She's the happiest baby on the block. Loves me, loves her sister, loves her nanny... Stranger anxiety has only happened a couple of times, when I've handed her to a stranger and left the room without warning. Today, I propped her in her boppy while I worked out. After my workout, I left her there to continue to play while I showered with her sister. It had been at least 45 minutes at that point. I anxiously stuck my head out of the bathroom as soon as we were done showering... to hear her cackling away to herself in the other room.
I am so blessed. And so is she. What a gift to be so content with life!
Her development is moving along nicely. Amelie learned to shake her head "no" on the day before turning seven months, and learned to wave "bye bye" the following day.
Her biggest interest right now is clapping. Can't get enough of it. But she can't actually clap herself -- those chubby little mitts won't stay open. But she loves holding my hands and clapping them together. At the first words of B-I-N-G-O she breaks into a huge grin.
Her newest accomplishment, as of just a couple days ago, is clapping plastic cups together. As you can see, she's exceedingly proud of herself.
She's not close to crawling but can pivot nicely on her belly and manages to move herself off a blanket rather quickly. I often find her in the crib a full 180 degrees turned from where she started out. Luckily she's just started to purposefully cuddle in the last couple of days, to make up for all this moving away.
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| First intentional cuddle |
She's rolled once or twice from back to front but never does it anymore.
She's embraced solid foods wholeheartedly but still loves bottles and nursing.
She's going to the pediatrician on Monday for a growth check. Hoping she's stretched out nicely or else we are going to the endocrinologist to get things checked out. But there's no doubt she's blossoming...
As for me, it's been a rough couple of weeks. I came down with my first case of bronchitis. What an experience! The strangest part has been lying down at night and having my lungs start up a rattly, ratchety conversation, seemingly completely independently of me. It wasn't really wheezing. I had two days of fever, then was better for a day (I stayed home), then the next day I rode the subway with Calliope and thought I might just give up on breathing. I could. not. stop. coughing. even with an inhaler. I dropped her off at school, completed a half hearted pumping session (I didn't feel well enough to eat but hated to lose my milk supply) and walked slowly to urgent care. One chest x-ray, one nebulizer treatment, one prednisone and a handful of prescriptions later, I felt a little better. But it's been a slow recovery. Two steps forward, one step back. I did my first T25 workout yesterday, and felt good but took it easy. Today I was exhausted from that work out but pushed slowly through another. It's going to take a little while to get back to where I was.
Calliope is doing great. She continues to focus on writing letters, and on drawing face after face after face. We went to a class birthday party today, our first, and were both overwhelmed. It was quite posh and one mother, in particular, is just unfriendly. It's so weird to feel a person's eyes wash right over you. Our kids' birthday celebrations were mistakenly scheduled for the same day in September and I wonder if she resents me for some reason because of it? Lame. But slightly uncomfortable. Pre-kids, this would have bothered me so much more. The host mother, anyway, is gorgeous with this sexy Australian accent but went way out of her way to make sure Calliope and I (and Amelie) were comfortable -- she even took us up to her apartment (with jaw dropping views) so I could nurse the baby in private. But it made me aware of my economic differences from some folks in this community. Time will tell how that plays out.
Oh sorry, that was supposed to be about Calliope! Anyway, it was funny to see her so quiet and standoffish with these kids that she goes to school with every day. But I was kind of reserved too, so I didn't mind her being with me. While our little extrovert, Amelie, lurched and grinned at everyone from my lap. Silly baby!
Wednesday I took a vacation day so that I could travel with Calliope's pre-K class to "Forest School." Based on the example of a school in Vermont, the pre-K classes are spending every Wednesday in Prospect Park at the "natural playspace." There was lots of climbing, seed pod collecting and smashing, getting wet and dirty, and then a picnic lunch, Calliope's favorite. A little boy fell and cut his forehead pretty badly right in front of me, so I even got to be useful, pressing my cardigan against his gash until first aid supplies could be found, then keeping an eye on him until his parents arrived. He only got one stitch -- I sure hope he doesn't have an ugly scar, as it looked to me like he needed more, poor fellow. Unfortunately, I started to feel pretty sick after a couple of hours there -- I think I really needed another day in bed to let my lungs heal -- but it was a gorgeous day and I'm glad I got to see what Forest School was all about.
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| Dining al fresco with her best school chum, Maya |
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| Getting to ride the school bus was a peak experience for these city girls |
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| PreK lunch in the park |
Your girls look soo cute in these pics! I hear you on the $$ stuff. The economic disparity between my household and most of the girls' classmates is tough to deal with. That's one reason I miss Idaho so much, I never noticed it, even with my friends who clearly had more money than us. But we are in an area of DC with multi-million dollar mansions everywhere. Fiona notices the disparity and brings it up, it's annoying!
ReplyDeleteRe the $$ stuff, for if/when it comes up with Calliope... Today at work I went to a "lunch and learn" where Ron Lieber spoke about his book, "The Opposite of Spoiled". He presented several good ideas for helping kids learn and understand money. One thing he made clear is that we, as parents, need to answer any questions our kids ask about money, and not avoid the subject (like most of our parents probably did). He said, if/when a child asks a question about money/economic status/etc., our answer can be, "why do you ask?" because often, they're asking because they want to know "if we're ok", and if we have more or less money than others, if THAT'S ok. It was really interesting. I'm planning to buy the book to learn more, but a lot of what he said really resonated with me.
ReplyDeleteGreat pics! I can't believe how grown up Calliope is!