrys for giving directions.

Sit & Spin

I think I know where they came up with the idea for the Sit & Spin. Lately, when R gets on the tile floor, she just sits there and moves her feet to turn herself around in circles while keeping her tush stationary. It's pretty funny to watch and seems to wear her out a bit.

"Cat" is becoming much clearer. She was saying it as I woke up this morning and the 'c' and 't' were becoming much more defined as she repeated it. Such cool stuff. That reminds me, I need to call the people at UT back. They invited us to participate in some speech research for 9m to 5y. No money or anything, but I thought it might be a neat learning experience for both of us.

Speaking of the cats...I think she tried to meow today. Spot was walking through the kitchen talking and suddenly R let out a 'm' with some noise after it that almost sounded like Spot. I guess she's going to grow up knowing what a meow sounds like as opposed to just saying Me-Ow. (On a side note about the cats, Chrys found out that we get to take them all to Japan! HOORAY!!)

She also decided yesterday that it wasn't a big deal to take steps from the coffee table to the ottoman. It's 3-4 steps depending on how big she makes them. I'm sure other objects will soon be close enough to just not worry about. YIKES!

Duck!

I have read that language development skyrockets around 9 months, but whoa! R has been saying cat pretty well ('ca' or 'dat') and has recently been working on fan, but the f is hard for her (sounds a lot like 'da', but she says it very deliberately and points at the ceiling fans). Tonight, she's working on duck. She was looking at the duckies on the feet of her pajamas and saying 'du' so I went and got the duckie she got at McDonald's today and she carried it around saying 'du'. Chrys said she was working on bear while he got her into her PJs, too. Pretty amazing stuff...

We went to QuarterNotes today. It's Gymboree's music class. R seemed to have a good time. I think she was hungry, though, since she napped up until about an hour before class and we were lucky to get there in time, much less eat - hence, McDonald's today. We danced and sang and clapped and played instruments (shakers and drums) and bounced a ball. Aside from being in post-nap stupor and then hungry, it went wonderfully and I think we'll try to go back.

She's been an eating fiend today. After the bean explosions - there have been multiple - I'm pretty happy to see her refilling. She ate 3 of the 4 nuggets in her meal, some fries and some juice. That's on top of her Cheerios (that I had to refill) and dried bananas for breakfast. Then, she topped it off with a decent amount of stroganoff for dinner. It's always good when she eats well. It makes me worry less about having her on table foods.

I also finally got video of her crawling tonight. She has such an odd crawl. I'll have to get it uploaded somewhere so I can post a link.

Nooooo

Ryanne has discovered that she can shake her head "no". She loves to do this. It has no meaning, but she laughs lots when I say, "No?" Then she laughs more when I nod my head in response and say, "Yes!" I tell you, every step gets a little more fun as she develops more of her own personality.

We've been trying to teach her the signs for more and done so that we could understand the cries at mealtime. She may be starting to sign done. She puts her hands up by her shoulders and waves when I start taking the tray away. That or she claps...I guess the meal must have been good! :) I guess it makes sense that she claps since I clap when she does something good and if she's done, my getting the tray out of the way would be good.

Chrys was playing with her last night. For lack of a better name to call it, it was fetch. He would roll the ball across the floor and she would chase it and then he'd say, "Bring the ball to dada," and she'd grab it and crawl back over to him (most of the time). Sometimes she'd get this devilish little grin on her face and crawl away. When he'd roll it without her noticing, he could say, "Where's the ball?" and she'd start looking around until she laid eyes on it. It amazes me the words she's starting to understand, even if she can't find the way to say them all.

Another thing we observed on Thursday night after our dinner at Cheesecake Factory was that she may talk in her sleep. She was sitting in the car seat as we drove home, and we thought she was sleeping. It sounded sort of like she was carrying on a little conversation, though. She would babble and change the tones of her voice and everything. Very interesting and I almost hope she does it again just so I know I'm not imagining things.

She was up every 2 hours or so last night. We aren't really sure why, but there were lots of yesterdays lunch time beans in her diaper this morning so I almost suspect it was some severe gas. I think she ate most of Chrys' portion of black beans at the Mexican restaurant. Stomach the size of her fist - HA!

Lastly, the cats apparently don't hate her as much as they thought. I just got some quick videos of her playing with one of their toys. They were FASCINATED by her and came very close to her. She had bunches of fun!

