No big news to report in the last couple days - Catherine has spent all her time crawling around touching things she's not supposed to touch and biting things no one should bite. I picture-messaged a picture of Catherine to my mom on her phone the other day and she replied that she could see the "mischievous terrible-two's" look in Catherine's eyes already - she's really not far off. One of Catherine's favorite things to do right now is crawl over to the book shelves, empty the bottom one, then stand up and empty the second one, then sit down amidst her pile of conquered books and inspect them.
Unfortunately, she does not employ non-destructive testing techniques, so once she gets done with the emptying we have to direct her interest to some other endeavor. Basically we spend most of the day redirecting Catherine's interest.
Yesterday for lunch Catherine was eating mushy apricots with other mixed fruit, and I don't know if it was kind of tangy or more sweet than what she was eating before, but she started making a fun pucker face that I thought you would enjoy:
And after watching Catherine play mostly with teaspoons, tupperware, pan lids, bowls, calculators, phones, and paper for the last few days, Michael and I agree: toys are for suckers.
I'm sorry we've been off the air for so long here - I didn't even realize it had been this many days between posts! Unfortunately I can't even make up for it by overloading you with pictures and videos because Grandma did most of the picture-taking this past week and I forgot to have her put everything on my computer before they left. However there is much to tell. Catherine has made a career out of standing up these last few days, and more often than not she can do it without bonking her head on something now. I have seen her stand up using a chair, the leg of a table, my computer bag, her new walker toy, the bookshelves, her changing table and the piano, and she would have made it using the pot of a plant but I stopped her - I know it will probably happen eventually but I'm not ready to add dirt to her diet just yet. She also just now managed to sit back down for the first time. This is very good news because once she figures out how to fall down properly it means I won't have to run and sit behind her every time she stands up so I can be there when she falls over (backwards or forwards) like a felled tree. We also had to move the mattress of Catherine's crib down to the lowest position so she can't climb out over the rail - she greets me each morning now standing at the end of the crib babbling at her door.
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvbn h4gh x`sdcfd {pqp{]\ Catherine wrote that paragraph for you - interpret it how you wish.
Catherine had her 8-month birthday a few days ago, and she celebrated by cutting her third tooth! Now she has two on the bottom and one on the top, and I think the other top front tooth will be popping through fairly soon as well. Every time Michael notices her top tooth he can't help but comment how huge it is. However I don't think Catherine is going to be a giant-toothed-mutant; look at your teeth some time - neither of us ever noticed how much bigger the top front teeth are than the bottom ones.
Although Catherine is sticking to her "stranger anxiety" tendencies, I don't think Grandma and Grandpa fall into that category anymore (finally). It only took a few minutes after they came in for her to settle into playing, and at various times throughout the weekend she was happy to let them each hold, carry, feed and entertain her.
Grandma and Grandpa made it in last night, but not until well past Catherine's bed time so we're looking forward to some good play time today. Catherine seems to be in a pretty good mood - she squealed and giggled for an hour while we were out for a walk this morning.
Here are three videos for you.
"People Climbing" - This is what Catherine does any time you sit down next to her on the floor.
"Self-Feeding" - Catherine really likes eating things that she can put in her mouth herself, which at this point really only includes cheerios and bananas.
"Shiny New Toy" - Michael gave this pan lid to Catherine and she did circles around the kitchen with it for almost an hour.
No, Catherine isn't at all close to walking on her own yet, but these are really cute shoes, and she and I did spend a good part of the day walking around the house.
Catherine went to her very first playdate yesterday. Our neighbors just across the street introduced us to another couple a few blocks away who has a 9-month-old boy, Tanner. Since Catherine is stuck at home with us all day I figured it would be good to get her out to meet some babies, so we went and played with Tanner for about an hour after I was done with work yesterday. For the most part, they just ignored each other, although Catherine did steel a toy from him periodically. Catherine reacted like she always does to a new space: very quiet and clingy as she inspects everything. However after a bit she did play on the floor without me sitting right next to her. She also discovered a whole world of toys that she didn't know she was missing out on. Her favorites were the "crawl balls" (clear plastic balls with lots of bells and things that rattle inside that are supposed to entice the baby to crawl after them when they roll away - Catherine fell for it completely) and the stand-up-and-push walker, as opposed to her sit-inside walker. So we're going to try to get together with Tanner and his mommy (who is very nice - we had a good time as well) once a week or so.
