Wednesday, May 20, 2009

All Done!

The AAP recommends that children under 2 should watch no TV at all. However, bad parents that we are, we turned on the insidious box as a distraction while T attempted to trim a fingernail.

Since this was our own home video of playing in the park, it was hopefully not too harmful. Little RR watched with rapt attention, and the fingernail was successfully trimmed. The video came to an end, whereupon RR immediately said "All done!"

Now, this has been her favorite phrase around meal times, but sometimes it's not clear if she really is full, or she just likes saying the words. The issue is confused further by the fact that there may not be much room in the tummy for more potatoes or vegetable beef pilaf, but there is always more room for Oo-oo-os.* (*small, round, comes in a yellow box, registered trademark of General Mills)

At this point it must be mentioned that T, looking over my shoulder, protests that RR is clear on the meaning of the phrase. For example she says "all done" when reaching the end of a bottle. But be that as it may, she has recognized and announced the end of a video as well, and in fact, she also seemed unhappy that the video had concluded, and clearly wanted to see more. Is she falling into the clutches of the TV already? Wondering about this, I started another of our home videos, this one showing her crawling around the living room and playing with a few toys.

She watched the screen attentively, not being distracted by daddy playing nearby with his camera, but she did not seem as enthralled with this one. Not as much exciting movement as the swings at the park, I suppose.

There wasn't much of real interest until the very end of the video. At the end we see that exciting moment where the star of the show suddenly manages to grab that special black toy with so many buttons on one side, the one that the grown ups seem to think is important, and is usually kept out of reach on top of the TV. That moment was of course the high point of the show.

"All done!" she said cheerfully.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

The First Birthday

Our little RR turned one year old on April 27, 2009. Counted by the minutes before she falls asleep, the time drags, but from a longer view the time really has flown by. We had a small party on Saturday 5/2 attended by Great Aunt K, Great Aunt I, the Doting Grandmother, and the Proud but Still A Bit Tired Parents. To commemorate her first year, she stood up on her own for the very first time this week, and even took a few tiny steps.

At her 12-month checkup, her pediatrician confirmed that RR is a big girl- at 31 3/4" she is the height of an average 18 month-old, and about 99th percentile for 12 months. In fact the Dr. got confused and started going through the 18-month material, before being reminded she's only 1 year old. It turns out that height before age 2 does not correlate to adult height, but evidently she has been eating well.

On her strolls around the neighborhood, RR uses one of her few words "Doh!" with great excitement whenever she notices a dog. However, this term applies to a select cross-section of animals, including large dogs, some cats, and even a squirrel, but not necessarily small dogs. In new food developments, she can pick up cheerios one by one from a tray to eat, but the process has about a 15% loss rate. I had not appreciated before how well cheerios can roll, but our kitchen cleanups discover them hiding in every corner.