Catherine is continuing to focus a lot of energy on becoming independently mobile. She has managed to push up onto her knees a couple times, although it is a short-lived success at this point; her legs immediately slide back out behind her and she belly-flops back onto the floor. Her favorite thing right now is to "walk" around holding Michael's or my hands - she laughs and squeals every time we help her stand. I can feel her getting a little stronger and finding her balance a little better because she pulls on my hands less than last week.
We had our church picnic today and Catherine entertained everyone for quite a while, rolling around, trying to eat grass, smiling and babbling, messily eating sweet potatoes for lunch, and even napping. She really enjoyed riding in the truck we drove out on the beach and sucking on watermelon.
I'm definitely spoiled by the fact that Catherine started sleeping through the night so early. These last few weeks of getting up 3 or 4 times a night, even just for 5 or 10 minutes each time, has been really exhausting. (Did I mention her second tooth on the bottom is coming in also? I think her teeth are waking her up and then once she's awake she realizes she's hungry and/or bored.) I think either Michael is becoming more sensitive or I'm starting to tune out Catherine's whining-but-don't-need-anything cries, because a few times now she has managed to wake him up before me. :)
I have to get to bed in case Catherine decides to get up at 4:30 again tomorrow, but here's a bunch of pictures for you (Catherine's favorite toys right now are bowls and spoons, and of course her blocks but those were being washed). You can see also that Catherine is back to her joyful self. She even did pretty well when I left for a couple hours to go to violin on Friday (she got to stay with Daddy so you would expect her to be fine, but that first day back after New Haven she wasn't even happy with him).
Catherine Macrina turned seven months old today. Despite not sleeping too well last night (she even managed to wake Daddy up at 4 am - I was actually kind of proud of her) Catherine was very active today. Although the walker was the source of many good times these last few months, Catherine has decided that 7-month-olds should not be held back by the limiting bulk of the walker; if she holds on to Mommy's or Daddy's hands to walk, she can go just about anywhere. I believe the fact that this is highly inconvenient for us is just an added bonus to her (I base this on the way she occasionally looks up at whomever is holding her hands and gives a mischievous little grin).
Catherine has also recently made some amazing discoveries concerning the facts of space and matter. It used to be that when I put her blocks in their bucket, they were just gone. Poof! No more blocks. Now she has figured out that I am no talented magician after all, that the blocks are inside the bucket, and that she can reach in and find them. Oh the things we take for granted.
Catherine had a bit of a cranky spell this afternoon, throwing an absolute fit every time I put her down. I desperately needed to dust and vacuum (it's ridiculous how fast things disintegrate - after little more than 2 weeks of being away from the house I thought I was going to leave footprints in the dust on the floor when I got back), but Catherine is too heavy now to carry around much in the front carrier, especially for vacuuming which requires a bit of bending forward. So I broke out the baby backpack and Catherine seemed pretty pleased with the situation. Michael was pleased too, or at least I think he was by the way he burst out laughing when he first saw us and chuckled every time we passed through his field of vision while we were vacuuming.
I know how much you all enjoy a picture series, and you know this blog's for you:
Also, I forgot to put this jumping video up the other day. It's pretty similar to the first jumping video, but that doesn't make it any less likely to brighten your day:
Ok, so Catherine doesn't really look happy in these pictures (it's a little difficult to get a happy picture of a teething baby who was stuck in a car all day and is convinced her mom is going to leave every time she blinks), but we are healthy and home. After a lengthy trip back from New Haven this afternoon, Catherine seemed glad to be home, but just being here apparently is not enough to convince her that I am not going to leave for hours (or forever) every time I put on my shoes, pick up the car seat, or put her down on the floor to play. I don't think she's permanently traumatized or anything, but Catherine's couple days with the baby sitter definitely confirmed in her mind her initial "separation anxiety" instincts, at least temporarily. I am going to try to find some other moms and babies to hang out with on a regular basis - maybe that will help a little. Catherine was intrigued by the 22-month-old son of her babysitter, and was interested in playing with him (at least while I was there as well), so I think she's at the point where she might like interacting with some other little people. (side note: I just completely destroyed a grilled cheese sandwich, and possibly a skillet, by attempting to blog and cook at the same time.)
Catherine's first little tooth has progressed from a point to a pointy line in her gums. I know some of you thinking, "I wish we had a picture," but seriously, a picture of a faint jagged line about a millimeter long inside a baby's mouth? You think too highly of my photography and baby-wrangling skills, and you're probably spending a little too much time on this blog :) (Did you know the people who help photographers get good pictures of babies by jumping around and acting foolish are called "baby wranglers"?) Anyway, when there's an entire tooth to show off, I guarantee a picture in all its pearly glory.
Sorry we've been MIA the last few days. I would tell you about our weekend, but I have been sitting here thinking about it for a few minutes and I can't remember anything about it. Catherine and I drove to New Haven Sunday evening because I had to work in the office Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. She slept about 3 of the 4 hours it took us to get to New Haven, so when we got into the hotel around 9 pm she was super happy and wanted to play. It didn't last long, and she actually slept super well Sunday night, especially for being in a hotel.
