More of the same

More of the same this week. She's sitting better and longer than before, and the same goes for standing (holding on, of course). One innovation: A few times, when she was standing while holding on to the arches, she let go with one hand and lowered herself into a sitting position, while still holding on with the other. We're not sure yet if it's an intentional maneuver or not, but it's impressive to watch.


Her play mat has a kick pad, which plays music when whacked or kicked (see picture). She's been busily trying to activate it by pushing it with her hands. Unfortunately, it really only goes off when hit, not when pushed, so she hasn't managed to activate it often, at least not intentionally. She is more used to buttons that need to bne pressed than a pad which need to be hit! But she keeps trying...

She's reaching and grasping with greater precision. When held near a bookshelf, she'll examine the books for a while, and then reach out carefully for one book and start pulling it out from the shelf. In the baby store she reaches for toys, and once gave a tug on a stroller- moving it quite a distance - she really has become quite strong. At mealtimes, of course, she reaches for our food. (We just bought a high chair; we hope she likes it.)

Playtime often lasts longer now that she's more mobile, since she can move from toy to toy. She'll play with something for a while, then either she gets tired or the toy rolls out of her reach, and she'll move on to something else. She rolls and crawls and shifts and rotates to get where she wants to go. All is well until she rolls or crawls off her playmat and onto the hard floor, which is uncomfortable and dangerous. So we still can't go too far away when she's playing. We're planning to get more carpeting and a bigger mat.

She has become more interested in playing peekaboo, or more precisely, when her ima plays peekabo with her. She likes it when ima turns away then turns back to her with a funny animal noise, a bark, a growl, a howl or a more conventional boo. She laughs uproariously during these games, waving her hands and clamouring for more. In general, her playtime with ima has become much more interactive with her enjoying a variety of songs with actions (ima has to move HG's hand to do the actions, but she is getting the gist of things).

In the last week she has started playing with her ears while nursing. We think it might have something to do with teething, but on the other hand, she loves grabbing and playing with anything within reach, so perhaps her ears are just conveniently close? She folds her ears, pushes them into her head, tugs them away from her head, pulls them, squishes them, and generally has a good time with them. What handy toys!