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Sarah 9:40 pm on January 31, 2008 | 2 | # |

Rose learned to cruise today!

Before I explain what that is, or what it means, let me digress a little here. Before Rose came I was completely unaware that babies come with a whole new vocabulary. Words like dry-pailing, bunny rug, scootching, sickie cloth and nukky had vague, somewhat mysterious connotations. And yet other words, like cruising, had other adult connotations that caused me to wonder why in the heck would anyone adopt a commonly used phrase by adults to mean picking people up to describe the innocent baby activity of moving around furniture? Who are these people writing these lexicons?

But back to Rose. So today she started not only standing up, but lifting her legs up and down and moving around furniture. It’s kind of a big deal for her, she’s never shown any inkling of knowing how to lift her feet. She hasn’t done “assisted walking” of any kind. And now she’s learned how to do it all by herself!
Sarah 9:47 am on January 31, 2008 | 1 | # |

Books are pretty big in our house. Chris owns and has read hundreds of them, I work in a library that has millions of them, and little Rose has a burgeoning library of about 20 books. She never grows tired of them. Just lately she’s started to show indications that she knows quite a bit about what’s going on in the books we read together. She’s started to point to animals, characters, or objects that she likes. In the last few weeks I’ve also noticed that she chuckles on certain pages that she finds amusing (She chuckles hardest in “Goodnight Gorilla,” when you see the zookeepers wife wake up and find all the zoo animals in bed with her).

Over the holidays I made Rose a little book, “Who loves baby?” It’s full of pictures of Rose’s family (starting with “Mummy loves Rose” and “Daddy loves Rose”, and moving on through Granny Anne, Granny Jo, Grandad, and Pap, and ending up with a page saying “Rose’s friends love Rose”). I got the idea from Laura who had done the same thing for Kate and I thought it was a great idea. Rose absolutely loves her own hand-made book. It lives in her toy box rather than on the bookshelf with her other books. I often find her pulling it out and reading it.

Not much else to report, other than the fact that Rose is getting better and better at standing up. She practices it all day long and has a steely determination to get better. Along with the standing there’s been a lot more falls, too. I’ve noticed that she doesn’t really like to be cuddled after she’s bumped her head, even if she’s clearly very distressed. She wants you to stay by her and talk to her, but if you try to pick her up and soothe her, she pushes you away. She’s clearly very independent. It doesn’t bother me, but I have to admit that I’ve come to treasure the other times she’s wants to cuddle. When we go to the pool and get into the water she holds on very tightly, and there are also spontaneous moments when she crawls over and gets up on her knees with her arms outstretched.
Sarah 10:20 am on January 29, 2008 | 0 | # |

It’s been a long holiday weekend here (Australia Day), and I’ve enjoying having a couple of days away from the blog. Generally I love writing in the blog, but sometimes I can’t think of anything to write about, or I’m really tired and unable to come up with the words. Strangely enough, there are other times when I wonder whether I’m writing too much?

We had a really lovely relaxing weekend staying close to home. Yesterday we took Rose to a local park and had a lot of fun playing on the swings. Then we went to a cafe and we had a really successful brunch. I say “successful” because Rose was happy sitting in her stroller, and she was really entertained by our neighbours’ conversation, so Chris and I were able to eat our food in relative peace.

Actually, I’ve started to think that Rose is quite nosy. She often listens in to other peoples’ conversations, and she also stares at other people a lot, too. It’s not really a problem, most people think she’s pretty cute and aren’t bothered by her. Especially when she starts clapping; that usually brings out big smiles all round. Rose is really enjoying clapping at the moment, and it seems to be part of her repertoire of skills she shows off to entertain us and other people. I’ve never seen her clapping by herself, so I definitely think it’s an act of communication.

It’s amazing how strong she’s become since learning to crawl and stand. Lately the change has been very obvious at bed time. She wants to roll and crawl around her cot, and stand up too! We have been using a SafeTSleep (a wrap that goes around her and the bed, akin to swaddling), but she wriggles around in it and we started to wonder whether it was time to give it up. We tried yesterday to get her to settle without it, and it was utterly unsuccessful. When I put her to bed last night she was definitely sleepy, but she kept getting up on all fours to crawl around the cot or to stand up. I went in about 15 times to lie her back down and say, “time for bed, Rosie” but she wouldn’t go to sleep. Eventually I gave up and put her back in the wrap, and she fell asleep right away. I’ve read that this is a developmental phase when they first learn to stand up and crawl, but my gosh it’s annoying. We’re also faced with the predicament about whether to continue with the wrap.
Sarah 1:16 pm on January 25, 2008 | 2 | # |

I was just getting Rose ready for her afternoon nap, and sat down to read her some stories. We were reading “Goodnight Poppy Cat”. At one point I lost focus, and when I tuned back in I found myself saying: “In the clouds, way up high, Goodbye airport, hello sky!”

