Category Archives: A-cat

Sing a new song

My girl loves to sing. A large portion of her language development has revolved around singing and music. She would manipulate her earliest sounds by tapping her hand against her lips or bouncing her whole body up and down as she sang. Her first song was “If you are happy and you know it”, which was only recognizable by a bit of tune and fervent clapping. “Skip to my Lou” was next and continues to be a favorite. Music class brought us Frere Jacques and howling. Her Nana taught her “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” over skype. “Ee-i-ee-i-oo” is a curse word sung out in frustration and anger. “Rock a bye baby”, is yelled with glee accompanied by a hug, when she is in the mood for snuggling. There are many other songs that she sings as she moves about her day. I wish that she continues to find music in her life, always.

Words

Pizza (Peezahhh), walk, jump, ball (is a bah), book, dog, cat, kitty, no, mommy (mohmee), Daddy, Grumpy (Gumpy), DeeDee, Bobby, apple, banana, cracker, up, Potty, Skip to the lou (Skip, skip dodato)

Still not walking, but very very close)

Take two

On Sunday we went again to visit Santa. This time we went to the one at the harbor. Santa seemed to be in a mood, he was not very friendly, although he did wink at my girl. I overheard him talking to one of his elves, who asked him if he was in pain, and he told her he was, so I can cut him some slack. Even Santa is allowed to have a bad day.

Ada was having none of it and wouldn’t even talk to Santa. We all sat on a bench at his feet, thankfully there was no lap sitting this time.

On the way home we rode the Circulator. Ada chatted up a bearded homeless man. She showed him all of her party tricks. She meowed, cuckooed, raspberried, and sang among other things. To bad she couldn’t do that fior Santa. I wonder why she finds him so scary?

Cuckoo, peek-a-boo, and a bearded man

Thanks to an Ipad app, Ada’s first animal noise was not a dog, a cow, or even, her favorite, a cat. It was the very common cuckoo bird that grabbed her attention. She is really cute when she says it. She is beginning to add more sounds. One morning the cats were asking her for water and she responded by repeating their sounds to them.
She is beginning to initiate peek-a-boo on her own. While we were in bed this morning she told me, in baby talk, that we were going to play. She then pulled the sheet over her head, said something that resembled “Where’s Ada?” and then laughed when I responded. Her play in general is becoming more interactive and imaginative. Yesterday, she was hiding her animals behind me and then making them appear. They then either kiss or eat me, and I am not really sure which.

We went to see Santa yesterday, and my child, who is usually brave and loves strangers, did not like him one bit. In an attempt to get a picture he made me hold her and then sit on his knee. I was annoyed and pretty sure he was a dirty old man, but looking at the picture later, i realized that it could have been cute if I wasn’t scowling. Oh well. We are going to try again today witht he inner harbor Santa.

Family, friends, and festivities

My girl is one– and a day. How has a year already gone by?

Both sets of parents, my siblings, and my niece all came to Baltimore to celebrate Ada’s birthday. Including us, that is 11 people, which is the upper limit of my house. Just adding Amber’s clan would have sunk us, and we had other friends we wanted to invite, so we decided to have the party at Muggsy’s.

“Wait” you ask, “You had your baby’s first birthday party at a bar? What kind of people are you?”

We are the kind of people who live in a tiny house and wanted to keep the party simple. Muggsy’s has a great upstairs that is perfect for parties. The door closes, so the crawlers and walkers were safe. There is plenty of room, and we like to give the owner our business.

Other than the mad dash to clean my house before everyone arrived, we managed to keep the party fairly simple. There have been playgroup parties that have taken more planning. We did some minimal decorating and cleaning. I bought some balloons and plates. I let go of the details and managed to delegate some of the tasks. My friend Julie helped me with the cake to match the plates. My mother-in-law put the finishing (and most important) touches on the banner. I had made Ada a tutu a few weeks before, so her outfit was set. Danny provided all of the food and beverages. He also turned the TVs to children’s programming and the music to a Pandora children’s station.

I thought it went really well. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and I managed to stay relaxed. It was a beautiful day.

Let’s go back to the first sentence. My girl is one. I am still amazed and astonished that her first birthday has come and gone. She is growing and changing almost daily at this point. Today she pulled a box out from under a chair and used it to climb up into the chair. She is using more language and crawling like a champ.

She seemed to enjoy her party and spent much of the party crawling around in her ridiculous tutu, and chasing the older kids. Last night she was exhausted.

I am still a bit unsatisfied with her birth and my experience in the hospital. I wonder if we would have been better with a midwife, or if we would have survived that experience. I am both thankful and a bit put out that I was allowed to push for as long as I did. I am glad that I was able to avoid a c-section, but wonder if Ada would have been born healthier if I had had one.

The time she spent in the NICU was stressful, but the staff was wonderful to her. I wish Mercy had a better system of feeding mothers with babies in the NICU. I am sad that the three of us didn’t get to curl up together in the hospital bed, while we counted and kissed her toes. These are such tiny complaints though, when I think about how lucky we are to have this amazing wonderful little girl.

Finally, I get to play with the balloons Pre-party snuggles with DeeDee Climbing in her Tutu Thank you, Julie Telling Nona and DeeDee a big story

Sitting Up

Yesterday, I walked into Ada’s room and found her sitting up in her crib. Since she was 6 months old she has been able to sit on her own, if someone sat her up. Actually sitting up herself is new. I watched her move from sitting, to army crawling, and back to sitting. It was great.

Singing and other joyful noise

My little girl is a chatter box. She talks for hours on end. She loves to make noise and then change the way it sounds, by moving her body, putting her hand over her mouth, or strumming her lip with her finger. She isn’t particularly good at the last two, but is getting there. Lately she loves to sing. She sings to herself as she plays. She repeats songs if you sing them too her. At a wedding we went to she sung to the trumpet after it went quiet. She also has words. She can say Mama, Dada, baby, dog (Dot) and cat(tat).

Moving Forward

We have forward movement. It happened Tuesday at the Science Center. Finn had something Ada wanted. She flapped, she pushed, she grunted, she pulled, and suddenly she moved forward. It was not graceful– the cross between an army crawl and an inchworm. She has been practicing.