Climbing on the bookcase

HG has today achieved one of her longtime ambitions today - she pulled herself up to her favourite bookcase and discovered that she is finally tall enough to reach for some of her "favourite" books from Ima's sefarim collection, in particular the Even Shoshan Concordance.


She pulled herself up by the second lowest shelf, and then stepped up on the bottom shelf to get a better view, every so often turning to glance at Ima with an expression of triumph.


Next, after a brief break playing with her books and toys on the floor, she crawled to the opposite side of the living room, pulled herself up to a stand on the toy box, cruised from there to the arm of the sofa, another higher piece of furniture she is now tall enough to grasp, then along the sofa seat, to a low plastic stool, and on to a wooden kitchen stool, this time one high enough for adults to sit on. As she stood holding on to it she realised that she is now strong enough to push it along and her face lit up with glee, as she used it as a makeshift push along toy, shoving it forward as she walked along behind it. One might even say she glowed...



HG has been working on other skills besides walking though. Over the last week she has also started sporadically to "kiss". She puts her lips close to Ima's cheek and smiles. She did this to her babysitter on Shabbat and tried it with Abba's beard last night.

Carnivorous Mini Explorer

HG is a very busy little explorer. Not only is she an extremely fast and proficient crawler, but now that she can easily pull herself up into a stand against virtually any surface, including flat walls, she can now expand her mission to include previously unreachable bookshelves, chair seats and table cloth edges (very chewable of course).

Her proficiency at standing has improved to the point where she can hold herself up just by lightly leaning with one hand against something, or sometimes just her chest or her knees are resting against furniture or a wall, while both hands are free to play.

She no longer restricts herself to her matted play area (ie most of the living room), but freely roams under the dining room table, looking for fun handholds, and into the kitchen and side corridors. Now that she has comfortable mastered standing with support she seems to be more confident in venturing out into the apartment in search of new places to pull herself up on. Ima and Abba have started building barriers to her progress and are in search of the right size gates to block off the kitchen and
other more hazardous parts of the apartment.

She has had a ball playing with the new washing machine which was delivered this week. Until the technitian came to install it, it remained packaged, complete useful with handholds, sitting in the hallway. HG enjoyed climbing on it and exploring the new textures. Today she looked surprised to find the hallway empty again and the fun packaging gone.


At Friday night dinner she tasted her first actual piece of chicken. It will be remembered that chicken is one of the first foods HG became interested in, several months ago now. She has tasted veggies from the chicken soup, and rice cooked in the chicken soup, pureed with a little chicken, but this Shabbat was the first time she ate chicken itself, tiny little soft flakes mashed a little between Ima's fingers. HG relished the experience, chewing carefully on the miniscule, mushy little tasters, savouring the new taste and texture, and making it clear that she wanted more. HG is now officially a carnivore.

Her range of sounds continues to improve. After yet another phase of constant rasberries, she is now puffing out her cheeks and making "bvvv" sounds, as well as randomly trying out more and more sounds combinations. Her babbling increasingly sounds like gibberish sentences rather than random sounds.


This Shabbat she wore shoes for the first time. A family friend had given her a pair of pretty shoes that have been sitting in a drawer and when HG tried them on they were just her size. Ima and Abba decided that as it was a rather cold Shabbat it would be good for HG to have an extra layer of warmth on her feet, so just for shul, HG wore shoes. She didn't notice them at first because she was in her buggy, but once she got to shul and of course, eventually decided to find things to pull herself up on, she seemed to find it a little awkward to "cruise" with these strange things between her stockinged feet and the ground...


Once home Ima removed HG's shoes, but put them near her play area so that she could see them. She has been playing with any and all adult feet/shoes that come her way fora while now, so it was interesting to see her exlpore and examine a pair of pristine, baby sized shoes, unmuddied and unsullied. The shoes were placed on a low plastic stool she likes to play with. She at one point knocked them down to the floor, and then spent some time playing with them, holding them and eventually trying to place them back on top of the stool where she could play with them with one hand while holding on with the other.

Then after Shabbat HG got to try on shoes again, just for the fun of it. She was fascinated, and rather than wanting to stand straight away, sat for quite some time examining the funny pink leather things on her feet, before eventually pulling herself up on Abba's hands, most of the time staring down at the shoes on her feet.


