Little miss Laney bear started waving. She doesn't do it consistently yet. We constantly encourage her by waving "hello" and "good-bye," and every now and then she'll wave back at us. It's exciting to see her understand the gestures we're making. It always amazes me when she makes a connection and communicates with us somehow.
She has also just started pointing at things, and it's fun looking at whatever she's pointing at and talking about it with her. In a way, it's sort of opening my eyes to her world. I get to see exactly what she's looking at, and I have a better understanding of some of the things she's interested in.
Occasionally while I'm feeding her, she will offer me a handful of her food. She'll reach towards my face and offer to put the food in my mouth, the way I do it for her. It's so sweet! Sometimes, just as I'm about to take the food from her, she quickly pulls her hand away and puts the food in her own mouth. Bait and switch. :)
Delaney knows when she's doing something she shouldn't be doing. We're sure she understands the word "no" because she often responds to it by stopping whatever it is she's up to. She seems to be a selective listener, though. She loves picking things up off the floor and putting them in her mouth, even though she knows we don't want her to. She'll find a little tuft of Cash's fur on the floor and look me in the eyes as she slowly picks it up and moves it toward her mouth. As I start walking towards her, ready to take it away and saying "no," she quickly shoves it in her mouth and crawls away from me as fast as she can. Then I have to chase her, pry her mouth open and grab the spit-soaked fur ball off her tongue. Sometimes she'll find a blade of grass or a carpet fiber fuzzball and sneak it into her mouth, and I won't realize it until I see her drooling and smacking her lips on something. She knows when she's been caught, because as soon as I start walking towards her, the chasing game begins.
One interesting new challenge is changing Laney's diaper. She hates it when playtime is interrupted for a diaper change, and it has really become a struggle to keep her entertained on the changing pad. The second I start carrying her up the stairs to her bedroom, she starts protesting - kicking her feet, pushing against me, and crying. As soon as she touches the changing pad, she kicks both of her legs really hard, tries with every ounce of her strength to twist around onto her stomach, screams, cries, flails her arms, and tries to knock every item around her onto the floor. I change her diaper at least 6 times each day, so it gets old pretty quickly (for both of us). She used to enjoy playing with new stuffed animals or toys during the diaper change, but that no longer interests her. Singing "Wheels on the Bus" used to work - she loved it when the kids on the bus went UP! and DOWN! Then she was entertained every time I sang a song called "Five funky chickens." (Brad discovered that song, and it gets stuck in my head constantly. I wake up in the middle of the night with the song glued to my brain.) Brad is pretty good at distracting her with songs, noises, and funny facial expressions, but he isn't able to be around for every diaper change. The funny part is that the second I'm done and reach to lift her up off the changing pad, she stops everything she's doing and happily smiles like a little angel. It's so ridiculous, I can't help but laugh. I know this is just a phase and it will pass, so hopefully it passes soon!
Another phase I'm hoping passes quickly is her new biting phase. This week, she has bitten me 3 times. It has only happened to me so far (thank goodness!). It happens when she's frustrated, and she doesn't yet know of another way to communicate her frustration with me. For example, if she's happily playing with her toys but I notice her getting sleepy, I'll interrupt her playtime by picking her up to bring her to bed. She kicks, screams, and then leans over and latches onto my forearm. I'm left with a teeny little 8-tooth bite mark. Over the past few days, I've received many different recommendations to stop a child from biting. I decided that I would just immediately say "No biting!" very sternly and then try to calm her down. I'm hoping that helps break the habit. I'm sure that once she gets a little older and learns how to communicate better, the biting phase will eventually pass.
First cabin trip of the season.
On a boat ride with Noni
Having a blast on our enormous bean bag chair
Laney is the captain of this ship!
Upset because I wouldn't let her dive off the side of the couch, face first.
Those curls!
Her very first trip to the zoo! And I'm 8 months pregnant with her little brother.
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