Maggie and Boston, Part 2

Have I mentioned that Maggie and Boston REALLY like each other?? Well, they do. Boston can make Maggie laugh more than anyone else, and she doesn't even have to try. All she has to do is give Maggie one of her goofy dog grins, and Maggie starts giggling. Zac and I are usually jumping all around, making crazy noises, and silly faces and we still can't get a laugh out of Maggie as naturally as Boston can. Maggie is now looking for Boston when we ask "where's your dog?" Her first receptive word is dog, not mommy, or daddy, but DOG!
I have to admit though, watching them play together just warms up my heart. I love watching Maggie develop a relationship with an animal at such an early age. I love watching B develop that endearing devotion to Maggie, that she has for us.
What beautiful girls I have!

I'm 7 Months Old Today!

Yep, I'm 7 months old now.
Don't I just look so much more sophisticated?

Well, now that I'm 7 months old, I'm really starting to express myself. Mommy's just a little bit worried---I'm quite a bit like Daddy!

Daddy took me for a ride on his scooter for my 7 month birthday!

(it's okay Grandma Crist-- the ride only consisted of him pushing the scooter from the patio to behind the garage)

Coming Soon: Maggie and Boston, Part 2---the cutest videos ever!

The Morning Bed

Here's Zac trying to sleep through the commotion in the bed.

Zac: "You are NOT putting this picture on the blog!"
Melissa: "Yes I am. It truly depicts our mornings!"
(you'll notice Maggie looks as cute as ever first thing in the morning, mommy and daddy--not so much)

She demands our attention. Usually by grabbing our faces, or pulling our hair!

So Zac and I have been very fortunate when it comes to getting enough sleep at night with an infant. We only had two nights (one of those nights was our first night with Maggie in the hospital; the unspoken thought on both our faces being "what the hell did we get ourselves into") where Maggie didn't sleep through the night. As a newborn she usually slept at least 6 hours through the night, and for the last 3 months she's consistently slept 12 hours at night--occasionally waking, only to get her pacifier and covered back up, then back to sleep. I know, we're pretty lucky.

So why when Maggie wakes up at 7:30am on the weekends do Zac and I feel so exhausted?? It's not like we go to bed late. You'd think we could appreciate our good fortune and bounce out of bed all enthusiastic to greet our little alarm clock. Instead, we've resorted to one of us stumbling in there, changing her diaper with eyes half closed, then bringing her back to our bed in hopes she'll maybe sleep just a bit more---this never works. She's quite excited about joining Mommy, Daddy and Boston in bed. Now it's play time!!

She rolls all around---grabbing our faces and any part of Boston's fur she can reach. Boston gets annoyed and jumps down to the window to start scouting for squirrels. Zac and I start handing her items from our nightstands, anything that we think might entertain her so we can sleep a few more minutes. Today she thoroughly enjoyed chewing on a coaster. Finally I come to a full alert state and I join in on the play. This really upsets Zac---he's still trying to sleep and now we're being loud. This morning I start tickling her and making all sorts of crazy noises. She gets all excited, starts laughing, and then gets hiccups. So I go get her sippy cup for her. She gets a big drink then starts shaking her cup all around, so little drops of water are spraying all over Zac-- who's still trying to sleep by the way. Finally he gives up. Now the whole family is awake. We are all rolling around on the bed, laughing and playing. We are ready to start our day!

Worst Valentine's Day Ever!

You know what makes a very bad valentine's day? When your valentines are all extremely sick! Our poor family is sooooo sick right now. The only one who's feeling well is Boston, and she's a little depressed because we're all sick and ignoring her. Maggie got sick first (of course) with a fever on Wednesday. Thursday she seemed to be feeling better, then Friday night the fever came back (103+ degrees)! By yesterday morning she was completely miserable. She also broke out with a bad rash. In the midst of all this, some how I get the stomach flu. So in between taking care of my sick baby, I'm running to the bathroom to be sick myself. Zac said he felt like he had a bad cold, and he was trying to do as much as he could for Maggie, but she kind of demands her mommy when she's not feeling well. By 1am Zac also had a fever of 102 degrees. See, I told you we had the worst Valentine's day ever. This morning Maggie and I seem to be doing better. Zac's feeling okay, as long as he's loaded up on pain medication. Maybe we're past the worst of it. Hopefully next Valentine's day will be better.