For the last few days Catherine has been employing the crawl when she sees something she really wants and needs a way to get to it. Today, something clicked in her little brain, and it occurred to her that she could crawl just for the sake of crawling, or she could crawl to follow one of us when we walk away, or she could crawl to explore. So she explored the dining room chairs, and she explored the kitchen, and she discovered that she cannot get down over the step into Daddy's office by herself (at least not without bonking her nose) but she can get back up over the step by herself. I discovered that the plant, the chess board, everything on the coffee table, everything near the edges of the dining room table, the recycling on the kitchen floor, and every electrical cord in the house all need to be moved or stowed away. Electrical outlet covers are installed, and the cabinet locks and ugly plastic doorknob covers are up next, soon to be followed by the spongy corners that go over sharp table corners and the stove guards.
Catherine also discovered the tupperware drawer today. She took everything out of it one piece at a time at least twice.
Whether she realizes it or not, Catherine is totally into roughhousing; we thought we should give the grandparents advanced warning so no one loses an eye this weekend. Here is a list of Catherine's favorite offensive plays:
1. The Hair - We're starting out with a tricky one. She starts out looking very inquisitive and touching your hair quite gently, slowly and thoughtfully winding it around her little fingers, and you think "how cute and smart she is the way she is inspecting each hair!" Then, after she has lulled you into thinking you might be establishing a "special bond" and thereby dulling your reaction time considerably, she starts with the hyper-aggressive yanking, against which you are powerless because you have let her get half your head of hair entangled in her little fist.
2. The Teeth & Lips - This one is a little more straightforward: Catherine likes teeth. It's a little odd, but she has a good time touching teeth and clicking her fingernails on them, and I believe this is honestly good-natured. However, teeth are covered by soft, sensitive lips which might at times get in the way of Catherine exploring the teeth. She has two ways of dealing with this: the fish-hook and the pinchers. The fish-hook is pretty self-explanatory: one sharp little finger hooked on your cheek so you have to open your mouth. And as excited as I am that Catherine is mastering the "pincher grasp," an important developmental milestone, having her practice the pincher grasp on your lower lip is less than pleasant.
3. The All-Out Face Smack - This is Catherine's "surprise attack" that can show up any time she is within arm's reach of your face. It has no warning signs, no "tells" to speak of; one second she is talking to you or inspecting a button on your shirt or half-dozing, and the next second it's a flury of palms and fingertips in your eyeballs. I actually think this may be a sign of joy, excitement or affection, but that makes it no less painful, nor does it increase the odds of your glasses surviving the storm.
Other things she does that may or may not be for the sole purpose of injuring you: 1. Bite (she's been sucking on everything she can find her whole life - I don't think she realizes that her two little teeth change the situation a bit). 2. Make use of arm hair - it's apparently easy to grab onto when she wants to pull herself up (ask Michael). 3. Crush internal organs - Catherine likes to climb people, and she is not afraid to use your groin, kidneys or throat as stepping stones and hand-holds along the way.
OK - I've given you fair warning and ample material to prepare yourself, so you can't blame me when Catherine suckers you in with her sweet smile and rosy cheeks and you end up with a black eye.
Here's a video of Catherine pulling herself up with a chair - you can't really see much because it's a terrible angle (I make no claims to being a videographer), but I was working at the table when she crawled over and started working her way up so this is what you get.
I am only slightly joking when I invoke all of heaven here - Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and the entire host of saints and angels - we're going to need them all if Catherine is going to make it to her first birthday without causing herself some serious bodily harm. It looks like my last post was Friday, so since then Catherine has started consistently crawling (when she sees something worth crawling to), pulling herself up on whatever she can find, and cruising around (for those of you [uncles] not up to speed on your parenting lingo "cruising" is the official term for a baby/toddler walking around holding on to furniture before she can walk on her own). The first thing Catherine did when I put her on the floor at church was crawl over to an extension cord and try to put it in her mouth. Then she pulled herself up using a chair and walked right down the line; at the end she tried to go from her row to the one behind, but she couldn't quite reach the new chair while keeping her fingertips on hers, and after some deliberation she wisely decided against letting go completely (so maybe all we really need is a specially appointed angelic detail for safety, and the rest of heaven can continue on). Here's a video of her crawling, complete with a head-bonk at the end (despite my best efforts, many of her activities end with a head-bonk):
Other than chasing Catherine around the house our weekend was pretty quiet. It rained a ton on Saturday so we didn't do much, and Sunday it got pretty cold and has stayed that way (we had to let our heat turn on last night). Don't worry Grandparents - I think it's supposed to warm up back into the 70s by the time you get here at the end of the week.
