You now have teeth! Two tiny teeth are poking their way up through your bottom gum and you gleefully spear watermelon with newfound skill (though, admittedly, sometimes the new teeth make you less-than-gleeful).
Feeding you is still my favorite part of the day. When I put you in your high chair you start to bang the counter in gleeful anticipation of what is coming. You love to feed yourself and are very adventurous in your eating. I’ve found you often mirror what I’m doing, so as soon as I grab a slice of melon you want one, too.
Every Tuesday we go to music class at a place down the street (Musical Magic!). It’s just amazing watching you grow there. The first week, you just chewed on your egg shaker and now you know exactly what to do with it and shake, shake, shake through Surfin’ USA. You have a huge smile like you are just so proud of yourself.
Music class also gives you the chance to check out some kids who are just a few months older than you are. While you’ve been scooting around on your belly for a little while now, some of the older boys at music can crawl on their hands and knees. Last week, you took a few tentative movements in that position and my heart almost exploded.
We go to the park almost every day. You mostly roll around on our picnic blanket and try to eat grass, but you’ve become more interactive as of late and enjoy rolling a ball back and forth. Now that you can sit and your attention span is (slightly) longer, we’ve checked out local story times as well. There is so much to do in the city and I’m so excited to show it all to you!
I think your favorite part of our adventures, however, is that I often let you drink from my water bottle. Once you got the straw part down, you lost most interest in the (multitude of!) tiny cups we have specifically for you. I call it the “Mama Bottle” and it your eyes light up when I get it out of my bag.
You’ve become a little wiggleworm during diaper changes. You are vehemently against public restrooms (the horrible changing tables! THE AUTOMATIC HAND DRYERS!) so when we are out, I typically change you al fresco in a park. At home, your dad and I work as a team with one person holding you still and the other changing your diaper as quickly as possible.
I’ve also recently gotten into babywearing. After one local meeting of Babywearing International of Chicagoland I’m completely into ring slings and spend far too much time looking at options online. We are currently borrowing a linen ring sling from BWI’s library and you love to sleep in it. I also love walking around with you in it as we almost always get comments and I get to be a babywearing evangelist. You make ring slings look good, little one.
Outtakes
Oh my word, baby girl, you are on the move when we try to take these photos! Capturing you and the little chalk heart sign in the same frame is becoming a challenge. I absolutely love the last one of you up there as it shows your impish little grin as you (once again) crawl away from the photoshoot.
We tried to get creative after you kept escaping and it looked something like this:
Me: I know! We will drape the white blanket over the side of the Pack ‘n Play and Will, you hold the corner of the sign and I’ll crop out your fingers!
Ada: No.
Me: Will! What if she sat in your lap and you kind of held the white blanket up behind her?
Ada: No.