45 Weeks - Easter Fun with Friends

You, little girl, were made for Easter.  To be clear, you are not even a year old.  Most babies are not even walking at your age.  Sure they are rolling and crawling and grabbing at things.  Some are pulling themselves up on furniture.  Not you.  You have been running and grabbing things larger than yourself for quire some time.

Exhibit A

So why do I say you were made for Easter?  Because Easter (for kids) is all about running around and picking up Easter Eggs!  And you have plenty of practice with pine cones, which are almost the same size and shape.

Now that it is the Easter season you get to put your mad skills into practice.  Your mom's best friend Jennie was in town with her daughter Sophie.  So we all got together with Jennie's cousin and their son for a pre-Easter Easter Egg hunt.  It was so much fun to see you walk along and pick up the eggs, even if we had to point them out and give you encouragement to go after them.  I mean there is SO much cool stuff outside, why go after just the eggs?

Yup, you were so good at it!  I can only imagine how good you will be next year.

44 Weeks - 10 Months, Checkup and Full Blown Dancing

You are now 10 months old!  I know! It really is as exciting as you make it look.  On your 10 month-iversary you had a check up with your doctor.  That stats were really quite good:

Weight - 18 lbs 10.5 oz (48th percentile)
Height - 28.5 inches (75th percentile)
Head Circumference - 17.3 inches (48th percentile)

The best part about the stats is how you are balancing out.  You used to be a hollow stick with a small head (tall, light, small head).  But now you are not as gigantically tall, you came back up a little in weight and your head came up a lot.  Which is all very good because who wants to be taller than 95% of your peers?  Or have a head smaller than 80% of your peers?  Not me I tell you.  And I certainly would take being skinnier than 52% of the population.  Although given the rampant explosion of obesity I bet that I am actually skinnier than more than 52% of the population of America.

Anyways - with another week comes new skills!  Well not always, but usually.  And this week (roughly) you seriously started dancing.  Where before you just did a little quick step or bobbed your head on occasion, you now do both (on command even) and have added to your repetoire.

The following clip is actually more recent than your 44 week, but it illustrates your new found love of dancing so I'll allow it.

In any event, you are growing like you should and are a joy to your parents every single day.  I love you very, very much and look forward to seeing you every day.  I will miss these days of your youth when you ran around the world with reckless abandon because you didn't know anything different.  But I know that the coming days ahead will be even more fun and memorable.  Especially when you act with reckless abandon just for fun.

43 Weeks - Pointing and Squats

I am behind again.  Not terribly sure the accuracy of what is going into the next couple posts, but it is around this time. And who cares if it is 100% accurate.  As far as this part of your childhood goes if I say it then it is true as far as you know!

So what is new this "week?"  Well, you must be watching your mom workout with the X-Box a lot because you have started squatting.  A lot.  You initially start going down to get something, but after a while it just turns into some sort of game for you.  You bounce up and down so fast on your little legs.  You are obviously in way better shape than me because when I try to show people how fast you are doing it I get winded!

It really is something that you need to see on video (your mom and I dug out the camera recently to get more video of your cuteness), but I don't have a video or even really a series of photos.  Just one of you squatting to pick something up.  Which you don't even always do any more.  Sometimes you just squat 6 or 7 times because you think it is just that much fun.

And what else?  Pointing!  I am not sure how I feel about this one.  Apparently as parents we are supposed to start pointing things out to you and naming them to help you speak.  But it really seems hypocritical for society to say "point things out to your baby" and then in a few years say it is SO rude to point at things.  Maybe it is because it is with only one finger and I am just a rude parent point at books with just one finger.  In any event you point now at things.  Not always with meaning.  But it is getting better as with every other skill you have developed.

No pictures of the pointing.  But let me tell you, we better instill a good command structure for you and all your new skills because some of them, like pointing, will need to be reigned in at some point.  And as of right now, getting you to obey commands brings to mind that expression about bringing a horse to water.

42 Weeks - Quick Step and Nod

This week was filled with more fun with your cousins Owen and Evan as well as with Gramma and Grampa Compton.  Gramma and Grampa were watching Bryson for Aunt Nicole while she was on vacation and watched Owen and Evan while Aunt Michelle was at the hospital with Uncle Steve.  So I will post a few pictures of that at the end.  But I want to talk about some new tricks/skills you have developed first.

You have begun doing full body nods.  I do like that you can now nod, but the full body thing, where did that come from?  It's not like when your mom and I nod at you that we do it with our full bodies.  We just bend at the neck and move our head up and down.  You on the other hand bend at the waist and move your entire torso up and down.  That has to be quite the work out!

