Update: Exploring but no Vacuums

Well, Cecilia is doing quite well.

Her bottom two front teeth are coming up nicely. She has become a big fan of teething biscuits, Gerber Puffs Wagonwheels, Cheerios, baked potato as well as Tater Tots. She wasn't too thrilled with chicken but she loved the Baked Cheetos! (I'm bad I know, but they disolve easily and are yummy and Mommy was eating them.)

She now climbs to a standing position anywhere and on almost anything, even plain wall. She has had quite a bit of fun the past week or so exploring the apartment. As I've been cleaning and further baby-proofing each room, she gets to explore them as I go and she loves it! She loves making the doorstoppers doing their "boing!" sound when she hits them and hearing the clicking sound of the bathroom scale, hitting her box of diapers and trying, without any success, to get the covers off the electrical outlets (if she does get one out or the outlets are too loose, we put packaging tape over them and she likes trying to get that off too, but no luck, heeheehee). I bought some tough rubber covers (they are designed to go over the edges of fireplaces but oh well) and taped them upside down on the second to bottom shelf of each bookcase so when she crawls to the bottom shelf and uses the one above it to stand up she doesn't bump her head. Fortunately she hasn't figured out yet how to get anything off a bookcase.

In the bathrooms and kitchen, she won't crawl on her knees. Instead she crawls on her hands and feet so she resembles and oddly walking frog. I hope to catch some video of it soon and put it on the web. It is so cute and so funny but she just does not like her knees on the linoleum.

Thus far she has gotten scared and cried when the THX sound came on the tv, when we played with the camera effects on my new computer and instead of mommy and cecilia she saw two of both and her latest terror is the dreaded vacuum cleaner. What used to calm and soothe her has become a vicious monster filling her with terror whenever she is in the same room with it - whether I hold her or not.

She turns 8 months tomorrow so we will get her updated stats to you then.

Up and Out

Well, Cecilia's two bottom front teeth have both broken through and are working their way skyward. They still continue to cause her problems though as she woke up twice early this morning out of a sound sleep screaming and crying - poor thing.

Well, we got our new computer yesterday. I am finally on an Mac. One really good part to this is that now I can help James getting new pictures of Cecilia on here. I hope to do that soon, once I'm done configuring everything and seeing how it all works.

Headbanging and Alleluias

Two days ago Cecilia began doing something I thought was pretty wierd. She began banging her head forwards and backwards. She first did it at Church against my chest - Ouch. But she got more than she bargained for when she tried it in her high chair - again Ouch. I read that many babies do it to help calm themselves or distract themselves from teething pain, so it shouldn't be a big deal, but it sure threw me for a loop.

Yesterday at mass, Cecilia began singing to the Alleluia! That's my girl!

She also seems to like country music. I put on the country music station while driving to the District yesterday and sang the whole time. Looks like we may have a little Texas Angel.

If You Want to Feel Weak, Arm Wrestle My Infant Daughter

She is one strong little cookie. I have little clasps that attach to her car seat or stroller and hold on to various toys, a pacifier, a teething necklace, etc. She pulls the whole clasps off her seat. She has also become strong enough to push herself and her security blanket completely out from under me and migrate around in the bed at night. Last night I woke once to find her head almost hanging off the bed but her feet up against my stomach!

So today I went to BabiesRUs and bough a guard railing to put on my side of the bed so she won't fall off.

I also got a couple of plates that suction on to her tray for her to work on learning how to feed herself, which she seems most anxious to do. It was an improvement as it was easier to keep the plate down and she could grab at anything she wanted, but eventually the plate became unstuck and she and I battled to keep it right side up. But it is improving. She also gets to practice putting the spoon in the food herself and then putting it in her mouth.

P.S. - She really loves those Gerber WagonWheels, at least the apple flavored ones.

Mystery Solved

The last few days Cecilia's eating of solids decreased and decreased until it was nil. I would put her in her high chair like usual with her bib and tray and offer her small pieces of peaches, small Gerber Puffs, and spoonfuls of pureed food. I might get a couple of pieces of fruit and a couple of spoonfuls of food in and then nothing. She would begin whining and crying and fussing until the tears began flowing.

