E. Street Times: February 2012

So as you can see from my last post, our little girl has really grown physically. But that's not all the growing that she has been doing! In the past few months she has learned and experienced SO much! From new teeth, to crawling, cruising and talking, the past few months have been a whirlwind of reached milestones and new experiences - for Attia and for us!

I've been trying to keep a running list of some of these exciting moments, so check out what she has been up to!

On November 5th Attia experienced her first earthquake! Here in Kansas! I didn't feel it at all, but I'm pretty sure it woke her up. I woke up when she cried, fed her, and then proceeded to go back downstairs to do some surfing on Facebook. That's when I saw reports of the earthquake start rolling in. It had struck in Oklahoma at about 10:53, the same time she woke up!

On November 6th Attia got to watch her first cyclocross race. She had a lot of fun cheering for daddy and ringing the race bell! She was very tired by the end of the race!

Around the middle of November she started saying Dada! She started out with da-da-da-da-da, but before long it became Dada, da, and sometimes it even dad!

By the middle to end of November she was cruising around holding onto furniture, and she was starting to really try to crawl.

At the beginning of December she started saying mama, but she didn't really start saying it clearly until the middle of January.

On December 7th her first tooth poked through! It was tooth number 25.

On December 8th she was diagnosed with her first ear infection. It was a mean one, in both ears, and it took two rounds of medicine before it was cleared up. :-( She was a champ at taking her medicine though. She actually gobbled it down like it was candy! Let's just hope that continues!

On December 10th she colored with crayons for the first time...

On December 11th she started waving bye-bye!
December 14: We have a CRAWLER!!! She had been getting up on her hands and knees for a couple of weeks but hadn't been able to get anywhere. On Dec. 13th she moved one 'step', but that was it. Then all of a sudden, on the 14th, it clicked and she was off! Apparently she started crawling across the floor at daycare like it was nothing new. When she got home she kept it up, and Austin got a video of her doing it so that I could see. By the time I got home from work she was already in bed, but she was way too excited to sleep, so she got up and showed off for mommy. Since she had already been cruising on furniture for a while, after just a couple of days of crawling she was like a pro - FAST and able to get up and into EVERYTHING! Let the fun begin. :-)
December 24th she started clapping when she is excited.
On December 25th she ate her first Christmas cookie. I know, really healthy, but could you say 'no' to that cute little face on her first Christmas? The thing about it was that she had refused to eat any actual solid food up until that point. She LOVED eating her purees, but give her something with chunks in it and the chunks would come spilling back out of her mouth. She even liked taking bites of banana, bagel, etc., but anything she bit off just ended up on her shirt.

That ended with the Christmas cookie though (a flower shaped press cookie). With the first bite she realized that these things could be really tasty! And she wanted more! And she hasn't looked back since. We haven't kept feeding her cookies of course, but it opened up a whole new world of food for her. Crackers, Cheerios, bananas, you name it! Check this link if you want to see a video of her munching crackers.

By the beginning of January she was saying dada and mama, and she was actually talking to us when she said it! Most of the time.

On January 5th her second tooth popped through. Tooth number 24.
About a week into January she began carrying things around with her while she crawls. She loves to carry around little toys, but the best thing to hang onto is little baby socks. She even opens the drawer in her bedroom and pulls them out just to carry around. She also likes to carry them in her mouth like a puppy dog, which is pretty darn cute.

Around January 9th she started a trend of only waking up once during the night to eat. She doesn't follow this nice new rule every night, but she is slowly but surely sleeping better. Until something like a cold or a new tooth starts to pop up...

On about January 10th she started really showing an independent streak. She made it very clear that she was tired of eating only pureed food - she wanted to feed herself! So that meant crackers at every meal for awhile. Now we are doing a combination of finger foods and thicker mashed foods, and we really only use the jarred baby food to mix with cereals and to thin potatoes or other home cooked veggies.
Since we are on the food topic, lets take a second to recap what she's tried and what she likes. She is generally a very good eater. She has tried a HUGE variety of fruits and veggies, from mango and avocado to pumpkin and green beans, and she has actually liked everything that she has tried. Everything that is, except for jarred meat. That gets spit out immediately. Currently, her favorite fruit is bananas. She likes them mixed into anything and she LOVES to eat them straight from the peel like a big girl. She also likes to eat steamed apples, either mashed or cut into big slices that she can hold. Her favorite veggie would probably be sweet potatoes. Her favorite snack is definitely Cheerios! She would carry around her Munchie Mug and eat Cheerios all day if we would let her!
In the middle of January she came up with a couple favorite activities.
-One was to sit under her jumper while eating Cheerios from her mug and drinking water from her sippy cup.

-Another was standing at the baby gate and dropping numerous items (balls, socks, rattles, you name it) over the other side.

On January 15th she made her first attempt to climb the stairs (under close supervision of course), and she was successful! Our stairs are really steep, but she slowly made her way up each one on hands and knees until she made it all the way to the top! Go Attia!
On January 29th Attia used the swings for the first time! Since we were having unseasonably warm weather we took a walk to Watson park with Rosa and stopped for a little swing break. Attia liked it!

By the beginning of February she had a few new favorite activities.
-She LOVES to look out the window. She likes to stand at the kitchen window and watch the birds at the bird feeder, and while I'm working she likes to stand at the window next to the computer and watch the neighbor's dog, the neighbors, or whatever happens to be moving outside. She also likes to stand and play at my chair while I'm working.

-And she has become quite a bookworm. She has always enjoyed story time, but now she spends some time every day sitting in a pile of books that she has pulled out, quietly reading them. She also likes to read books in her walker, on the changing mat, in her crib...

I think her favorites right now are her animal book (she is starting to make some of the animal noises, especially the dog - woof!) and The Very Hungry Caterpillar (she likes to stick her fingers into the holes that the caterpillar has munched through things).
She also started waving at EVERYTHING at about this time. She waves at people that she sees through windows, at home or in the car. She waves at people on TV. She waves if you say bye-bye, and she waves to daddy when we head upstairs for bed. I think that last one is the sweetest. After we eat dinner we say good night to daddy and make our way upstairs. When we get to the door to go upstairs she always turns and waves good night to daddy, whether we have prompted her or not!
On Feb. 13th she saw her second snowfall. The first was when she was just two weeks old - too young to enjoy it! This time she got to check out a snowball. She thought she would try eating it, but it was soooo cold on those two little teeth!
On Feb.14 she had her first piece of candy! She received a sweet Valentine in the mail from her cousin Jack, and she couldn't wait to try the sucker. She knew just what to do with it, and she loved it! Oh, boy... :-)
Thanks Jack! Happy Valentine's day!
Around February 20th she started pointing at everything and grabbing my finger to make it point at things too. I mentioned that she liked putting her finger in the Very Hungry Caterpillar holes - now she sticks my finger in the holes! She also makes my finger feel the fuzzy parts of her touch & feel books. So cute!