Tag Archives: Walking

What’s She Doing Wednesday: Bubble Baby!

This week has been a fun one, here’s a little recap:

Bubble Baby: After going to her first kiddie birthday party with a little container of bubbles in her goodie bag, she’s been so entranced when I blow them for her, but she either wanted to blow them herself (which she wouldn’t, she would just put the wand in her mouth after dipping it into the solution) or she wanted to play with more pretty bubbles. So we got a bubble fan machine for her and she is so happy and entertained!
Camera-Ready! This was by far the most entertaining discovery this week! We were at the playground at the outlet shopping center near our house and wanted to take pictures of Jia and Jeff since they were wearing matching Orioles gear. Jeff was holding Jia and I held up my phone, counting “1…2…3!” and she knows to plaster this huge excited enthusiastic smile, it’s the cutest thing ever! Such a huge smile that you can count all 10 of her teeth! haha… I love this!
She loves walking – Never really crawls unless she’s climbing on the playground equipment. She squeals with excitement as she runs and is being chased by us or she goes back and forth from Jeff and me, showing us twigs, flowers, leaves, anything she finds that interests her. She’s just such a happy baby! We’re so lucky 🙂
My little eater is getting a bit better! Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on whole wheat, even scrambled eggs with smoked salmon are going well so far. Her favorite cheese so far is goat cheese (takes after her mama), she’ll eat chunks and chunks of it by itself. She likes hummus with little pieces of pita bread. Loves Boston Market’s meatloaf (doesn’t like my homemade meatloaf… sigh) and their lemony garlicky spinach. Still into homemade sweet potatoes, which I prefer her to eat since they’re purely seasoned with unsalted butter and cinnamon. I also mashed cooked cheesy cauliflower for scrambled eggs and she did well with those, too.
Naps are still 1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours and 30 minutes. It changes day to day, with no predicting which it’ll be. Jia still goes to bed at about 7:30/7:45 PM, we are now waking up at 6:45-7:15 AM (boy do I miss the days she slept in until 8 AM or even 8:30 AM!) and takes one nap at 11:30 AM until about 12:45/1 PM.
Stridin’ Rite! We got her first pair of rubber soled shoes! She’d been wearing a pair of Robeez that her Gran got for her for Easter and put some good yardage in with them. Then we’ve noticed she is getting much better at walking, so we took our trip to Stride Rite and got her some pink sparkly Mary Jane sneaker-shoes on sale for $29.99. Those suckers cost around $40-42 a pair at Stride Rite! Anyway I love them, she loves to wear them and walk around everywhere now!
Got her first boo-boo. We were walking outside before her nap and she took a little stumble to her hands and knees but since she was on the slight downslope on the driveway, she tipped head-first when she propped herself on her hands to get up. She was tough and cried for about 10 seconds but didn’t like when I cleaned up her scrape and put cold triple antibiotic ointment on. She forgot about it pretty fast.
She is getting very mom-attached. She used to let Jeff play with her in the morning after waking up. But, now she makes a bee-line to our bedroom door to find me and is an unhappy camper if he doesn’t let her into the room. No more sleeping in an extra 45 minutes while Jeff plays with her, it’s go-time right from the start!
Where’s the Milk?? She’s starting to tug at my shirt and play with the clips of my nursing tops before feedings. Uh oh… Hahaha…

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What’s She Doing Wednesday: “Little Toddles”

“Little Toddles.” That’s Jeff’s new nickname for Jia, along with “Boogie-Boo” because she is always dancing or boogying. 🙂

