Where are you going, Baby Sally?

Sally is now well into her 8th month, and she is going places. This, in and of itself, is not particularly new.  She's been a squiggler since before she was born, and I'm sure the phrase she's heard most often in her life (tied, perhaps, with "I love you,") is "Where are you going?"

Sally: Where am I going? I am going to knock over this glass!

These days, Sally is going just about anywhere she wants to, usually with an adult close behind to redirect her away from danger.  She doesn't like to be redirected and gets a very determined look on her face as she resolutely heads back to the same spot.  She gets the same look when she's on the changing table, where she has decided that she does not have to lie still on her back for anything, ever. When she's thinking about doing something she knows she shouldn't be doing, she gets a little smile ... no teeth, just a little smirk. She moves quickly and very precisely.  She has

The Sally Smirk

beautiful form when crawling; it's very fun to watch, in part because she still looks too small to be moving so well. Then she stands up and starts cruising and we're like, "But the laws of physics, Sally!" And then she lets go of all supports and stands there, completely independently, and we're like, "What are you rebelling against, Sally?" And she's like, "Whaddya got?"* and then falls down.

She also climbs stairs.

Being an early adopter for all things mobility has its ups and downs. We are, of course, very proud, and it's amazing to see Sally standing up next to Walter, the two of them playing side-by-side. But she's not old enough to be careful, and she does a lot of learning-by-dramatic-fall.  I've noticed, though, that once

Standing next to Walter on Easter morning.

she's done with the terrifying devil-may-care stage of trying a movement, she gains mastery pretty quickly and does a lot of good, methodical practicing and exercising. Her favorite game is standing next to the coffee table, picking up a toy from the top of the table, dropping it on the ground, and then bending down, picking it up, and standing back up again.

At some point in the transition between seven and eight months Sally started to really play** with toys.  Before that she just played with things by putting them in her mouth and that was it.  Now she tries to put Walter's puzzles together, plays the musical instruments (music class has been a great help with this; she's very confident with all things percussion) and spends time holding and exploring and experimenting with objects. And then she puts them in her mouth.

TEETH!

Sally's mouth is quite a sight these days.  She got two front bottom teeth first, then the two top canines came in all baby vampire-like, and as of this morning both top front teeth are through. Six teeth for an eight-month-old seems like overkill, but she uses them judiciously and is not a biter. She's enjoying all kinds of foods, but prefers finger foods she can feed herself.  She's very enthusiastic about eating but needs to work on her aim.  She's also learning how to use a sippy cup and loves drinking water. With this, too, she makes an impressive amount of mess. A few nights ago she made a fountain of water spurting an impressive distance out of her mouth using her sippy cup and a gap between two teeth.  Either she needs more practice with the mechanics of eating and drinking or she knows exactly what she's doing and is just having a grand old time.  Hank the Dog is very pleased, either way.

She loves Cheerios.  Just this week, her immense love of Cheerios combined with our stinginess thereof compelled her to start using her first sign language. "More!" she signs.  "More, more, more!"  Sean and I have not been as good with using sign with her as we were with Walter, but she seems really primed and ready right now to pick it up. Walter helps tremendously, signing "Do you want more? Or all done" to her at dinner.  I've seen her try out the signs for "water" and "milk" (nursing) but she's definitely got "more" down pat.

Her verbal communication is taking off, too.  Walter was starting to despair, convinced she would only say "Da da da" forever.  Maybe I'm projecting. But then last week she added "Ba ba ba" and "Na na na" and, crucially, "Ma ma ma."  The "m" gives her trouble--you can see she really has to work at it to make that sound. So Sean thinks she says it to mean, "Mama," not just as babbling.  A few nights ago I handed her over to Sean, desperate for a break after much nursing and many attempts to coax her to sleep.  As Sean took her, she cried, and with great effort said, "Mama ma! Mama ma!" and signed "more." Could be a coincidence, but definitely feels like communication.

Late night/early morning is one of Sally's favorite times for communicating.  On good nights she'll wake up 3 or so times in the night, nurse and go right back to sleep. On other nights she'll do that AND have a period of cheerful wakefulness and wanting to play around 2 am.  She's still sleeping right next to me in her pack n' play, though not so much in bed with me anymore, which is good progress.  Her room is almost ready and when we make the big move, we will probably also initiate the method of Mr. Ferber.  I have mixed feelings about this. I'm sure Sally will, too.  But it will give us a chance to get her into a routine--brushing teeth, reading books, songs and prayers.  And, as Dr. L. always points out, being able to get to sleep independently is something we need to teach her and help her do.  This is when we start to move from basic care and feeding and into real parenting, and that transition is exciting and nervous-making, even (especially?) having done it once before.

Sally has really blossomed this month--even the last few days have been particularly momentous.  I'm feeling sad today because she seems to have caught my cold, and I think that means the next few days will slow her down and be hard and sad for her. She navigates illness pretty well, though. She had a stomach bug that manifested at 4 am on Easter morning (exciting times for the Pastor Mommy and her family) and the vomiting took us to Urgent Care where we discovered she also had a raging ear infection.  Her first antibiotics were by shot (Sean and Annie say, "There's a SHOT? One shot and that's IT? Why are we just learning about this now?!") and she cleared the infection with no troubles. So far, so good.

