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.

A New Word

Our little Redowa Rose is really growing up! She has already been saying "dada" and "mama" for some time, although that includes some interpretation on our part. To be more complete, she usually says "da-da-da-da... da..." or variations on that theme. But just this week while watching a dog outside, she has said "do-guh" pretty distinctly, so that's an exciting development.

In other news, after pushing herself up on a small, knee-high toy box she actually stood up without support for a moment, before sitting down. More progress!

In the photo she's wearing a shirt from the D.G. (doting grandmother) featuring her namesake flower.

March Updates

We put up the baby fence in the living room in part to protect the electronics from curious little fingers, and that worked for awhile. Little RR is now standing up by the TV and "cruising" sideways along the railing to the stereo, which she turns on and selects tape, CD or radio, often listening to NPR. After playing elsewhere for a bit, she comes back and turns it off again. Her musical taste also extends to various toys that play tunes, ranging from Beethoven's 5th to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She has become very adept at pushing buttons to play her tunes, and tonight was regularly getting two toys to play the same tune concurrently.

Having seen us use the computer she is anxious to join in the fun, and she has taught us several things about the laptop that we didn't know. In just seconds she called up "This Computer is Locked- Please Login" which I'd never seen on this system, causing some consternation (fortunately, a simple return instead of a password turned out to work.) The next time, while we were viewing some of her baby photos, a few brisk keystrokes popped up a form to report the web page as an online scam. On another page, she found a feature that reads it out loud in a synthesized voice. The computer is certainly more interesting with her around.

Just last month she would pick up a book and attempt to open it from the top, bottom or spine edge, but now she usually holds books right-side-up and is better able to turn the board-type pages. She can scoot across the floor quickly on her hands and knees, but curiously pays no attention to toys or books in her way. Items caught in the undercarriage are dragged some distance in her haste to get from here to there. She is getting a little heavier to pick up now; this evening after her bath, the scale reported 10.05 kg.

Nine Months

RR got a clean bill of health on her 9-month checkup, at which time she was the height and weight of the median 12-month old (!) In related news, she has already outgrown some 12-month outfits and we have been buying more baby clothes. So far she wears them contentedly, however mismatched or over-the-top pink they may be.

She is making rapid progress in the world of widgets. After watching us at the computer she wants to join in, and so far seems to understand using the scroll wheel on the mouse to move through pages on the screen. Her random mouse-clicks have uncovered several menus on the computer which I had not seen before. Phone calls within reach are often subject to surprise touch-tone bleeps and sudden hangups.

Although she won't speak into the phone yet, RR is working hard on "ma-ma" and "da-da" and a few other similar sounds. "Da-da" seems to be a happy identification, but so far "ma-ma" seems as much a general distress signal as a reference to a specific person.

She now frequently stands up by herself, using some nearby object for balance. This is often a low table, but she has managed to stand using a nearby parental leg and even just a smooth wall. Attempts to stand using a small toy or round ball have not yet succeeded. Just today she made a small side-step while standing in her crib, so "cruising" along parallel to a support is no doubt just around the corner.

Before I became a parent my exposure to babies was brief and infrequent, and I somehow had the idea that they were mostly passive items that sat quietly in their parents' arms. In practice I have found that is almost never the case, as RR is always going somewhere, but there is a brief period of calm before sleep which is a nice moment.