While it was obviously a fun learning experience for her, bare feet or socks with treads are much better for her while learning to stand and walk, allowing her to feel the floor and maintain her balance.

Water fun - and all over the floor...

This evening HG had a dinner of pureed courgette, onion and garlic - one of her favourite foods.

Lately after she has eaten a meal of solids she has been requesting some water to wash it down with, which she usually drinks from a bottle or sometimes a sippee cup, though she doesn't always get the hang of how to drink from that. As noted in an earlier post, she has been grabbing cups of water from Ima and Abba, and tonight she was making protesting, pleading noises and looking at Ima's cup of water. So Ima found a shot glass sized plastic cup, filled it with water and gave it to HG.

HG gave a huge smile, and while Ima was trying to help her drink from it, HG grabbed the cup and tipped it back to drink, taking a mouthful and spilling a lot over herself.

Then she smiled and blew a huge rasberry at her uncle Ivor, spitting out some of the water and giggling at the gurgly noise. She took some more sips and this time blew a rasberry into the water, making it bubble and this time laughing uproariously, so loudly and deeply that she sounded much more like a little girl than a baby.

Next came another rasberry at her great uncle, followed by tipping the cup over her shoulder and pouring out the remaining water on the floor, much to her delight. Watching the water spill everywhere, she let out another gale of hearty belly laughs.
What a laugh, if only Ima had the presence of mind to record it.

She continues to work on standing and walking. Today she stood up by grabbing Ima's two hands and then holding Ima's hands she walked over to Uncle Ivor, grabbing his outstretched fingers and working her way over to a round, inflatable toy, upended like a drum, which she then grabbed and used to support herself as she took a few steps over to a nearby armchair which she used to take a few more steps, grinning broadly all the while and turning to look back at Ima and Uncle Ivor with an expression of triumph and satisfaction.

A few times she let go with her hands, but then grabbed the chair again to steady herself instead of falling. This girl is determined to stand hands free... Hopefully some of the video will be posted some time soon.

Pulling herself to a stand and walking along the sofa

HG has always been long in proportion to her size, and she continues to grow more length-wise. The first items of clothing she always grows out of are her PJs or all in one baby grows with integral feet. As of this week she is now officially wearing size 6-9 month baby grows, some of her trousers, dresses and long sleeved 3-6 months tops are looking a little short, though she can still wear most of them. That said, she is still petite and on the small side for her age - she can still wear many of her size 0-3 month vests.

She does however appear to be growing too long (though not to big) for her car seat -which claims to be good for up to 13 Kg (HG is currently close to about 6.5Kg).

Her 6-9 month snow suit is just right now, perfect as the Israeli winter has finally kicked in - better late than never. She has mixed feelings about it, sometimes she loves it and more often she kvetches and even cries when being suited up. It's fine in her buggy, but a little cramped in the car seat. It isn't really designed for snow, it's more an all in one coat, good protection against the chilly rainy weather.
She does look a bit like a baby michelin man in it.

Her hair has also started to sprout. No longer a fine, thin layer which barely covered her scalp, it is now a little fuzzy and need to be smoothed (though not quite brushed) when she wakes up from a nap or takes off a hat.

Friday morning as Ima sat down on the sofa to sort some papers while keeping an eye on HG who was playing contentedly on her big padded playmat closeby. HG kept gradually inching closer to Ima, no suprise as she much enjoys playing with the sofa, looking under it, gnawing on the leg or making big eyes at Ima and stretching out her hands for Ima to stand her up against the cushions on the back of the sofa so that she can look out the window.

Today she just crawled on up to the sofa, sat up, reached up to the seat of the sofa, got into some kind of kneeling position and pulled herself up. Ima and Uncle Ivor gave her a cheer, and then clapped, and she turned around to look at Uncle Ivor and fell back onto her tush.

She kvetched for a bit and then got back in to a sit and pulled herself up to a stand against the sofa, this time staying up there and walking sideways while holding on against the sofa, walking all the way to the other end where Ima was sitting.

Since then she keeps trying to climb up everything, pulling herself up using the coffee table, trying to pull herself up by holding on to the top of Ima's knee high boots (unsuccessfully), reaching for the struts on the dining room chairs...