Sleep crawling

Well, it appears that part of our sleep issues are related to the fact that R crawls in her sleep. It seems that she crawls herself up the bed and, when she gets to the top and can't go any further, she wakes up and starts crying. At the recommendation of some of my friends, we've started putting her to sleep at the top of her bed and I have some temporary padding up there to keep her from bonking her noggin on the slats. I guess I need to put her bumpers back in. We pulled them out when she started rolling, but still wasn't quite strong enough to get out of a tangle. At this point, I'm certain that if she got up against them and had problems breathing, she could move so I guess I'll put them back to protect her head and see if we get any more sleep. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she's doing this - Chrys was a sleep walker. I guess I'll have to keep an eye out and see how far it progresses.

She, at least, seems to be back to sleeping on and off for about 12 hours a night. She wakes at least once, around 6am to get fed. Other than that, everything seems variable and we're struggling to find the patterns and find solutions. Gas seems to be a big issue and Mylicon is a saving grace there. Part of it seems to be temperature related so we leave her fan on and cover her. I think she has my temperature sensitivities where I need lots of covers and layers and a cold room. Anything else is a mystery and maybe just bad habit.

Tomorrow we'll go to the music class at Gymboree. She loves music and dancing so hopefully this will be a good time.

Applause

We went to Gymboree with Chrys today. He had fun playing with Ryanne and, as usual, she's now down for a marathon after play nap. For this, I will happily pay $10-$15 a week.

Last night R clapped for the first time that I've seen. She was sitting in Kity's lap and put her hands together, but no fists. There's still no noise when she claps, but she finally has the right motions. She was clapping more today at Gymboree - they do a lot of clapping with the songs. It's so cool and she gets so excited doing it.

I'm going to try to make her Halloween costume this year. I found a pattern for a Cinderella dress. I'm hoping it will be double duty and she can wear it to a wedding in March. Our friends are getting married and their theme is Disney. Chrys and I are in the wedding. The wedding colors are blue so I figured making her Cinderella will be perfect since she's the one in blue. That way, if she gets clingy and needs to be with me in the wedding (which the bride and groom have no problem with) she'll look like she fits in. I haven't done any real sewing in about 20 years, since I used to make clothes for my Cabbage Patch dolls with my grandmother in the summer.

She's also starting to take more little baby steps when she's not holding on to anything. The confidence isn't quite there, but it's growing quickly. Most days she won't let us hold more than one hand as she toddles around.

Peek a boo!

RC has started initiating games of peek-a-boo. I guess this is a great thing about dresses! She'll lift her dress up over her face and then pull it down and grin. That's the cue to say, "Where's Ryanne?" next time she does it. Then she pulls it down as fast as she can and just laughs. It's SO funny to see.

She's had a peaceful day today. We stayed home because Chrys took the car so he could go to the dentist. She's played mostly by herself all day. Periodically, she wanders over to check on me and get a hug, then it's back to her toys. She's explored and crawled all over the living room and kitchen. I think this was good for us.

Other good news - I think I'm safe saying that she doesn't seem to have inherited the lactose intolerance that plagues both our families. Chrys had it as a child and my dad and uncle were both hit with it pretty hard later in life. She seems ok right now so we just have to hope it doesn't get her later. On a related note, she seems to love yogurt! :)

She also loves her sling. I wore her at Target yesterday and she ended up falling asleep in it as we walked around. It was great to pull it up over her head to support her and just keep on shopping. I wasn't exhausted from carrying around a baby on one arm when we left, either. So far, so good!

Well, back to my monkey child. She climbs on everything and right now, she's trying to figure out how to get on top of the ottoman. Plenty of boxes around so it's time for distraction.

Cat!

Ryanne is very close to saying her first word. She loves to look at the cats and point at them. She used to just squeal when she saw them. Well, last week, she looked at me when I said the word cat and tried to form her mouth to it. She got out 'Ca'. Now, it's sometimes 'dat' and sometimes 'ca' and sometimes just 'at', but she always says something like it when she sees one of the cats. She even did the same at Kity's house tonight with her cat. I'm continuously impressed by how smart such a small person can be. Unfortunately, Kity's dogs are also 'dats', but they're small and fuzzy so I can forgive her that. Oh...she even said the word when she heard Kity's cat meow, didn't even see him, but did start looking around for him. Just amazing!

Wasabi

I am apparently a bad mommy. Last night, we went for Japanese and R would NOT keep her fingers out my plate, specifically the big lump of wasabi on the corner of it. Well, I decided to go for it and put a touch of it on the end of my chopstick. She freaked - crumpled up her face and starting spitting and sputtering. I don't think she liked it much...she didn't eat much after that. Luckily, she'd already had a huge meal so I didn't feel too bad. Man, it was funny, though.

