My Baby

Selina is quite happy and handy with her foogo cups. We have two and I'm ordering two more. If you click that link, you'll note that many Amazon reviewers don't like it, but it is working for us. Basically, I don't give the kids cups on the go. We have a sit-at-the-table rule, and I am just training Selina to use a cup rather than a bottle. So she only gets the sippy (sans leak-proofing valve) in her chair, with an adult spotter to keep an eye out for spillage. Once she's got the hang of the flow in the sippy cup, I'll promote her to juice glasses and teach her to use real glasses and then we're pretty much done with sippys except for the canteen to take to the park, etc. For that, we'll use the Kleen Kanteens. (Nat uses them occasionally now.)

All this is really to say that I have given away all the baby bottles as of today and I am sad and blue. I weaned Nat from bottles cold-turkey a week or two before her first birthday and never thought twice about it. But this is probably my last baby and I had been holding onto the before-bedtime-rocking-chair bottle. I decided to hold out until she was eighteen months and then yesterday, she bit the tip off of the nipple and I decided it was a sign.

Selina herself is indifferent to the shift. She is pleased as punch with herself for being able to drink from her cup. She will even hold it one-handed, while drinking and signing "milk! milk! milk!" enthusiastically with the free hand.

So the bedtime routine will shift to be more about books and songs and not so much about bottles in arms.

But Selina is really starting to love books, which is nice. She will look at books all alone for extended periods, flipping the pages carefully and examining the pictures (all in the right order, too). The other day, I put up some dishes in the kitchen while Nat and Selina played in the living room and thus were sort of unsupervised for about ten minutes. When I came back, Selina was gone, so Nat and I went on a little hunt for her and found her in the kids' room, sitting in a corner, happily "reading" a book to herself. She was so engrossed, she didn't even notice we had come in. Nat and I decided it was very cute.

Selina gets her very own Mama Shannon book time before all sleep occasions, and I try to sneak one or two in during the day, but Nat tends to poach on those attempts. So Selina gets over-Nat's-shoulder book time then. Poor second baby.

She's still crawling with vigor and pulling up everywhere but not walking. She lets go with one hand regularly, and quite often lets go with two, then slowly sort of wafts down onto her bottom in a controlled way (versus a "real" fall). I think she'd be walking if she wasn't such a good crawler, but at any rate, it's coming soon for sure.

She is also starting to get a little more lingual. She can say (at her initiation, and in proper context) "eat," "hi," "yep!" (which doesn't really mean anything but it's cute) and "mama" as of today. She can sign "milk," "more," "hi," and almost "mama" (she will copy me when I show her, but hasn't initiated yet). I don't remember where Nat's expressive language was at this age. I have a sense that Selina is behind her, but I'd have to look it up. Second child and all that. She is well within normal range.

Yesterday, I kissed her cheek while we were looking in the mirror and she grinned big and made a "kiss" to the mirror. I kissed her cheek and she kissed at her reflection over and over. She thought this was the greatest thing ever. So now Cole is trying to get real kisses out of her. I'm not holding my breath.

Selina's hair is sooooo long. Even the back is pretty long (whereas the back of Nat's head was smoothly bald for a good two years). I put it in two pony tails and let the back that doesn't reach fall out and make a mess for now. I think it'll all catch into two hair bands within a month or two. She looks really cute when her hair is "done." All grown up. Nat has an annoying habit of taking Selina's hair bands out (of course), so that's a challenge. I usually leave it out until the minute we're leaving the house.

Selina still loves singing and music more than your average baby (and babies love singing and music in general, I know). When I turn music on for her, she looks at me like I just presented her with a chocolate cake. She has this look of utter joy and gratitude on her face. And she bounces in perfect time to the music and always has. And when I sing to her, she still always sings along.

She loves to eat. She gets very excited about all occasions for eating and has a mini tantrum every time she finishes a meal or a glass of milk. If I give her a piece of a bagel or a cracker or whatnot, she waves it aloft triumphantly and shows it to me proudly with a "look what I have!" expression on her face. She does this with other things too, like sticks in the back yard, or books or toys in the house. She will grab it, crawl up to me and wave it at me proudly.

I am still making most of her food, food-cube style. Breakfast is a combo of four whole grains, two fruit/vegetables, featuring something orange (like carrot+banana, or sweet potato+apple), blackstap molasses, brewer's yeast and ginger. (I make it all up together and freeze it like that, instead of freezing parts and mixing them up before meals, individually.) Lunch is yoghurt and a two or three veggie/fruit combo, like avocado+banana, onion+potato+carrot, apple+pear, cauliflower+potato, red pepper+yellow squash+zucchini, to name a few recent ones. Dinner is "green supper" which is breakfast, except featuring green, like broccoli+onion or spinach+potato or something. The breakfast and dinner cubes I only half defrost and then let her nibble with her fingers. I know this sounds really gross, but she is all good with the foodcicles. I think that lately she likes the cold on her teething spots (first molars coming up). Mostly her snacks consist of cheddar cheese or bits of tofu.

She definitely gets more "junk" food than Nat got at her age, though. Lots of "cracker bunnies" (as Nat calls them), rice cakes, instant mac&cheese, the aforementioned bagels or other white bread products (usually just at restaurants, though). I figure she is pretty set, nutritionally and can afford the occasional empty calorie. I am still giving her a half-formula/half-whole milk combo of about 24 ounces a day, so I am not going to introduce any vitamin supplements until she stops liking the formula. (In Nat's case, that was around age two.)

Another thing she gets more of (and I am less happy about) is television. There is no television consensus in this family, so I compromise my less-than-10-hours-per-week ideal and it is probably more like 20. Selina never watches t.v. expressly for her. But she gets a lot of second-hand t.v. chatter from Nat's shows. I am trying to not freak out about it, as long as she gets lots of active play and attention too.

As far as t.v. goes, I was thinking of posting a list of kids' shows I don't hate and why I don't hate them. Interested?

And with that, I must run, as nap time seems to have ended...

Comments

[SP]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on kids shows.

[Tatjana]

What a lovely update! What are her favourite books at the moment?

I can't wait to write similar updates ... Things are really starting to happen for us now, and it looks like we might even become parents before the end of the year! I'm sooo excited :-)

[Jillian]

I've been reading for a bit and am de-lurking for the first time.

I'd be curious to hear your take on TV shows. My son is just under 9 months old and has started to take an interest in Sesame Street when we put it on for him, which is usually once or twice a week.

I'd also love to hear more about the meals you make for your girls. My boy is still living primarily on breast milk, but we're putting more and more table food in there every day.

[Regine]

I'd be very interested to hear your opinion on kids' shows.
And I love hearing/reading about the girls. Those latest pics are adorable; Nat on her bike with helmet, and Selina's powdered hair. (

[Michelle]

My kids are older, so we are finished with Dora and Diego (we loved those at the time). Now, we really love Word Girl, Word World and the new show Sid the Science Kid.