Says “Up” when she goes up the stairs and when she is standing up after a diaper change on the table, mimicking the word “diaper” pretty well, too.
Says “Shoes” uh oh, this could be a problem haha… Saying “Mei-Mei” is getting better. When she sees Mei Mei enter the room, she actually says her name.
She excitedly digs into her toy box and can spend a while just sifting through it.
Can feed her Chomp and Count Dino toy (can’t quite push the food far enough into his mouth to the point where he recognizes the food, but she understands where the Dino’s mouth is and tries to feed him)
Free stands for longer lengths of time while holding something, does this more frequently nowadays. If she doesn’t realize you’re not holding onto her she stands for a decent length of time.
Throws tantrums and pieces of food when she gets frustrated.
She’s VERY vocal, I love hearing her voice. She vocalizes all the time, especially when she reaches to try to get something, it’s like she’s talking her way through it. It’s so endearing, I love it.
Points meaningfully at items that she wants. For example, when she’s eating she points to her sip cup because she’s thirsty.
Loves pears (this is good, because even if she loved a bunch of vegetables, meat, and all sorts of fruit when it was pureed, if you’ve been keeping up with these WSDW posts, you’ll know that it’s a gamble on what she wants now), ZUCCHINI (I chopped into small pieces, put on the stove in a pan with olive oil, sprinkled with thyme and cinnamon… it worked. And it was better-received when it had been refrigerated!), and (de-skinned) mandarin oranges but *sigh* she may be tired of deli turkey! What now?! That was my old faithful backup meal that I knew she would take. Well that was a good three week run.
Her feet are ticklish! So cute watching her smile and pull back her feet when I tickle her. She’s especially ticklish in the bathtub haha!

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Baby-proofing (for) My Sprout

Staci, one of my really good college friends had a baby a few months after Jia was born, so we exchange thoughts and ideas since her son, Benji, is not far behind Jia (in age, though developmentally they are neck-and-neck)! Anyway, Staci wanted me to write a post about baby proofing, so I wanted to list the changes we’ve made to our house. As a warning, I didn’t go and get every baby-proofing device out there. Baby-proofing gadgets are pricey and add up very quickly, so I am going about baby-proofing in sort of a “buy as we need” fashion.

The Important Part

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) lists 12 must-have devices to childproof your home. The most important tip they stress is that in order for childproofing equipment to be effective, it must be installed correctly. Be sure to read instructions on all products that you purchase to ensure your child’s upmost safety. Also, they want you to remember that children are smart, crafty, and persistent. Even if you childproof your home, that doesn’t mean your child can’t figure out a way around it. Click here for the link.

Remember to ALWAYS lock away chemicals, medications (prescription and over-the-counter), alcohol, ammunition, knives, and other harmful products! This cannot be stressed enough!

The National Capital Poison Center states that in 2013, 44% of poison exposures were found in children under 6 years of age.

They identified the most common exposures for these children to be cosmetics, cleaners, pain medications, and foreign bodies. Others include vitamins, antihistamines (benadryl), batteries, plants/mushrooms, antimicrobials, pesticides, arts and crafts supplies, and “gastrointestinal preparations.” (I’m a nurse and I’m not sure what this refers to but it doesn’t sound appealing) Click here for other statistics from poison.org.

All of the products I am listing (besides our safety gate and trashcan) were purchased at Buy Buy Baby, and the prices I list are pre-20% off-coupon. Remember, save those Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupons, because if they are NOT expired, you can use them! (expired ones, unfortunately can’t be used) There are other products out there, these aren’t the only “good ones,” and there are others that look less obvious but I am just writing about what we have, in case it helps guide your choices! Continue reading “Baby-proofing (for) My Sprout” »

This Sprout Was Made for Walkin…

So, Jia isn’t going to crawl. Doesn’t want to. My guess is there are two things that contribute to this: she’s not in day-care around other babies thinking “oh wow that looks cool, let me try!” and the only consistent examples of crawling on all fours are her fur siblings, Kona and Mei-Mei. I think she realizes she’s more like us than her siblings. She’s had plenty of tummy time, too. I actually don’t mind, I welcome her current lack of all-fours mobility. It helps me run to the bathroom or kitchen with the comfort of knowing she’s probably only backwards-scooted at most, a foot from where I left her 5 seconds ago.

Many babies never crawl and instead go straight to cruising/standing then onto walking. Though crawling is a milestone, it’s not a developmental requirement. Additionally, pediatricians think that the push for “Back to Sleep,” the public health campaign that has drastically decreased the number of cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) has contributed to less children crawling these days. Since babies are spending more times on their backs than on their tummies, their back and torso muscles may not be as strong as before “Back to Sleep” began. According pediatricians (cited on Parenting.com), studies have not shown any negative developmental outcome associated with skipping the milestone of crawling. Continue reading “This Sprout Was Made for Walkin…” »