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.

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.