This is a video of Elena crawling, from a really good angle. I was laying on the floor. :)
Our messy eater!
June has been an interesting month, with the ups and downs of Andrew's job--unfortunately more downs than ups. We've kept trucking along, though, and Andrew has been working hard to find a way to get by until the Amazon mess gets straightened out. God has been faithful to provide!
Elena has been growing and changing, of course! Now eight months old, she is so strong, and her moods are really showing through with more expressions. She's also starting to show her will--Mommy and Elena have been fighting about whether or not she will touch the radio in her room. Since she has more control over her body, she can tell us what she wants now--when she's done playing with a toy it gets a chuck. She can throw pretty far when she's worked up! She also loves to drop things just to see what will happen. Mommy tires of that game long before Elena does! She can roll a ball, though she can't always make it go where she wants it to go.
Her crawling has improved--she's so fast now. We underestimate her all the time! She has also started cruising. She cruises along the couch and the coffee table, usually after something she's not supposed to have! She also climbed up two stairs on Sunday! I put the diaper bag on the stairs so that she couldn't spread the contents everywhere before we went to church, but those stairs didn't stop her! The first time she did it she was a little scared, so I thought she wouldn't do it again. Next thing I know she's standing on the second step peering in the diaper bag! I guess it's time to get a downstairs gate!
She still loves electronics. The computer, Daddy's video game controller and Mommy's red cell phone are her favorites. She is less and less interested in baby toys, though she loves things like the paper towel roll or an empty soda bottle. Whatever Mommy or Daddy has--that's what she wants.
When we read her books, she engages a bit more, though the hinge concept (turning pages and closing the book) is still very distracting from the story. :) She also loves to work the hinge on doors and on the lid of the washing machine, after bouncing up and down to the rythm of the clothes agitating.
Elena is a good little eater now, although she's still picky. This month we've added carrots and green beans to the repertoire. She likes avacado a lot now, and carrots she will tolerate. She still only wants banana in the fresh food feeder! She doesn't like the whole grain cereal as much as she liked the beech nut cereal, so I usually try to mix it with something else now. She still loves her puffs--she downs those things. Now that she's eating them whole, they are a very low-maintenance snack, which makes them Daddy's favorite! The best way for me to get her to eat anything, in fact, is to let her feed herself. Even with the spoon--I hold on to the end and let her put the spoon into her mouth with her hand. Which means, of course, that food gets everywhere! As you can see above! It's funny, though, even with the mess, she eats more of the food. She can drink from her sippy cup by herself, and she drinks, with help, from water bottles or from a big-person cup. Still no teeth!
This month she went through a weird time when she got totally off her sleeping schedule (she definitely rejected the scheduling with three naps), but she's normalized again, back to her old 7pm bedtime with just two daytime naps. Elena and I have come to an agreement about how she will fall asleep--I hold her sideways and she sucks her thumb. Not quite as good as the old cuddling, but better than her laying on my lap! She gets too distracted if I just lay her down, though. She still takes pretty short naps, although she will surprise us with a three-hour every once in awhile. Usually it's two one-hour naps along with an 11 or 12 hour night. After falling alseep by herself, she wakes up usually one time in the early morning between 4:30 and 5 to eat, going back down until between 6 and 7. It's a blessing to have a nice quiet evening.
She's a great self-soother now. She sticks that thumb in her mouth and all is well. :) Often she won't use the thumb when she's still in a scary situation, though--she wants her Mamma.
She can be very verbal, although she's very quiet in public. The closest thing she says to a word is "dada," which I think she knows to say when Andrew is around. She doesn't know that it means only him though. With so few sounds, she can't be that limited yet. :) She also says "baba" and "geegoogaa" kinds of sounds. Plus she's started to do a whistle! She curls her tounge up and sucks air in and it makes a train whistle sound. The first few times I heard it I had no idea it was her!
Although she's a pretty serious kid, she does like to laugh. Some of the things that make her laugh are pretty typical, like tickling--she's most ticklish under her arms--and blowing rasberries. But some things are just her own little sense of humor--she thinks it's hilarious when someone burps or hiccups. She also laughs when I rub my hand up her tummy to her neck, or when I make a surprised face.
One thing Elena loves is water. Whether it's in the bathtub, splashing in the sink, at the pool or the splashpark, or even in the toilet or a fishtank, she can't resist! Mommy didn't let her touch the water in the fishtank, but she did get into the toilet once--yuk!
As Elena begins the evolution from being a passive baby to an opinionated toddler, I find that parenting is changing and definitely getting harder in some ways. It's nice that she's more independant, but having patience with her and training her to understand "no" is pretty challenging. It's so rewarding, though, to see her learning, to see how pleased she is when she accomplishes something. She is such a sweet girl. Her affection for Andrew has grown, which is great to see. And she is starting to interact with other kids a little more, though we're definitely in the beginning stages of learning "gentle."
Being Elena's mommy is such a joy. I can't wait to see what's in store for us in the days ahead. :)
Baby Elena and I have gone to the pool a couple of days in a row now, and today, she amazed me--she blew bubbles in the water! She was putting her face in the water and drinking a lot of pool water, but I wasn't telling her no because I figured it was better for her to figure out that there was a difference between pool water and air--a fact which she had somehow missed in the past, resulting in lots of sputtering and coughing. Then, she took a big breath and stuck her face in and blew bubbles! Twice! Go, baby, go.
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