Baby Play

Maggie LOVES her wooden stacking cups. She waits till daddy stacks them, then she scoots her body to them, knocks them over, looks at daddy to wait for the clapping and "yay!," then says "aaaaa" and smiles.

Maggie loves water play (supervised of course). Give her some water and manipulatives and she's busy for 10 uninterrupted minutes. Of course she gets thoroughly soaked, which only means it was a lot of fun!

Here's Maggie working on her "pat mat." I filled a Ziploc with rubber bands, crayons and corn syrup. Maggie works to move the items around inside.

Sensory Play--Here is Maggie playing in the sensory table filled with water with her friends at school.

Maggie is so persistent when it comes to this pop up toy at school. She just has to get them all down. I've looked for one of these to buy her for at home, and can't find one. I'll have to order one from one of my educational catalogs, or check The Children's Store. Of course if it's simple and doesn't require batteries, it probably can't be found at most stores!

We just got back from Maggie's parent/teacher conference. She's grown so much in the past few months. Chris and Kim prepared a PowerPoint presentation for us with photograph documentation outlining her developmental growth. We also discussed our concern about Maggie's allergy and how to take precautions during group meal times. The plan is to leave the seat next to Maggie open (she'll still be near her friends because they use one of the kidney bean shaped tables), and I'll bring in snacks occasionally that Maggie and her friends can all eat safely. I feel much better about this.

It's an off day when your baby pukes in your mouth!

So Maggie's been spitting up a lot...a lot, a lot, lately. Usually I'm just wearing regurgitated Neocate on my clothes, but this morning as I was lifting Maggie up to give her a big kiss---POW, a mouth full of baby puke. I very calmly handed her to Zac then ran to the kitchen sink. After rinsing my mouth out about 50 times, I still couldn't get the awful taste out of my mouth. Poor Maggie--that spit-up tastes gross!
So we are very slowly introducing new foods to Maggie. We've tried sweet potatoes and carrots. We started with a couple of root vegetables, which are the least likely to cause allergic reactions. She ate both of them without hesitation.
Here's some mealtime pictures for you to enjoy. Maggie's enjoying mealtimes quite a bit. She loves eating her food, exploring her food and feeding Boston her food!

After Maggie's finished eating, she feels it's only appropriate that she let Boston lick her spoon. Boston is now quite excited to have a baby around.

The magic "balance my spoon on my arm trick." She's very inventive with her utensils!

Yum, yum, yum...sweet potato pie. Well, actually just pureed sweet potatoes and brown rice cereal, but close enough.

The Inchwormin' Army Crawler

Well Maggie's figured out a way to get those darn toys, or whatever else is in her line of vision. She started by tucking her knees all the way under herself, then propelling her upper body forward (the inchworm crawl). At school yesterday she refined this a bit. She's now doing more of the belly crawl (which looks like an army crawl). It's still a bit slow going, but she's super persistent, and all over the place!

Here's a video of Maggie's belly crawl from last night. Warning: She was working really hard, so she spits up some of her cereal and carrots that she ate for dinner towards the end.

Enjoy!

Motor Development Information:
Her motor development is moving right along...remember though, it's not the speed in which a child reaches motor milestones, it's the progression in which the milestones occur and how well each is perfected before moving onto the next. Every motor movement assists with encouraging all the rest. We've allowed Maggie to have lots and lots of horizontal time so she is able to move her body freely and develop as she should. You can always train a child to sit, walk, etc., but when you allow them to develop naturally this creates a solid foundation for perfected future development. A few people have asked me how she's sitting, including Dr. Ally. My reply was, "she doesn't sit yet." Dr. Ally said, "Ah, one of those Building Babies Better (a book written by PT, Roxanne Small) ideas. Dr. Ally knows me pretty well already! If I sat Maggie up, she could remain in a sitting position, but this is not a true developed skill until she can get into sitting on her own. Quite simply, a child should never be placed in a position they can't get into themselves, such as sitting. When Maggie is able to get into sitting on her own, then she'll be sitting just fine.