Last night I also made a Maya Wrap. Ryanne seems to still want to be held a lot and it's just a pain not being able to do anything else all day because I've only got one hand. She's long been too big for me to carry in the Bjorn so I'm going to try this. It was much cheaper to make than to buy one (about 1/3 the price) and if she hates it, I won't feel as guilty. If, however, she loves it, I have many other fabrics picked out for nicer ones and wintry ones and...

She had her 9 month appointment on 7/30. She was 18lbs 1.1oz (40%), 26 3/4 inches long (25%). Her growth has slowed down, but the doctor assures me that's normal and it's not like she comes from tall genes. The doc was worried about her refusing baby food because of the extra iron it provides, but her hematocrit levels were 'great' so I was told just to keep doing what I'm doing and keep lots of variety coming at her.

R's eating exclusively finger foods now. She does really well on table food. She gets some extra iron from the toddler breakfast foods and Gerber puffs that we feed her. I don't really feel bad about the switch, with one exception...

Ryanne has always been a pretty good sleeper. For the last 3 months, though, she's had a cold or been teething or we've moved or travelled or whatever and her sleep has suffered. Well, the ped told us to work on this so Chrys, wonderful man that he is, has been getting up with her. I had always gotten up with her, but when she wakes up at night for whatever reason, and smells me, she wants milk and goes ballistic until she gets it. Well, the last few nights, whenever she wakes up, she's REALLY gassy. Two nights ago, she didn't wake up at all. This tells me that the night waking is gas, which stinks. If the only reason she wakes up is gas, then I wonder if gas is caused by the finger foods and then I wonder if we're moving too fast...this stuff is hard!

She's taken a few more steps, but still not really walking yet. I don't think we have too much longer, though.

She's also working on words. She tries hardest to mimic 'cat' and we sometimes get 'ca' and this morning I got a 'dat'. She's also pointing and I've started identifying whatever she points at.

Tomorrow morning, we're going to a walkers class at Gymboree. She's a month younger than they recommend, but seemed WAY beyond the crawlers class definition. I guess we'll see.

9 month appointment

Copied from FTM and backdated to fill in historical data.

She was 18lbs 1.1oz (40%) and 26 3/4" (25%). The doc said that since she was making so much developmental progress (mental and physical), she expected to see a slow in her growth rate. She also finally got her 2nd pneumococcal vaccine.

I was advised that, since she's trying to mimic words already (she watches us say 'cat' and pretty regularly gets out 'ca' while looking at the kitties), I shouldn't push so hard on the sign language because that could actually slow down her talking. Since my sister is a deaf mute, I'd actually like Ryanne to have some ASL as her 2nd language so I guess I have some research to do there. Any book/web site advice?

Ryanne did her usual showing off and stood up in the middle of the room just to show the doc she could. No steps, though. We got a couple more the other day when she wanted something on the stool behind me. I asked about shoes, just to get her advice, and she said to try to keep them soft soled for as long as possible. I haven't seen sizes above 9 months with a soft sole, though. What did you ladies with walkers do?

Other than that, it went very well. I had a ton of questions about feeding, etc, since she started spitting out her baby food when her 2nd tooth came in (the doc even said she could see the two top starting to make their way) and we switched to primarily finger foods. Initially, the doctor said she would like me to try to continue baby cereal. In the end, though, her hematocrit levels were 'great' so the doc told me not to drive myself or R crazy with the cereal, but to just keep trying to give her lots of variety on the finger foods.

We were also told to night wean her to protect her teeth. She's been waking between 1 and 2 for a couple of weeks. I thought it might be habit because she spent so much time the last 3 months waking up in the night for something (stuffy nose, teething pain, etc) and the doc agreed, but said to let her CIO. I can't do that so I've told DH he'll have to start getting up more since she just doesn't want me in the middle of the night if she can't nurse. We've used many of the methods in Pantley's No Cry book so I guess I'll have to re-read to give him some tips.

I scheduled an extra appt for end of Sept (11m) so the doc can try to see her (but no 12m shots) before we leave for Japan. She told me that I could get any regular vaccs over there since they are as stringent, if not moreso, on the requirements.

Thanks for checking in on us. Some warm 9 grain bread (one of R's faves) that DH is baking for all of you!