Things I am Learning to Do - Feed Myself

I haven't written much about food on the blog so far, but little girl is making leaps and bounds when it comes to solids. She still has her bottles, but we are doing a lot of purees (yum- vanilla or banana yogurt, carrots, prunes, pears, peaches; yuck - plain yogurt, beets, peas) but she is also starting to eat chunks of things (black beans, muenster cheese, bananas, kiwi, tofu), despite the fact that she does not have any teeth. We are working on grabbing these little chunks with her, and she's gotten really good at it. Check out the video of her eating "puffs" (basically little pieces of cereal that dissolve in her mouth).

Things I am Learning to Do - Swim

We started our official swim lessons two weekend ago. I took her the first week, and this past week was pool time with Daddy. I wish I could convey to you how much she loves to splash around. Baby swim lesson consist mostly of getting her used to the water (check), trying to get her to kick (she's a bit young for this), floating on her back (which she hasn't quite decided if she likes), and getting dunked (which she's fine with). I am not sure we'll sign up for a second session after this first one as most of the things we are "learning" seem to be things we can practice on our own with her - the trick is going to be finding a pool where we can continue on our own. There are a couple of possibilities, so I hope to have more pool shots as the year wears on.

Thing I Can Do - Pull Up

She's decided to pull up onto absolutely everything. Here are two shots - one of her after she's pulled up on the edge of her crib, and the other of her after she's pulled up on one of the corral gates we have around "her" space on the second floor. And yes, that is the remnants of the bruise on her forehead in the first picture.

Things I Can Do - Crawl Forward

As promised, here is a crawling video. She's been doing this since Saturday (2/7), so we'll count it as the day she first propelled herself forward with her belly off the ground (she had done some scootching on her tummy before). She is pro enough that she quickly made it to the side of the bed and fell off on Monday (see Oops post). I would guess that by the end of the week, she'll be up to mach 10.

**Yes, that is me whistling to try to get her attention. Sometimes it works, but I do feel silly doing it.**

Oops

For those of you who are my Facebook friends, you already know that we let Ripley fall off the bed yesterday. She's fine, but has quite the bruise on her forehead. We are adjusting to mobile child - she has been crawling forward since last Friday. I really am going to try to get video. Part of our morning routine is getting ready for the day with her sitting on the bed while we get dressed, put on shoes, etc. I was in the adjoining bathroom brushing my hair when I heard the "thunk", and there she was on the floor bawling. Which caused me to tear up too. Part of me is glad we got this out of the way - from what I understand of little ones, they all fall at some point. So we have our first fall done and over.

Detroit in January/February

I realized that my last update had "Christmas" in the title, which, now that it is February, seems like very long ago. So on to our most latest adventure. Last weekend (1/30 - 2/1), we took a quick trip to Detroit where we saw family and friends. Culann drove over from Cleveland to see his niece and they had a nice time hanging out at Big Boy.

We got a great package deal and stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Dearborn where there was a fun pool, so we took baby girl for her first real swim (in a darling little suit from Grammy Vivienne). Despite the water being pretty cold, she had a fun time. And bad parents that we are, we did take her in the hot tub for a few minutes to warm her up after the cold pool adventure. On a related note, we started swim lessons yesterday morning (in a much warmer indoor pool) and Ripley LOVED it. She splashed and didn't flinch when I dunked her. I think we have another swimmer on our hands.

We had brunch at the Dearborn Inn on Sunday with Granny Maura, Uncle Mike, Aunt Helen, Uncle Tom, and Uncle Culann. And our last stop was in Ferndale to see godmother Katie, Gerry, Natty and sleeping Jimmy and Ruthie. All in all a wonderful weekend.

I think we are going to be more local in February, but I will try to be better about updating the day-to-day adventure. We just put up a corral for the baby because...wait for it...she is finally moving forward after weeks of scootching backward. I'll try to get a video to capture the movement.