Monday Catherine was supposed to spend the day with her babysitter while I worked. She did spend most of the day at the baby sitter's, but so did I. Catherine did ok for about 30 minutes after I left, and the rest of the day she cried. That is not an exaggeration. She actually cried every single minute I was not there (blessings on a very calm and patient babysitter). I ended up going back four times between 10 and 4 to calm her down. The babysitter was very impressed with her tenacity and ability to maintain the highest possible intensity level with her crying for a such a long time. The good thing is that the trauma didn't last - every time I stepped through the door she immediately calmed down and started smiling and talking and playing like normal. Needless to say, I ended up doing quite a bit of work from the hotel after she went to bed.
Today (Tuesday) we decided that we would give Catherine one chance in the morning to see if she could hold herself together, and if not then it probably wasn't going to get better and I didn't want to just leave her to cry all day. So I dropped her off at 9 with plans to come back at 10:30 unless I got a call, and she actually made it to 10:30! It wasn't pretty - she cried pretty ferociously off and on, but during the "off" times she actually played a little. She was crying when I came back at 10:30, but settled down right away and was ok when I left. She cried off an on again between 11 and 1 (the next time I went back), but she also took a nap, which she was not able to do Monday. So Tuesday was definitely better - she wasn't exactly pleased with the situation, but she also wasn't screaming in a blind terror the whole day.
The "bite" part of our last couple days: The First Tooth!! I can't see it yet, but earlier today Catherine was gumming my fingers like normal and I was surprised to feel a little razor point in there instead of just gums! I don't know how long it takes for the whole tooth to appear after the first little point pokes through, but I assume I will soon be posting a picture of a one-tooth smile. (ps - sorry there's no pictures - I forgot to bring my camera cable with me).
Other news: Catherine is against peaches. I tried to feed her peaches and cereal for lunch today, and she actually refused a food for the first time. I mixed in a little milk and coaxed her into eating a few bites (the pediatrician says at this point we can convince her that she likes anything by offering it to her a bunch of times). However, about an hour later she had an episode of peach-spit-up, and she really doesn't spit up much at all anymore. This makes me recall the last time I gave her peaches a couple weeks ago and she threw up a LOT (into a clean basket of laundry, by the way). So perhaps peaches really don't agree with her.
I'm off to see if letting Catherine sleep in the bed next to me will help her sleep at all - she's having a rough time of it tonight. I'm guessing it has something to do with the emerging tooth, since every times she wakes up she furiously gnaws on her fist or sleeve. We're headed home tomorrow - hooray!
Since none of us died of shock when our plane was more than an hour late, we all arrived safely in Boston and are now back home (I'm currently taking a break from unpacking). We all breathed a sigh of relief when we went outside in Boston and it was about 75 degrees with a cool breeze coming in off the ocean. We and everyone else on our flight were once again blessed to be travelling with A Very Happy Catherine - she slept, ate, smiled, grabbed Daddy's eyeballs, inspected the plane window, and otherwise harmlessly amused herself for our 2 hour 8 minute flight. I think there was a point when she was considering taking the hat off the guy in front of her, but then the flight attendants came by with drinks and we distracted her with apple juice and cereal eating. Now Catherine is sleeping soundly in her own bed. I really hope she gets a good night's sleep tonight, because the last couple nights she slept very poorly - she even managed to wake Michael up 3 or 4 times each night, so you know she was loud.
I forgot to post a picture of Catherine's party dress last time:
For some reason this is the only picture I have of her in her dress - hopefully the photographer got a better one but we won't see those for a month or so.
Grandma Kim took Catherine for her first swim at the neighbor's house. Catherine seemed to enjoy splashing about in the water, which is not too surprising given she really enjoys splashing around in the bath. Let's see, that was Tuesday after we got back from Tulsa, then Wednesday we spent most of the day hanging out with Grandma Debi and Grandpa Tim, then we had dinner with Aunt Kristin who was meeting Catherine for the first time. Kristin and I look quite a bit alike, which may partially explain why Catherine bypassed her customary inspection period - they went straight to playing. If I remember correctly, Kristin did not eat anything during dinner; she just played with Catherine. Thursday Grandpa Steve worked from home. We did what we could to distract him by sending Catherine squeals and giggles down the stairs towards his desk, but he is amazingly skilled at focusing on work. We settled for a quick lunch break (at the Lion's Choice, of course). Catherine likes going out to restaurants even more now that she is big enough to sit up at the table in a high chair. As soon as we sit her down in the chair and pull it up to the table, she steaks out her table real estate by leaning down and making big swipes across the table with her arms, like "if I can touch it, it belongs to me." This is actually quite helpful for us, since we now know exactly how far away we have to move everything. After lunch we went and hung out with Aunt Melanie in her new apartment. Catherine really liked rolling around on the new carpet. The rest of us really liked the dinner Melanie made for us, and watching Catherine roll around on the new carpet.
Catherine's fun new activity in the last few days is arm waving - she does it all the time now. It's much funnier to watch than to try and explain it:
All in all I think Catherine did pretty well for her first extended trip away from home. It took a couple weeks, but I think the grandparents at least have made it onto Catherine's short-list of approved acquaintances. We'll see if meeting everyone in St. Louis will help at all with our next trip to New Haven (the land of the BabySitter). Catherine only has one day to feel settled in again, then we leave on Sunday evening for 3 days in New Haven. Given how she acted with the babysitter last time, I figure the only way to go is up, and Catherine is undoubtedly better with people now than she was two months ago...
It's off to bed for me - I need to try and use the weekend to recover from vacation so I can get back to work on Monday!
