Videos

I finally got these videos to load. This one is Catherine's squealy voice (if you're at work, check the volume on your computer before you play). It has nearly replaced her babbling in the last few days - she just squeals in various pitches and lengths when she's happy.



This one is actually kind of boring, but it is Catherine's earliest attempts at crawling (I think). When she's sitting up she will lean forward on her hands, usually reaching for something, then push up a tiny with with her legs and end up on all fours - hands and tip-toes. She has not managed to get any further than this position; she just flops back down on her belly after a minute or two.

Happy Squealy Baby

Yup, it was carrots for lunch today. We had a brief few weeks where eating with Catherine was actually a fairly clean experience because she had learned how to swallow the food properly and she was really only interested in eating it. Now however she is quite intrigued by how the food gets on the spoon, how the spoon gets into her mouth, and how the food gets off the spoon once there. You can see the results of all this experimenting quite clearly.

Well, I had 2 videos ready for you and bunches of commentary written on each of them, but after spending an hour trying to upload them only to have it tell me "Error" at about 99% loaded each time, I am giving up. Sorry - I'll try again later.

We Love Bath Time

Catherine has graduated to a toddler bath tub. She outgrew the first infant bath, and she would just be in a regular bath except we don't have one, so I had to get this slightly larger baby bath tub that she can sit up in. I put it in the shower because she loves to splash. Catherine really enjoys the bath - she spent a lot of time this evening trying to get the water out of the cup she was playing with. She made many attempts to reach in and get the water with her hand, which ultimately failed.



I think I've mentioned before that Catherine loves a good construction project, large or small. This morning she spent about half an hour sitting in her walker in front of the door staring at the backhoe and large dump truck working in the front yard across the street. She also spent a lot of time today rolling around on the floor and playing on her stomach, smiling at Daddy so he would let her walk around while holding his hands, and she even took two naps. Catherine is now strong enough to resist the lull of the stroller; a walk used to be a guaranteed nap, but now she can stay awake no matter how many miles we go. Catherine hasn't made any progress in her quest for forward motion, but she is getting pretty good at scooting backwards. Today she managed to inch herself all the way over to the potted plant behind the piano, and of course as soon as she got there she pushed herself up on her stomach as far as she could and flung one arm up over the top of the pot (it's a fairly tall pot) and I got to her just as she started flicking dirt around with her fingertips.

Here's a little play time video for you - it has some good fake-laughing in it:

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).

The Mysteries of Spatial Relations

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: