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.