March 31, 2015

Over the last few days, SJ has been more willing to sit in my lap at night and just chill.  She does this with Daddy, but generally she’s been less willing to do it with me.  So I was particularly grateful when she laid back against my chest and let me play with her little feet.  Watching her process each new Elmo video, I really started to realize how much of a little person she is.  I don’t know when that realization hits most people, but it’s hitting me right now.  At 8 months she’s definitely showing a budding little personality.  I know where she’s ticklish.  I know which Elmo video is her favorite.  I know where she’s the most calm and relaxed.  And I know when she’s frightened.  There’s also a little sense of humor in there.  She watched Daddy throw dog toys to Sophie this morning.  The poor puppy was so excited to get some attention that she started thrashing the toys back and forth and letting out a little growl.  Selah June just thought that was the funniest thing.  Silly puppy….

She loves watching other babies and little kids.  There are so many words in that mouth of hers just trying to come out.  Right now it sounds a lot like “durrrhh-a-duhhh.”

But the feeling that overwhelmed me as we sat together in the recliner watching Elmo was that Selah June the 20-year-old was in there.  She might like action movies and the color periwinkle.  She might go through a Goth phase.  She might hate avocados.  She might be a crier.  Or she might be a thrill-seeker.  All this and more is balled up potential behind those beautiful blue eyes.  Pretty soon she’s going to start telling me exactly what she likes and dislikes, what she wants and why she wants it.  Am I ready for that?  And, when she’s curled up in my lap letting me play with her toes, will I be able to say no?

We’re in trouble.

May 30, 2015

SJ is teething hard core.  Her front upper teeth are coming in slowly but surely, and the wait has been rather uncomfortable.  Her little gum is so swollen.  Miss Carrie noticed it at swim lessons on Friday.  And now, there’s this little blistery-looking thing that’s popped up right where the tooth is trying to come through.  I know she hates it.  All day she’s been licking at it with her tongue.  Jeremy got a pretty funny video of it.

Poor baby.

She’s been fussy.  She’s fought sleep.  And her appetite has come and gone.  Hopefully that tooth will do its thing rather quickly so we can get back to having all sorts of fun.

The weather was really nice today, so we decided to go downtown to “SOGO” – South of Government – and check out the Bodacious Olive and some of the surrounding shops.  Everybody smiled at Miss Selah June sporting her sea foam green romper and hair bow.

Then we went to My Favorite Things and had cappuccinos.  It was a nice foray to get our minds off our pain and agony.  It’s rough being 8 months old.

May 29, 2015

Somebody graduated to her highchair.  I’ve seen her sitting like a big girl in Grammy’s highchair with all of her toys spread out in front of her.  But for some reason we hadn’t moved away from the bumbo chair.  I guess I’m just a creature of habit.  She still fits in the bumbo.  Those little thighs have a good bit of plumping to do before we can honestly say we’ve outgrown it.  But the bumbo leaves her hands free to grab at anything within arm’s reach 360 degrees around.  Nothing is safe.

So we tried out our highchair.  She did so good!  The little table in front of her gave her something to hold and scratch and pat, while her distance from me gave me a little bit more of a fighting chance to fend off the green bean slime.

Can you tell she likes meal time?

May 26, 2015

Selah June is 8 MONTHS OLD!!!!!  Can you believe it?  In the last month she has changed so much…  As you can see, she’s sitting up on her own like a champ.  Though her crawl still needs some work, she’s getting around pretty good.  A little military-style crawl gets her everywhere she needs to go.  We’re already seeing trouble on the horizon.

While I didn’t get it on the board, her weight is right around 16lbs 8 oz.  Her little body combined with her small stature means she’s still a shrimp.  But a cute shrimp!

One of her favorite toys is her octopus.  She’s now pushing the buttons on the octopus arms herself (though not necessarily on purpose).  And the little romper is new.  Daddy took us shopping at the mall for some 9 mo. clothes, and this is one of the Old Navy outfits we found.  Selah June can rock some sea foam green, can’t she?

One of our newest tricks is turning over ALL THE TIME!!!

May 27, 2015

Sebastian Jones started his refresher lessons with Miss Carrie today.  His lesson is right before Selah June’s.  Jessica didn’t tell him where they were going, and it wasn’t until he walked right up to the pool that he processed what was in store for his morning.

“Mommy!!  I DON’T WANT TO SWIM!  I don’t want to get wet!  You didn’t tell me!  MOMMY!  NO MOMMY!!!

Wow….  That little one…

Selah June watched the torture happen right before her little eyes.  Sebastian cried and screamed and grabbed at Carrie’s hair and kicked and cried.  SJ just watched.  He howled, and she just observed.  Some kids cry when other kids cry.  Not this little girl.  She says, “Not my problem, dude!”

And then it was her turn…  It was cold.  She was not happy.  She kept looking from side to side to catch sight of me.  Carrie made me walk behind her to make it more difficult for her to spot me.  But as soon as Carrie pulled her up out of the water, she’d search around until she found me.