These are NOT the words to Goodnight Poppy Cat! These are the words to some other book (“Busy Airport”). Good grief.
Sarah 7:09 pm on January 24, 2008 | 1 | # |

It’s getting really hard to leave the house. Rose sleeps from 10am – 11.30, and again from 2.30-4pm, so the biggest chunk of time to get things done outside the house is the middle stretch from 11.30am until 2.30pm. But going out during that time means feeding Rose on the road, and it’s getting more and more complex to do that. Take today: I was meeting my friend Alison at a cafe for lunch at midday. As soon as we’d arrived I had to give Rose her lunch, which comprised of steamed broccoli, rice and lentil hotpot, a hummus sandwich, a small yogurt, and some pieces of nectarine. I prepared most of her lunch while she was asleep in the morning, but it still involved a heck of a lot of preparation getting everything cooked/steamed, packaged up and in little containers ready for lunch on the road. Add to that remembering to pack a bib and clean baby cutlery as well, and you have a fairly complex event to arrange.

And that’s not even saying anything about how tricky it is getting to feed her in a cafe. Because she’s just learned to feed herself she drops a fair amount of food all over the place, and I often end up leaning over picking bits of semi-chewed sandwich up off the floor of the cafe. At home we have a lovely high chair with a drop cloth and it’s so much easier. Also, these days her eating is a slow affair; meal time takes around 40 minutes. All of this adds up to a fair amount of hassle and stress, and “woops! now it’s time to rush back home for her afternoon nap”.

But yet it’s still really good to get out. I definitely have days when it all feels too difficult and I decide to stay home, but those days are usually marred by boredom on Rose’s part as well as mine. Rose loves being exposed to new sights and new people. I keep wondering whether there’s an easier way to do all this? I’ve tried simplifying her meals, but we’re on to such a good thing starting out with steamed veggies – it seems to occupy her while I shovel in the pureed food.

As an aside, Chris and I have noticed a funny little habit she’s developed. Whenever she hears a new or unusual sound, she cups her hands over her ears. This morning she was sitting in the hallway, and Chris turned on the taps in the kitchen. It obviously sounded weird to her because up went the hands!
Sarah 9:27 am on January 23, 2008 | 2 | # |

It’s been a busy couple of days in our household. Rose has been pretty much run me ragged since she started crawling. Also, this morning I woke up feeling really sick with a low-grade cold I’ve had for the last few days. Can I just state for the record how tiring it is looking after a baby when you feel under the weather? Normally if I felt like this I would be lying in bed reading or sleeping. (I guess I don’t really need to state that for the record, about a gazillion other women beat me to it.)

I’m happy to report that crawling has made Rose very, very happy. She giggles and chuckles while she’s crawling around. She’s also been sleeping an unusually large amount, often sleeping in and having long naps during the day. Chris reckons she needs the extra sleep to “defrag” her brain (what computers do to reorganize content). But the best thing is that she’s stopped biting me during breastfeeds! Yes, you read that right, she stopped biting me! I don’t know why or how it happened, but she stopped the day she started crawling. But what’s the connection? Maybe she was frustrated? Here’s a short video of how well she’s crawling after a week. (There’s a surprise ending!)

As I write this I just heard the news that Heath Ledger has died. I don’t know the circumstances, but surely this is a tragic loss. I saw “I’m not there” only a few weeks ago, and thought his portrayal of Dylan was a revelation. I’m sure a lot will be written about his films, even more will be written about the sad events surrounding his demise, but mostly I’m just thinking about his little girl. Poor baby.
Sarah 5:32 pm on January 20, 2008 | 4 | # |

My friend Pip and I agree that one of the great things about having kids is the endless potential for sociological/psychological experiments. Now before you start thinking that I’m running around ringing bells, or replicating the Milgram experiment, or standing behind hedges observing Rose interact with ink blot pictures, I’m talking more generally about the fact that you’re watching an emerging human being, experiencing things for the first time, grappling with their new-found emotions and reactions to things. It’s hugely, well, interesting and entertaining.

For example, I’ve been telling Rose that I love her pretty regularly since she was born. Since she doesn’t have language yet, I don’t expect her to understand the words. So I’ve learned that she has different reactions to me telling her I love her at different times, depending on the context. If I tell her I love her just after a breastfeed, when we’re cuddling, she coos quietly, and snuggles in tight. This morning as I was watching her crawl around I told her I loved her. She didn’t really want to pay attention to me, and wasn’t really interested. I reiterated what I was saying by pointing to myself (“mummy”), making a cross the arms gesture (“loves”) and pointing to her (“Rose”). She still couldn’t be bothered.