Today Catherine was very whiny and clingy. I think her upper two teeth are very close to poking through her gums, because she acted this same way the day or two before her lower teeth came in. However if her gums are in any pain it is not keeping her from eating everything she can get her hands on. She generally has three real food meals a day in addition to nursing. She loves eating tiny little bites of any fruit I eat (she tried and enjoyed mango today for the first time) and she's started gumming down pieces of cheerios. Now she also eats mixed foods in the jar (like cinnamon-raisin-granola mush) instead of just single-ingredient foods. We have not yet ventured into the realm of the mushed full-meal-in-a-jar, like "turkey dinner with vegetables" or "lamb and potato stew" - it just looks a little too gross, and I figure Catherine can start eating meat when she has the teeth to chew it herself.
Despite a fairly cranky day, Catherine did have a good morning like always - here's a little clip of our morning conversation (sneezes are a bonus):
Catherine had a very active day today. Pretty early this morning she was playing on the living room floor and after a few minutes I noticed she had made her way over to the chair I was sitting in at my desk. Then after another minute or two I saw her little fingers creeping up and grabbing onto the seat, and she managed to pull herself up from her stomach to her knees. After a quick break, she pulled herself all the way up to standing! The problem is she hasn't yet figured out how to fall on her seat instead of her head, so when she is standing up holding on to something we still have to keep a hand on her. So I reached down to put my hands behind her and she immediately grabbed a hand in each one of hers and began walking away. She'd made such an effort at that point that I figured I would walk around with her for a bit, but she of course walked directly into Michael's office so she could touch the desk. Here is a fairly uneventful video, but you can see how much she likes his desk; she does this at least a couple times a day:
Later on Catherine decided it would be fun to slide herself backwards underneath the credenza-type cabinet in the living room, allowing for inumerable opportunities for head-bonking:
After lunch (I think - I've kind of lost track of the sequence of things but I know it all happened today), Michael sat Catherine down in front of her little basket of toys so she could pick a new one and hopefully entertain herself for a while. She picked up the basket, dumped all the toys out, then fell over trying to chew on the edge of the basket. There she seemed content:
When that got old Catherine managed to flip the basket off of her and roll over, at which point she got the bright idea to try and use the upturned basket to stand up. Unfortunately it wasn't tall enough and she only got about halfway:
So Michael helped Catherine practice her standing for a while - he sits on the floor and lets her stand in a circle of his arms so she can see just how much balance she has (and doesn't have) when she's not holding anyone's hands:
As if this wasn't enough things, after work I put Catherine on the floor in her room while I was putting on my shoes so we could take a walk, and I saw her crawl 4 "steps" in a row - she made it halfway across the room in a second! I don't know if she'll be really crawling by Sunday like everyone at church thought, but I would bet she's zooming all over the place by the time Grandma and Grandpa get here next week.
So after Daddy fed Catherine dinner (she was supposed to finish the peas she started at lunch but he said they smelled too gross and he opened a jar of applesauce instead), Catherine and I had bath time. She had 2 genius ideas: 1) grabbing the side of the glass wall to stand up in the bath in order to touch the glass higher up, and 2) leaning forward and putting her face in the water so she could drink it (who needs a bowl now?). Also, I think she's pretty close to getting a couple top teeth in - she's been punching herself in the mouth a lot like she did right before the bottom ones started to poke through.
Catherine can pop up onto her hands and knees anytime she wants now, and we have seen her making all the necessary movements for crawling, but she has yet to manage to put them all together in a coordinated effort. She tends to get up on her knees and then just launch herself forward and hope for the best.