So yesterday I took the day off from solids and gave her a break thinking maybe the problem was teething. She does after all have two teeth working their way skyward.

But this evening I decided to try again and I think I figured out the real problem. I started with some pureed sweet potatoes and she would only eat them if I handed her the spoon and let her put it in her mouth. If I insisted on doing it, she got upset. Eventually she got upset she couldn't have the container of food itself as well though. Once again I got a couple of peaches in her but then she got upset. So I figured, well, let's try something else and gave her a handful of cheerios. She tried with both hands grasping and grabbing at the small pile of Cheerios in the end knocking several onto her seat and the floor and getting a couple in the center of her fist. Then when she tried to get them into her mouth she couldn't figure out how to do it. She just put her fist up to her mouth with her mouth wide and her tongue hanging out and couldn't figure out how to move them from her fist to her tongue. Fist after fist she tried and, of course, eventually wound up crying. I almost started crying watching her. How frustrating and upsetting it must be to have a tray full of food and be just dying to put it in your mouth yourself but every time you try you can't do it and can't figure out how to do it.

At that point I wiped clean her tray so she didn't have so much in front of her and gave her a Gerber WagonWheel, which are larger for her to hold with her fist and still get in her mouth, and her cup of juice and she ate and drank away.

So now my mission is twofold: 1) find more foods like the Gerber WagonWheels that she can hold in a fist and eat until that grasping ability with her forefinger kicks in and 2) find a way to secure the pureed food where she can use a spoon to get it herself without knocking the whole thing over.

!!!!SEPARATION ANXIETY!!!!

At our last Doctor's appointment, the doctor mentioned it was not uncommon for babies about Cecilia's age to experience "separation anxiety." I think Cecilia is holding out on us and understood him. Ever since she has been absolutely GLUED to me. I cannot leave her alone for a second - not in her crib, not in her play area, not in her high chair, not even with Daddy - to go to the bathroom or anything without hearing her whimper and cry. It is almost like overnight she began to experience super separation anxiety, although I bet the teething doesn't help.

Updates

Well, almost two weeks ago Cecilia and I began taking daily walks. We walk Monday through Saturday about 1.5-2 miles each day. Cecilia LOVES it! She just rides quietly chewing on toys the whole time. Yesterday she even got to see a big bright yellow and black butterfly flight right in front of her. When the weather is too wet we drive up to the Columbia mall and do our walking there. I get to browse and she gets to see something different but it does get tiresome getting stared at, as some people tend to do, and it does sometimes become too much stimulation and she gets upset.

SURPRISE! We are not getting one tooth but TWO! Both of her bottom front teeth are coming through. One has already broken through and it sprouting upward and the has just broken through and is along the surface. Boy those teeth are sharp little buggers!

Cecilia has gotten big enough where we have to belt her in when she is in her swing and she has even gotten too big to be in it swinging from side to side (she can still turn 90 degrees while belted in and then it throws her head around). So we are just waiting for her to be too big to ride in it swinging front and back before we retired the much loved swing. :(

Cecilia has experimented this week with finger foods. She is quite fond of the Gerber Puffs WagonWheels as she can put them in her mouth herself. Although I have to do it for her, she has also enjoyed pieces of pears this week. In fact she has enjoyed finger foods so much she seems to be refusing to eat the pureed foods (at least with pears, we will see if the pattern continues with other things).

Also, per the doctor's recommendation, I've lowered her crib mattress to the lowest setting and she STILL can stand up along the railing! We'll keep you posted and once those teeth are all the way in we'll see if we can't get a picture up of her new smile.

Trolls and Bananas!

First let me apologize to any of our readers who saw the comment posted at 9:42 this morning. It was removed at 11am so not many people saw it, but please disregard it. It was a poster upset at me for a comment I made on another person's blog and was completely inappropriate and rude. However, due to this troll, we have now enabled comment moderator on this website so any comments will have to be accepted by James or myself to appear on the site.

Well, Cecilia, though now 7 months, had her "6 month" doctor appointment today. She was kindof tired and cranky but it went well. She looked very healthy and got her shots like a champ! Her doctor also gave her the okay to start eating real food: chopped small and well cooked carrots, peas, bananas, pasta, etc. So Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we can open up Cecilia's world wide when it comes to food.