Then I realised that Rose is in the lucky and amazing position of never having been not loved, and I got to thinking about what love means if you have it all the time? Rose has never had anyone be mean to her. Rose has never had her advances spurned. The worst thing she’s ever experienced is not getting what she wants.

What all this means, I don’t know. All I’m saying is that Rose is incredibly interesting to me, and I love finding out how she thinks and learns. Pretty awesome, really.
Sarah 3:19 pm on January 18, 2008 | 4 | # |

I just got the cutest email from my 91-year old nana (and regular blog reader) that said, “Your days will not be the same now that Rose can move whenever she wants now, not only when you want! She is the BOSS.”

That’s so true, Nana! Rose quickly got over her clingy and weepy behaviour — and she’s replaced it with a completely new personality — the TIGER! Crawling has made her voracious, curious, stubborn, independent, and short of attention span. She now looks at a toy for maybe ten seconds before moving on. She used to play with an empty water bottle for an hour! Now she does laps of the living room, picking up toys, discarding them, finding stuff to get into, picking up fluff from the carpet and putting it in her mouth, and generally creating havoc. If she was able to speak (!) her thoughts (!!!), I imagine it would sound a little like this:

“I must find that yellow ball… Hey, there’s that rattle I don’t really like… Where did mummy put that crinkly paper… Hey, here’s a hair tie, it’s kinda bendy, I wonder if I can flick….. oh, there’s another one of those silver birds outside…”

Chris thinks Rose is finally taking after him. All I know is that my life has changed, dramatically. For starters I’m spending a lot of my day hunched over, trailing around picking up after her or getting stuff out of her way.

But on to Rose’s visit with the early childhood nurse today. She asked me a ton of questions about what we were feeding Rose, and said we were doing a great job with the meals and nutrition. She said not to worry that Rose has lost interest in breastfeeding. She said that the nutrition she’s getting from breastmilk now is minimal. She weighed and measured her also. She’s at the 100th percentile for head circumference, also for length. She’d dropped a bit in her weight – she’s now at about the 70th percentile. She said that she’s not worried at all about Rose’s weight; she’s very healthy looking and we’re giving her all the right foods. She did offer some suggestions for increasing her calorie content – give her five meals a day, add cream to her casseroles, etc. But she said not to worry at all, Rose is fit and well. She said there wasn’t much I could do about her biting me, she explained that Rose is merely exploring the world and doesn’t mean any harm by it, but that if I want to stop breastfeeding her, make sure I add formula to her diet (in porridge, in her sippy cup, etc). She doesn’t need much, though.

So, all in all, a great day. But my gosh, I am tired.
Sarah 6:22 pm on January 17, 2008 | 0 | # |

This afternoon I went out of the room to wash my hands, and when I came back I found Rose had started to “read” a book by herself, with “page turning” authenticity and all. Touching detail: the book was upside down.
Sarah 9:19 am on January 17, 2008 | 1 | # |

Today Rose learned how to roll a ball back to me! In the past, if you’ve rolled a ball to her she has simply kept hold of it. So today’s a big day for learning reciprocation! (And what did I learn today? How to make her activity table say, “That’s a spicy pizza!” You have to press the purple triangle button three times, the first two times is merely says, “purple triangle”. See? The human learning curve in action.)

The girl is clearly going through a massive developmental growth spurt at the moment. The strange thing is that this has coincided with some changes in her emotional/behavioural world as well. Since she learned to crawl and stand up she’s been a lot more quick-to-cry. In the past if she’s bonked her head she’s been pretty robust and tough about it – no crying unless it was particularly major. In the last two days I’ve noticed her crying whenever mishaps have occurred. Yesterday afternoon I went to the bathroom and when I came back she was lying on her back (must’ve fallen over), howling her lungs out. And she actually seems more frustrated since she learned how to crawl and stand up, rather than less. Maybe it’s because she’s hasn’t perfected it yet? She knows how to pull her self up using her activity table, but she wants to pull herself up using the couch as well, a much taller object and more difficult task.

Unfortunately, she’s stated having night woes as well. She’s been waking up two or three times between her bed-time (7pm) and our bed-time (11pm), to let out a cry once or twice and then go back to sleep. (It could be happening during the night also, while we’re asleep). What new fears or terrors is Rose facing in her sleep? How is it related to her new moving skills? Poor baby!