Top 10 things Catherine likes to find and touch: 10. leaves 9. carpet fringe 8. curtains 7. bark 6. piano legs 5. glasses 4. hair 3. shirt logos and buttons 2. teeth 1. Daddy's desk and chair
Today Catherine was pottering around in her walker and she somehow managed to get behind one of the curtains, which presented an irresistible occasion for a good game of peek-a-boo:
This is how Catherine spent much of the morning Sunday at church. She was kind enough to sleep through the point where I had to do a reading and through most of the sermon, and by that point she had slept so long that she woke up feeling rather amicable and was happy to sit in my lap and listen to Daddy. Catherine spent the rest of the morning willing herself to crawl but as yet has been unsuccessful. I have to admit I laughed out loud when I saw a pair of baby knee pads in a baby magazine recently, but Catherine did come home from church with some mild rug burn on her knees - I still think we'll opt for pants or leggings over the knee pads. Most of the people at church concluded that Catherine would be crawling by the time they see her next week, and I would say it's at least not a possibility one can rule out willy nilly.
Catherine has made peace with her walker these last few days and is spending a lot of time in it again. She enjoys rolling up to the piano and touching it (not the keys necessarily - just any part of it), and she really loves following me around the house while I vacuum.
Discoveries Catherine has made this week: 1. Banging two blocks together makes a nice clickety noise. 2. A 28 inch baby is too tall to roll underneath the piano without causing pain to the nogin. 3. Peaches in a jar are still bad, but the peaches that Mommy eats are delicious. 4. You can't touch through glass, but you can see though it - amazing. 5. It takes surprisingly little effort to pull off one's socks. 6. She can sit herself upright by going from her stomach to her hands-and-toes to her hands-and-knees and pushing backwards with her hands to rock herself back to sitting. 7. Sippy cups rock.
Since it was Daddy's day off today and I had a 2-hour long conference call, Catherine and Michael spent a lot of time playing today. They played piano and walked around the house and Catherine practiced pulling herself up to standing using only Daddy's armhair for support.
I did take a break to share a yogurt snack with Catherine, during which it was clear that "don't talk with your mouth full" means absolutely nothing to her. She babbled the whole time, in between bites and right through them (she can talk with a spoon in her mouth as well). I don't know where she got it from, but Catherine is definitely a hand-talker:
When I was done with work we went to the beach for a short walk. It was very windy, but the water is warm as long as you don't go in more than a few inches and Catherine really likes walking in the sand and waves:
We didn't tell Catherine about Ankiel; a little girl should be able to root for someone.
I had to buy Catherine some new pajamas today because she is too tall for all her footie pajamas and her sleep sacks and it has been too cold here at night for her to sleep in just a onesie. This hat came with one of the pajamas and she surprisingly did not rip it off the second after I put it on her.
Catherine did a very good job entertaining herself today. She bounced around in her jumper for a long time and explored the house in her walker for almost a full hour in one stretch. She can get moving pretty quickly, and even though she has figured out that she can't go through a lot of things she still tests it every time. So I'm sitting at my desk and I hear zooooommmm...bump...zooooommm...bump...bump... zoooommm...bump as Catherine bounces from one piece of furniture to the next. She also enjoys picking up the cardboard boxes sitting on the floor in the kitchen (the designated spot for recyclables to collect) and moving them to different spots around the house. At one point today I hadn't heard any wheels or bumps for a few minutes so I went looking and found Catherine intently inspecting the laundry hamper in our bedroom, moving the lid up as far as she could (which was a couple inches) and dropping it down again. She was very focused on this activity - she jumped when I asked her what she was doing from the doorway. Here's a little sample of her walkering skills since we haven't had a walker video in a while:
Catherine also spent a long while today trying to touch the piano pedals. Whether she is in her walker, walking with help, or on the floor or bed, it seems that she always picks out something she can see and then figures out a way to get to it and touch it, then she picks out something else and gets to it and touches it, then moves on. Being on the floor when she got the piano pedals in her sights, Catherine made some initial crawling attempts but that mostly sent her backwards. Then she started pulling her knees up under her and flopping back down on her belly repeatedly, which did result in the desired forward motion, although it took about 20 minutes to move the 3 or 4 feet necessary. I think if I could have videoed the whole process and sped it up, it would resemble "the worm" (think 80s breakdancing?). Here's a little snippet of her crawling attempts:
Yesterday Catherine decided she wanted to start a band. I told her she could just join the Dorrel Normans, but she wanted to go in a different direction. Here is their first practice; Catherine is in charge of percussion and sporadic back-up vocals:
This morning Catherine and I went for a walk on the beach before it got busy. She liked curling her toes into the sand and walking in the waves and as always she loved looking into the wind. I was spending a lot of time looking down at the sand as we inched along and I saw a sand dollar - it's the first time I have seen one still alive (I think they are alive at some point) - anyway, it was dark brown and didn't look like a white dried out shell like you usually see them; Catherine and I liked it. This all took quite a bit of energy out of Catherine; she fell asleep on my shoulder on the walk back to the car.
