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Thursday, March 1, 2012

We have a TODDLER

This week, Baby Girl finally made the switch from walking sometimes but crawling by default, to walking (or attempting to run) almost all of the time. This past weekend, 11 months and one week old, she started standing up from sitting on her own, without using anything (or anyone) to pull up. The classic butt-in-the-air push off the ground standing.

Now, as she careens around, she falls ALL the time, but she falls on her butt, and then pushes herself back up and continues to wherever she was going. No pause, hesitation, no looking for or waiting for help. Totally independent. She also has two walker toys (both presents). One, she drags laterally or walks backwards (?!) as often as she pushes it. The other, last night she was using to crash into the dining chairs on purpose! It has a pretty smooth wheel action, so she can go really fast. Run-run-run CRASH back up, back up, back up, run-run-run CRASH like that.I LOVE IT we are SO PROUD of her!!

Another big announcement: last night at dinner she drank water from a "glass" ALL BY HERSELF. She soaked herself in the process, but she picked up and put down the "cup" several times. The "cup" that worked is actually a Medela breast pump bottle. While she was getting a bath the week before, she grabbed one of the bottles that I was washing in the sink next to the counter her Papi was bathing her on. She sat down and did a good job of drinking... the bathwater. She already does a great job drinking from a water bottle, which also has a small mouth, smaller than this baby bottle. But we don't have any cups that have a comparably small mouth and are neither too heavy nor too light for her to use.

So at dinner last night, I put half an inch of water in the bottle and let her drink. That didn't work, because she needed to raise the angle of the bottle really high and tilt her head farther back than she is accustomed too. I don't know if her arms are even long enough to do that. She did try though, and sucked away at the air for a minute. So then next time I offered her a drink, I filled the bottle all the way up to below the screw-rim part. Big mess possible, I know. But she grabbed it with two hands and gulped away! She did sort of stick her mouth in the middle of the opening instead of drink from the edge, which caused her to get pretty entirely soaked, but it was before bathtime - and she's got to learn by experimentation anyway. We're on our way!

I am SO SO excited about these developments. The walking I knew would come soon, but the drinking out of a vessel on her own I wasn't sure how long that would take. AMAZING, my smart girl!!