And she doesn't want to hold on usually once she has pulled herself up. She is no longer content holding on to the arches of her playmat or the crossbar of her baby gym. When stood against them she will hold on for a few seconds and then let go with both hands, trying to stand unsupported. She falls and then begs to be helped up again (these supports aren't strong enough for her to pull herself up with). She loves standing while holding on with one hand and playing with the other, or against the sofa, she'll sometimes manage just by gnawing on the seat of the sofa with her hands free.

Her crawling has also become more fluent lately. She is now reasonably safe crawling on the bare floor, without the soft mats, as she generally keeps to a classic all fours crawl, rather than reverting to her earlier commando crawl, or head down, tush propelled crawl. Gates to block off the kitchen and guest rooms are now a must, as she is fast, and easily gets from the far end of the living/dining room to the kitchen in no time.

The upside is that she can amuse herself better. The down side is she can get into even more trouble. For the most part HG doesn't enjoy playing while sitting down - she either likes to be mobile, ie playing in a crawl, or standing, allowing her to look around more easily.

She will sit in her high chair for short periods, but increasingly she associates this with food. She likes to join the grown ups for meals as long as she can eat too, at least a little. She is an eager eater, no games, no fuss, just put a bowl of food out of arms' reach and hand her a spoon and she is happy. She likes to feed herself, though she doesn't always remember to hold the arm of the spoon instead of the bowl of the spoon. She is voracious and will often grab for the bowl of food and try to eat directly from that.

Standing in her new cot

HG's cot finally arrived this week. Three months late, but better late than never. Until now she has been sleeping in Ima's bed, which was just as well, as she nurses a lot at night. For the last few nights she has nursed herself to sleep with Ima, and then Ima or Abba tranfer her to her cot, where she sleeps soundly, until her next feed, and then she goes back to her cot. So far so good. She also naps there during the day and enjoys playing in it for short periods of time.


This evening as she was playing in the cot while Ima was getting her pajamas ready, HG managed to scoot into a sitting position and then pull herself up to a standing position using the slats of the cot. She looked extremely pleased with herself. Now her parents need to adjust the height of the cot so that it's safe for her, as knowing HG her next attempt will be climbing over the side to see what's underneath...

She continues to grab for water - Ima can no longer have a few sips while holding HG, as HG will now always grab for the cup. For a baby who has only ever nursed or had a bottle, she is managing to drink reasonably well from a cup, though it's early days, and more of the water still seems to end up on Ima than in HG's mouth.


Friends have leant HG the doorway "bouncer" their babies enjoyed. As HG enjoys being upright so much it seemed like something she might like, and indeed, she was delighted at finding another way to stand up and play. Her feet just reach the floor and she enjoyed pushing off and twirling around or "jumping" up.


With some blocks added to the tray it kept her out of mischief giving Ima and Abba fifteen or twenty minutes (tops) here and there to tidy up the apartment while keeping a close eye on her, even when she feeling very alert and playful, which is a good deal of the time.

HG has also added a new dish to her menu - pear and cinnamon puree. She lapped it up, eventually grabbing the spoon and licking it clean.

More Hannukah and solid food

HG became very interested in the Hannukah candles tonight. Not that she hasn't been interested the whole time, but tonight, with all eight candles aglow she seemed entranced and tried to reach out to them. Abba and Ima held her at a safe distance. She reached out and nibbled on a bentsher instead.

No, HG hasn't been tasting latkes and sufganiyot, or anything fried. The closest she has come to Hannukah food has been either through Ima's milk, or her taste of that quintessential latke condiment - applesauce. She lapped it up tonight. HG was visiting her great-aunt in Jerusalem for one more Hannukah get together. She kept reaching for all the yummy food her great-aunt had prepared so it was decided that she should try the homemade, wholesome apple sauce. It was a hit. This adds to HG's solid food repetoire of banana, cold courgette soup with garlic and onion, pureed cold plum soup and mushy sweet potato.

Hannukah has also been an opportunity to change HG's current toy selection. Each night she received a new toy and an old one was put away. She seems to be getting a little fed up of her old toys, so they are going away for a couple of months, to emerge fresh and different when she is a little older and will see them differently.

Ima sprained her ankle and HG has been puzzled as to why Ima isn't crawling on the floor with her as usual. On the other hand she has been enjoying the extra Abba and great uncle time. Today she became fascinated by Ima's leg, propped up on a reclining chair. She started playing with Ima's bandage, then noticed the footrest and used it to pull herself up to get closer to Ima, with a slightly concerned expression on her face, as though she wanted to help make Ima feel better.