I brought a bottle this time, and that was a good plan.  She calmed right down, ate a bit, and then napped on our way to Grammy’s house.  It was a much more pleasant experience on the way home from Milton.

May 25, 2015

Selah June started swimming on Monday — Memorial Day.  Jeremy was able to join us because he had the day off.  We arrived at Carrie’s house super early because we didn’t know how long it would take us at 8 in the morning to get out to Milton.  It ended up being 30 minutes exactly door to door.  SJ can’t eat anything 2 hours before her lesson, so she’s running on fumes by the time she gets into the pool.

I didn’t really pay attention to all the paperwork until we were pulling up into Carrie’s driveway.  Then I realized I had made a huge mistake.  We didn’t have a reusable swim diaper.  We didn’t have anything to give her as a treat afterward.  We hadn’t really thought about her diet before her lesson.  Ugghhh….  I’m going to suck at this parent thing.

Luckily, Carrie had a swim diaper for us to use.  And the rest constituted lessons learned.

SJ did really great. She didn’t like it at all!  The pool water was cold.  Carrie was a new person.  She didn’t want to be on her back immersed in water.  And she let us know about it!  What we saw was sheer rage.  With little fists clenched and little toes pointing like angry little leg lightening bolts, she let us have it.  For the whole of her lesson, she yelled and yelled and yelled.

But Carrie said that yelling was good.  We don’t want to train the yell out of her.  She had good head position — chin up and breathing.  She was learning to float.  Now she needs to work on her arms.  Right now, she’s bending her elbows and making little cactus arms with her fists pointing at the sky.  She needs to learn airplane arms.

It’s amazing that she’s only 8 months old…

May 22, 2015

We spent Friday at home.  I had a lot of computer work to do, and Grammy needed a break.  It was a great chance for some quality Selah June and Mommy time.  Hopefully I won’t get fired, but summer is summer, right?  A flexible schedule is a must.

There’s so many things that change so fast at this age!  She’s holding her bottle (if she must) on her own.  And she’s rolling all over the place.  It makes changing her diaper nearly impossible.  One minute she’s right side up, and the next I’m looking at a little baby bottom.  It’s fast!  And it’s not just on her changing table.  She’s bound and determined to roll all around while you try to feed her a bottle.  She wallows this way and then the other way. I’ve resorted to just taking the bottle away until she’s ready to focus on the task at hand.  We’ve got a little monkey on our hands!

We also spent some time outside.  It’s her favorite place.  Nothing calms her down and makes her totally veg out like sitting on the back porch listening to the birds, watching the sprinklers, talking to Sophie, and feeling the wind on our faces.

But she’s looking all around!  This way…

Then that way!

I laid her down on my legs to talk to her.

And before I knew it, she was rump-side up…

May 20, 2015

Selah June is growing up.  She spent the week with Grammy, getting in lots of play time with Satie and Sebastian.  Somehow she managed to steal Satie’s toothbrush (photo submitted as Exhibit A).  She worked on her crawling.  She did lots of puzzles.  And she ate like a horse!

The transition away from breast milk led to her thinning out a little, but she’s packin’ it on now that we’re really pushing solid foods.  And this little girl has a temper when it comes to her grub!  We’ve been feeding her multiple bottles, a big bowl of oatmeal, and packs and packs of food.  As soon as you suggest that we’re “all done!” – no matter how much food she has stuffed into that little tummy of hers — she gets furious.  The rage sweeps across her face.  She clenches those fists.  Her face turns bright red.  And she lets you hear about it!

Redirection….  It’s the name of the game.

The other thing worthy of mention today is that she had a little breakthrough with her stranger danger syndrome.  She let Jessica hold her for a while.  I drove up after work, and there they all were – waiting on the front porch swing for me to arrive.

I’m tellin’ you.  Selah June is getting so big!

May 16, 2015

This pic is a little blurry, but it’s precious and totally captures where we are right now.  She is so close to crawling that we’ve been spending a lot of time on the floor in her room reaching for toys, grabbing for the dangling critters hanging from her play mat, and trying to pet the puppy.

Probably the biggest development this month has been her burgeoning personality.  She LOVES Elmo.  Jeremy’s favorite thing to do with her right now is to sit together in the recliner and watch her favorite Elmo music videos together.  When she first sees Elmo, she often squeals with delight.  With entranced eyes, she melts into her Daddy’s arms.  He sings along to each song softly in her ear.  Here are some of her favorites.

Sesame Street: Elmo’s Song

Sesame Street: Feist Sings 1, 2, 3, 4

Sesame Street: A Song About Elmo (Adam Sandler)

Sesame Street: Pentatonix Counts (& Sings) to Five

She’s also starting to mimic the sounds we make.  I started clicking my tongue at her a few days ago, and now she wants to mimic each other all the time.  It’s really messy while she’s eating.  She also likes to ball both fists and growl.  She looks like a sumo wrestler.  It’s really really cute.  I know that when we growl back or Satie and Sebastian growl back, it must be a little frightening… but it only makes her resolve that much stronger.  I can see her being a force to be reckoned with in just a few short years.