Butterfly Emerges

Monkey's first few months were a bit like the very hungry caterpillar. Eat eat eat and, once sated, pass out briefly before waking to eat eat eat again. But sometime in her third month she woke up into a very active and alert little girl. She became a champion sleeper and easy smiler. Lots of cooing that sounded more like singing - maybe because I found it easier to sing to her than ramble on about nothing? She rolled over for the first time at about four months old - on our last day visiting everyone in Pawley's Island - and from there she's been unstoppable. You could almost see her realize what mobility would mean... and she wanted it! Rolling over became pushing up on all fours, rocking back and forth, and ultimately crawling at around five and a half months. She always seems to master one thing and push immediately onto the next.

She's an enthusiatic eater, especially of fruit, vegetables, and yogurt. She doesn't particularly like grains or pasta, and when I put cheese on noodles she's quite pleased to suck off the cheese before spitting the rest over the side of her high chair. Lovely. She adores cheerios and is batting around .500 in actually getting them into her mouth. Yes, I've been counting. It's easy when the other half end up on the floor. But she occassionally refuses baby food, so I'm on the hunt for new things to keep her interested. She likes juice and does much better with a juice box and straw than a sippy cup - as long as she doesn't squeeze the juice box!

She is now firmly in charge of her movements. She's a speedy (and often mischeivious) little crawler. She began pulling up to standing in November, and now often pushes herself away from whatever she's holding to wobble for a bit before landing, unfazed, on her diaper. She's recently tackled the stairs, and can get up about 5 before giving in. She has lots of sounds now - "nenenene," "dadadada," and "hi!" She imitates words and seems to understand some of their meanings - so far we've gotten "duck," "eat," and "kit-cat." And she really does seem to say "Hi Dada" when he comes home at night. Needless to say, Dada is completely obsessed and devoted. I'm almost thankful she doesn't have more words yet, since he would certainly give her anything she asks for Christmas.