My sweet daughter is such a joy to us. She is sneaky these days. We often put her down for a nap and, like the silly parents we are, assume that silence means she is sleeping. To our surprise, she is usually sitting up in her bed playing with her pacifier or her owl. Her dear daddy puts 2 stuffed animals in with her every day -- and I pull at least one out every day. But, if I fail to remove her friends, she is sure to have an afternoon tea with them before sleeping. I usually just let her be. If she is satisfied, why bother her?
This girl is moving all over. She gets so excited about crawling or pulling up, she forgets I'm in the room. The other night she was scooting over to the couch, pulled up and was reaching as faaaaar as she could for the remote. I caught a glimpse and said "Whatcha doing?". Poor thing was so scared she fell back on her bum then turned her head to me and came beelining it for me. She had totally forgotten I was there but that smile made me feel like the best mama in the world. A few things that are never out of crawling distance for her: power cords, iPhone, TV remote, and a glass of water. Those are her favorite things to go for!
Eating is still a fun adventure. I made a batch of potato, pea, & green bean with oregano last week and a batch of peas and chives. Loves both! A few other new things: dill pickles, sourdough bread, peaches, and avocado. I love to keep experimenting with her taste buds. Yesterday it was avocado with cilantro, today I squeezed some lime in there. She is hesitant at first but always opens for more!
I love to watch her eyes. What a beautiful blue color they remain. But as I watch them dash back and forth, up and down, I wonder what she is learning and thinking. She has learned all sorts of things at Grammy's house and it's so fun to watch her try to copy us. Waving bye-bye is what we are working on now. One day she did it almost perfectly and I started crying. Although its a fun milestone, I don't want that to be the thing she associates with mama leaving.... bittersweet.
Few other things:
*Naps usually equal 4 hours a day. Sometimes 3 + 1 or 2 + 2.
*Mimics all our noises. Luke coughed the other night and she started doing her little fake cough. It was so cute!
*Makes it clear when she wants up. She crawls over, pulls on your pant leg and tries to climb up your leg. Melts me every time!
*Loves to play with anything that isn't a toy: plastic bag, spoon, keys, water bottle, pen, hairbrush....
*Her favorite toy is her $2 stand up play station that we got a garage sale. The four corners each have an "activity": piano, computer, book, and telephone. Slamming the computer shut repeatedly and chewing on the book corners keep her occupied FOREVER.
*When we go into her room in the morning, she is usually standing up on the crib section facing the wall. But, as soon as I flip on the light, she sits down, crawls to the side facing the door and starts breathing fast. Sometimes she will even throw herself down on her mattress and start kicking like a mad-woman.
As far as mom news goes, I have been blessed with a "side job" opportunity. Our website for Woods Furniture is being updated and we are having someone online to answer questions and assist the customer 14 hours a day. So, that's me! Not 14 hours but I'm one of the three people they hired to monitor it. So I work about 4-7 hours a day, 5 days a week. The biggest blessing: if my hours overlap while I'm working my normal hours, they are allowing me to do both! It's led to a bit of a crazy couple weeks but as the schedule is defined and the holiday week passes, it should slow down and be a big blessing!!!
As I promised Anita, here are a few videos of Chloe Jane:
She is changing so much, every day. She lives at such a fast pace now but it's been fun to see.
What a joy!
