I Got It Mom

I know it's Christmas and I should be posting about how great Alli did at opening up her gifts this morning, but I'm not gonna. At least not yet...

Yesterday we had some changes with Alli. When we were finished with her solids, Alli wanted the spoon. So I let her have it and she promptly put it in her mouth (mostly to teeth). But I thought that if she was going to go that far, there might as well be food on the end of it. So I got some more food and put a little on the spoon. She opened her mouth ready to be served. I told her "no, you do it". She finally took the spoon and shoved it in her mouth. We did this a few times and I told her she was doing a great job.

Today when we went to eat solids, I didn't even try to put the food in her mouth. I just put it on the spoon and said "here Alli". She took it and fed herself. Obviously, lunch took a little longer than usual, but Alli is now feeding herself. :) It's a it more messy too, but that's what washcloths are for!


Alli also was moved into her own room the other night. I think it was more of a change for mom and dad than her. I was afraid she wouldn't fall asleep, but she has - two nights in a row now. The unfortunate part is that she wakes up crying. She never made a peep in our room, so now I'm going to try to figure out if it's because I can't hear her playing to go get her before she starts crying, or if the surroundings are different enough that it bothers her when she wakes up. Unfortunately, that would mean setting an alarm to wake up before her...and I'm on vacation... Hmm.... We'll see when I figure this out. ;)

Ok. So for Christmas... Alli did a great job with wrapping paper. We found she really liked the paper, so as soon as she got hold of a corner, daddy could move the present around and the paper would tear off. Good system! She seemed to like paper and boxes better than any of the gifts. Go figure, right? Just like any young kid. :)

It's been a great Christmas. Rainy, but good. We've spent a lot of time visiting neighbors and friends, and enjoying our little family of 4. (3 of us and Bagheera)

Alli's first straw

Alli & Jodie at Sushi Eye

A Round of Applause

Yesterday I was playing with Alli. She's getting more and more interactive, trying to copy what we do, especially making sounds with our mouths. Well, she did something as she was playing and I clapped for her and said "yay!". She couldn't take her eye off my hands making that sound. So I kept clapping. Then I grabbed her arms and made her hands (half-opened fists) touch each other a couple of times. Then I went back to clapping. Then she touched her hands together herself!!! Yay!! No sound of course, but she was able to imitate me, so we're still chalking it up to "she knows how to clap". :)

On other notes, holidays are hard because she gets SOOOO attached to us with the extended amount of time together. Now she won't nap again because she doesn't want to leave us. Today we are spending the morning listening to her cry, going in every 10 minutes to calm her down, and then trying it again. It's going to be a LONG morning!

Our plans for this week are to slowly move her into her own room. First we'll put her in her crib at night (because we rarely have a problem with her going to sleep at night). And then after she gets a little more comfortable going to sleep in her crib, we'll try all naps in there. We didn't feel like starting with naps since she clearly is having a problem with them already.

Alli has been hitting the Christmas parties hard this week, and since most are around dinner, we are constantly getting her to bed at different times. (I'm sure that's really helping the naps!) But she's doing great at maintaining her composure around company, even when super tired. And it doesn't matter whose house we're at, she is great at keeping a smile on her face, at least until we get into the car. ;) So she's doing a great job fooling everyone into thinking she never cries! Boy, if they could only hear her now.

Rasberry!

Tonight on the way home from Krista Care, I heard an odd sound from Alli. I turned around to look and swore she was giving me the rasberries, but yet different. It was without her tongue sticking out. When we got home, I confirmed it. She's sorta doing rasberries, just with her bottom lip, not her tongue. It's really cute!

She's growing and changing so fast. She sits by herself playing with her toys all the time. I could watch her for hours, wondering what she's thinking. I've found her exploring her hand too. That's something that just started recently too. It's usually after nursing, while she's still lying on me but looking towards the ceiling. She'll lift her right arm and start moving her hand, as though it were some mechanical device that she is figuring out how it works.

Her eyes are still blue. No teeth, but definite teething. We've had some problems the last couple of days with her going to sleep at night and found that giving her a teething toy eliminates most of the crying. (Don't worry, it's crying more like "don't leave me" rather than "OW that hurts".)

Pictures to come. With the holidays, we only took a couple, but we are not yet satisfied we've captured 7-month-old-Alli. :)

Some Cute Christmas Photos

These are our Christmas card photos taken by Wendy Amstutz and Daniel Zucker over Thanksgiving. It just dawned on me that I should share them. :) Alli's huge smile is courtesy of her cousins Claire and Branden who were entertaining her while we were posing.

Fa-La-La-La-La

Well, not quite. Alli did make a new sound at dinner tonight - la la la la la. What a cutie, with tongue sticking out as she did it. I just thought I would document this fun moment.

Sharing Toys

You would think sharing toys wouldn't be an issue in our house since we only have 1 child. But alas, we have Bagheera. And I think Bagheera is looking for someone to play with since we are spending all our time running around and doing other things. Granted, we go for family walks 1-3 times a week, but clearly that doesn't cut it. So Bagheera has decided that Alli's toys look like great things to...share. Although we wind up with doggy slobbered, tooth scratched toys. He's destroyed a couple of teething rings (punctured holes in them and the liquid started leaking), and another plastic toy as well. He really likes those stacking rings (you know, the colorful rings that stack on the base with the big round spindle?) So we are trying to teach Bagheera that Alli's toys are not to be shared. Difficult lesson. He just loves watching her though when she's playing because of all of those wonderful looking toys! It's cute to watch - til he nabs one... :(