When we got back home Catherine spent a lot of time rolling around on our bed. She really likes this for some reason. It seems to be much preferable to rolling around on the floor, and she does more crawling-like motions on the bed than on the floor, although she never gets anywhere because it's so soft and she just sinks in. Maybe she has figured out that nose dives and belly flops are of less consequence on the bed.
We barbecued some burgers and dogs for lunch, but Catherine just wanted to munch on this watermelon rind the whole time.
Then we had a nice walk and bath, and it was back to more rolling around on the bed. Catherine also started sticking her tongue out a lot today, but not really sticking it out all the way, just enough to make monkey lips. She's been very interested in teeth and lips lately, so I guess now she's figuring out that the tongue is another part of that whole contraption.
Nope, Catherine is not crawling in this picture, but she wishes she was. She can get up on her hands and knees now and then, and has done the wiggle back-and-forth once or twice, but no forward motion yet.
We have had a pretty uneventful, relaxing weekend so far. Friday my work got the afternoon off so I took the opportunity to thoroughly dust and vacuum the entire house, particularly the spiderwebs that show up in every window corner every morning. I'm a bit tired of killing spiders in the house, but apparently this is not abnormal for here. I guess there has to be something not ideal about living on the Cape - it's clear, sunny and about 74 with a slight breeze today. Saturday we took two walks and Catherine watched Daddy fight with a lilac bush for a few hours. She seemed to have a good time.
I've started appointing other people to run the projector at church now because the chances of Catherine and I being able to sit quietly through the whole service are basically zero. She's always good and happy, but that translates into much use of her Mariah Carey voice (aptly dubbed by Aunt Jena), and Daddy cannot compete with Mariah. Other than high-pitched squeals, Catherine has been babbling non-stop today, and has added "mummm" to her repertoire of consonants. Right now Catherine is sitting on Michael's lap at the piano, but she has figured out how to hold on to the piano and pull herself up to standing, at which point she grabs all the music and crushes it and throws it around. She's now been removed to her jumper to listen from afar.
By now perhaps you are wondering what "106" has to do with Catherine; Does she weigh 106 ounces? (nope - 321). Is she 106 days old? (nope - 222). Is 106 the number of shirts Catherine has ruined by spitting up on them? (could be, but I prefer not to keep track of that - too sad). Actually, I just noticed when I logged in that this is my 106th post on the blog.
Non-Catherine related fun fact: probably while waiting for MLB Gameday to load, Michael took one of those "real age" tests online. For any of you who have ever suspected that he has never really grown up, you now have scientific proof: this highly dependable quiz says his current real age is 10.
There's no room for complaining about not seeing enough of Catherine this past week - here's two more videos for you. This one is a 30-second snapshot of what we do most of the day now: walk around and touch things.
This one is Catherine voicing her opinion even though she can't talk yet:
Since Catherine has been waking up so much in the night, we've seen her doing a lot of this during the day. However, she went to bed at 8:30 last night, I only heard one little squawk around 11 but she went back to sleep without us getting up, and it is now almost 7 am and she is still soundly sleeping. Her bottom two teeth have finished poking through her gums, so maybe we'll get a break for a few weeks before the top ones start coming in. When Catherine wakes up from a nap you can tell immediately if she slept long enough. If not, she'll wake up crying, but if so she'll have a happy wake-up:
Michael and I are wondering if we can stop Catherine from crawling by not putting her down on the floor anymore. Ok, just kidding, but we have told her that just because she's big enough and seems to want to do everything early doesn't mean we are expecting her to crawl and walk as soon as possible. If she wants to relax for a while longer, lounge around, stay in one place, that will be fine with everyone in the house; we'll be happy to bring the toys to her. She laughed at us and started scooting backwards toward the plant.
It appears that everyone loved the bathtime video since it has been viewed more than 150 times, but this video is not an attempt at a sequel; it just happens to take place in the bath. Catherine is in the habit of putting her bowl over her whole face when she's playing with it, which I find hilarious, and she was doing it a lot in the bath last night so I wanted to share:
ps - I'm not ignoring the Energy Blues request; Catherine just hasn't been in the mood.