Sally has a beautiful smile and a sweet, funny laugh. Her eyes seem to know everything there is to know about the world, already. She seems very secure in our love; she trusts us and that seems to give her a sense of confidence in everything she does.  Sean noticed right after she was born that she really seems to love our kisses; this continues to be true. She has spirit and strength of character that remind me very much of both of her namesakes. She loves her name, too, you can tell by the way she responds to it, maybe because you can't really say "Sally" without smiling.  I call her, "Tika" or "Took" ... no idea why. Sean calls her "Munchkin."  Walter calls her, "Baby Sally" or "Sally Joan" or "My baby" or "My sister."  When Walter plays, with cars, for instance, he likes to assign each one a title: "This is the Mama one," "This is the Dada," "This is the brother," "This is the baby sister," (and also "This is the Hankee.")  All of us, Hank included, see our family this way.  To complete the thought we started with ... wherever you're going, Baby Sally, wait up!  We're coming with you.


*We have a tendency to speak on behalf of Sally. This morning, Walter called Sean out on it.  Sean said something like, "Baby Sally said, 'I want to play!'" and Walter said, "When? When was she talkin'?" =)
**This weekend Umma taught Sally how to play "beep my nose." So wonderful!! Her first real interactive game, I think. Next up: peek-a-boo.

Adventures with Walter, Month 8

Tomorrow, Walter will be 9 months old.  We don't have as many photos of month 8 as we do of previous months, and most of them are cell phone photos rather than real camera photos. Many of them are a little blurry. There's a good reason for that: we are having a tremendous amount of fun.

I think 8 months is my favorite Walter age so far.  Yes, he's kind of a dickens.  He uses every ounce of his increasingly daunting strength to resist diaper changes, which is no fun for anyone.  But he's also genuinely enjoyable company, game for adventures, taking in and taking on the world with a "ba-BAH! Ba-BAAAAAAAAH!"

We go to fairs and festivals and markets and stores.  We go out to eat in restaurants.  We can be fairly spontaneous.  It's amazing.

Here's a list of just some of the foods Walter has eaten and enjoyed this month:

Scrambled eggs
Kix

Tortilla
Pasta salad
Peas
Rice (white, brown, fried, Spanish)
Belgian waffle
Pancake
French toast
Breakfast sausage
Sweet potato fries
Pulled Pork (no sauce)
BBQ beans (saucy!)
Rotisserie chicken
Breadsticks
Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Stuffing
Mexican-style black beans
Amy's roasted vegetable vegan pizza (onions, mushrooms, artichokes, red pepper.)
Pretzels
Canned artichoke hearts
Corn dog
Hamburger

... and that's not even including the foods he's eaten at day care. Or the foods he's tried and not enjoyed (those are pretty much all in the fruit category.)  It's a whole new world of eating, people.  I'm a little surprised by the shortness of the strained food phase.  In Room 2, though, there's no baby food.  It's the same breakfast and lunch the big kids get, just cut up into baby-sized pieces.

Speaking of Room 2, here are my two favorite "Today I enjoyed ..." messages from his teachers so far, reproduced verbatim:

Today I enjoyed ... dancing to Chinese folk music and hiding under the colorful scarves.
Today I enjoyed ... chasing Chelsea around the table while roaring like a lion.

The second one was from Friday.  Sean said, "Yup! That's our boy."

At an Albright family gathering a few years ago, I watched as Matt and Kate caught each other's eyes over their kids' heads and cracked up ... a moment that struck me as distinctly, beautifully parental.  I think of that sometimes when I catch Sean's eye over Walter's head.  We've got a very funny little boy.

Sometimes Walter and I share jokes, too.  Like today, when we both took a break from nursing to eat some pretzels.

You had to be there, I think.

The highlight of the month was definitely our adventure in Red Wing, MN this week.  I talked myself into and and out of applying for the Emerging Leaders Institute about 100 times before I shared my worries with Sean, who said, "Just apply!  If you're accepted, we'll make it work.  It's Parker Palmer!" Indeed.  Making it work meant Sean had to use a pretty significant chunk of PTO, we had to unsettle Walter's routines (he's pretty game for adventure until bedtime rolls around, and then he says, "OK ... time to go home!") and Sean and Walter had to brave the ridiculous heat and find ways to fill their time while I was at the retreat.

Somehow, they managed.

I'll let Sean fill in stories from their time together when he's able to grab some computer time. But, to give you a glimpse, here's a video of Walter enjoying the mirror in our hotel room:

Some more things I want to remember about Walter at 8 months:

**His hair is reddish blonde, and very curly in the back. It's extra curly when he's sweaty, which is often these hot hot days.
**If someone says "Bye!" he says, "Bah!"
**He loves balls: chasing them, catching them, rolling them, watching other people throw them in the air and catch them.
**His ears lengthened out this week--they look more like Sean's, now.
**He's very interested in women.  We're trying not to read anything into that--his interest could be purely academic.  Or culinary.  Whatever it is, it's pretty funny to watch.
**On a somewhat related note, we have no idea whether Walt is left or right handed.  Lately, he seems to favor the right hand. But there was a long stretch of lefty-ness, too.

Bedtime for Pastor Mama.  As Walter would say, "Bah!"