The other thing is what could be considered dancing, but I just call it the quick-step.  Neither of these skills are really that fun to read about, I really should get some video of it to post, but it is hard to get it to happen on demand.  But I will describe without the video for now.  When I first started seeing it, you would just be walking across the room when all of the sudden you would stop your forward progress and almost jog in place, hands at your side tilting slightly from side to side.  Quick-step!

The reason the quick-step can also be considered dancing is because the best time to catch it is when you hear music.  You really do start doing it like you are dancing!

Other than that it has been a pretty "normal week."  If you can call your developmental pace normal.

41 Weeks Part 2 - Weekend and Family Fun

Was this ever a busy weekend!  Lots got crammed into a little time due to some unfortunate circumstances. (That is your official warning that this is a LONG post.)  Your Uncle Steve was diagnosed with Leukemia.  It is actually his second battle with it.  In order to get the best medical care he was driven over to Seattle from the Tri-Cities.  It is a very difficult time for him and his family and in order to help your mom volunteered our services in whatever way needed.  Your Aunt Michelle asked if we would be willing to watch your cousins Owen and Evan.  We of course agreed.

The crew didn't actually come over until the afternoon and they were preceded by your Aunt Nicole and cousin Bryson!  So we had a full house that afternoon.  Most of the time was fun.  Of course with a horde of small children ranging from ages 9 months to 5 years there are bound to be some moments of contention and discord, but for the most part I think everyone had a good time until Uncle Keith came to pick up Owen and Evan.

After the boys were picked up we rejoined Aunt Nicole with more of your Grampa Compton's family.  Every year your Great Uncle David takes part in a Crab Feed fundraiser and is gracious/kind enough to not only invite but buy tickets for whoever wants to attend.  So we got to run into your Great Aunt Mary, Great Aunt Connie and Great Uncle Richard, as well as seeing Gramma and Grampa Compton.  While the grown ups feasted on tasty crab you got to go play with Bryson on the stairs!  You impressed Gramma Compton with your attempts to go up like a big girl.  You just never want to do anything like the other kids your age do you?  The night concluded at Connie and Richard's with ice cream.  Then we headed home with you screaming in your car seat until you fell asleep 5 minutes from home.

Onto Saturday the 19th.  The morning was lovely so we decided to go for a walk to the park.  As we were getting ready that morning you were walking by me while I was sitting on the couch.  When you were right in front of me you stopped and looked right at me.  You looked like you were about to have a full on conversation with me.  It's hard to explain how incredibly cute you were.  But once our little face off was over you proceeded on your merry way leaving me with a rather large smile.  (Since I am writing this some time after I can say that you have repeated this action and it is just TOO priceless!  Makes me smile every time.)

And, as previously mentioned, the trip to the park was just awesome.  Photographic evidence to corroborate.

For dinner, we had over Gramma and Grampa Compton with Owen and Evan, and Aunt Nicole and Bryson.  So a little more play time was had briefly.  Grampa Compton took Owen and Evan because the evening was capped off with a Shelf Reliance party your mom hosted.  She invited some old friends over so we got to see Dusty, Shirley and Alice and both Wendy Nobles!  What fun!  Plus you got to try some freeze-dried fruits and yogurt that your mom and I are probably going to start stocking as part of our food storage.

All in all it was a pretty awesome weekend.  One of many, many more to come.

41 Weeks Part 1 - Copycat and Couch Play

What have you been up to this week?  Well only a lot!  You have learned to mimic.  At least certain things.  You have already been shaking your head when we shake our head.  Now you have learned to wave when we wave, clap when we clap, etc.  And you do your best to copy our other moves as well.  This isn't nearly as fun as your new favorite past time, though.  Playing on the couch!

From my perspective it starts with you running around on the floor.  So I sit on the floor by the couch (for back/side support) to interact on a more intimate level.  Well once I am down on the floor you use me like a step stool to climb up onto the chaise.  At first you needed a little assistance but we are long past that stage now.  Once on the chaise you will run to the back of the couch and bury your face in the cushion.  Then you will turn around and run to the end of the chaise and peer over the edge.  Then you will turn and repeat until you are done.

Being done playing on the chaise brings up another of your new hobbies that induce heart palpitations for your mom and me.  You want to walk off the edge of the couch.  Sure this is fine when we are holding your hands, but you are so fearless that you would go on your own if we weren't vigilant.  Sometimes we don't watch you as close or you are a little to fast/elusive.  This often results in a few wails, mostly because of being a bit startled by the abrupt stop, I think, more than pain as other times you will applaud your efforts.

Of course nothing is better than you sitting like a big girl on the couch.  I don't know what it is, but when you do things like an adult it is just too precious.  And of course the times when you sit still are also quite rare and precious.

And all of this was just the first half of the week!