Audrey, 9 months

So I feel perhaps that I'm part of a new trend here. Instead of filling out the traditional baby book for Audrey, instead I (and other parents who blog about their kids) will have the "Baby Blog," an intermittent recording of baby's accomplishments, archived on the Blogspot server, at least until Blogspot goes out of business or otherwise tells bloggers they need to move their content somewhere else.

Audrey is now a little over 9 months and her development is proceeding apace. She can do three signs in conjunction with appropriate activities (milk, potty, and more) although her use of "more" has dropped off rapidly since grandma Mary left and she now has only an audience of mommy at meals. She also responds to commands - she pulled the pig's tail in a barnyard book when asked on three separate occasions for me, grandma, and grandpa. This also has more practical applications - when asked, she can often sit back in her highchair to make it easier for me to feed her, or sit up/back on the potty so she doesn't get so engrossed in the bathroom linoleum that she falls off the potty onto her nose. She has also started pointing, which can help some with communication too - she can point in a direction she wants to go, although she's not quite to the stage where she can point for "I'd like some toast rather than the apples."

Motor-skill wise, she is walking well with support - one of her favorite games is to hold daddy's hands (or if she's feeling brave, just one hand, using the other to grasp the wall or furniture) and walk around the house. Her balance is good and she can "cruise" along furniture, though she still takes the occasional tumble. She has also started "scooting." I wouldn't even call it crawling, and I'll have to get a video of it - basically, from seated, she walks her hands forward so she is up on her hands and feet and scoots forward a couple of inches and sits down again. It's not very efficient but she can cover a few feet when motivated. The big thing though is that she can now go from her belly up to a seated position. She doesn't like to do it, since it's a lot of work, but now she is no longer stuck on her belly when she starts to scoot/crawl and doesn't quite make it.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for the moment!

Tag Blanket!

Yesterday Joanna sent Audrey a new toy. She apologized for it being late (for Audrey's birth and for my birthday) but I think it's right on time, since Audrey recently learned to grab and even more recently has been trying to put things in her mouth. The tag blanket is perfect for both of those pursuits, and as you can see from the photo, she is enjoying it already!

Leaps and Bounds

So over the weekend, Audrey learned to grab things. Paul has been working with her, showing her that her hands can close around various little hanging toys that she has, but it wasn't until Saturday that things seemed to "click." Paul and I had noticed that Audrey was now bored in her infant carrier. Every time we put her in it, she would "read" the warning on the side of the carrier about 20 times (when she's able to talk, I won't be at all surprised if her first words are "Warning! Advertencia!" since the label, advising us not to put the infant seat in the front seat of the car, is in both English and Spanish). Anyway, Paul hung a giraffe toy from the carrier canopy, figuring she'd look at it.

While we were in the car on Saturday, trundling from party (Happy 15th birthday, Nick) to party (Happy get-together at Lauren, Niel and Gavin's!) I had pulled the canopy all the way down to keep the sun from beating down on Audrey as we drove. I was talking to Paul, and noticed that the giraffe's head (which was all I could see of him, as his body and legs were under the canopy with Audrey) kept moving. I lifted the canopy, and saw that Audrey had grabbed the giraffe's leg and was repeatedly pulling on it, causing the head to bob under the canopy and then re-appear in my view.

Once she mastered this skill with the giraffe, she was quick to try it out on her new toy, the take-along arch (thanks Erica, Sammy and Nick, I think this was a gift from you). Paul clipped it to the boppy, so she could rest and look at - or grab - the toys as she rested there. So that's the picture. Audrey is grabbing the turtle, who is supposed to play three songs, but I can only get him to play one (part of "Pop Goes the Weasel", I think). Audrey managed to hit it in such a way as to get it to play another song, but I have no idea how she did it...I have experimented with hitting the turtle in multiple ways (much to the amusement of Audrey AND Paul) and it either stays silent, mocking me, or plays "Pop Goes the Weasel"...c'est la vie.