Teething, grabbing, singing, hugging...

The biggest news is that HG seems to have at least one tooth breaking through her gums. Teething has been very active, with everything going into her mouth.

She's also been busy grabbing. She now grabs noses, and sometimes eyeglasses. She's grabbed the phone from Ima's hands (she seemed to be wondering where the voices were coming from).

HG was tired of playing with her toys today, so Ima held her while eating lunch. HG calmly watched the chicken sandwich traveling from plate to mouth and back several times before deciding to strike. She made a grab for the sandwich, kvetched when Ima moved it away, and eventually settled for playing with a plain piece of lettuce.


She has a soft fuzzy animal book with a calf stuck to the cover by velcro. The other day she tried to work out how to unstick it. After great effort, she finally pulled it off. Then Ima stuck it back, and she tried again. The second time she slipped her fingers behind it and it came off more easily. The third time it was a cinch!

She's always enjoyed looking at books, especially bookshelves. We have to watch out when we hold her near them, though: She's started reaching for them and pulling them out from the shelves. One of our bookshelves has some decorated wooden boxes on it. They caught her eye, and she reached for one. She started handling it like a book, sliding it towards her and trying to open it. Before long, she succeeded!


Yesterday she needed some calming down, so we put her in front of the television. We don't usually do that, since it seems to hypnotize her. She stares at the picture wide-eyed. But she was a bit upset, and we thought it would help. To our surprise, she grabbed for the remote control and started pressing buttons. She's also been pressing buttons on some of her toys, and generally anywhere she sees buttons to press. When we're using the computer, we give her a spare mouse to play with. Sometimes she reaches for the keyboard anyway.

Elsewhere in the entertainment world, we think she's started "singing" along to music. Not that her sounds bear any resemblance to music, but they seem to start and end with the songs. In the car the other day she was enjoying the Beatles, when the song changed to one she apparently didn't like. She started kvetching and then crying, until we fast-forwarded past it and she went back to her vocalizing.

We have to get new besamim for havdalah. We've been using a lemony perfume vial, but we've discovered that HG can't stand the smell. Time to switch to something conventional, like cloves.

In other news, she's outgrown sleeping on Abba's chest. It used to be her favorite place to sleep. Now if she's put there she'll climb down onto the bed and lie down like a big girl, often lifting her head onto the pillow too.


She's also been into hugging lately. She hugs her soft toys close to her. She reaches out her arms to hug children, such as the cousins she visited this evening. On Shabbat she hugged the Sefer Torah on its way from the ark, to the surprise of onlookers.