Sarah Jane has come a long way in the past 2 months. She learned how to walk on Wednesday, August 12, kindly waiting until I was home from work to take her first 3 steps (and plunge headfirst into the dishwasher.) Despite the collision, she was not deterred and went at it again, two more times that evening. I was very proud of her! She spent the next week and a half walking about 7 steps at a time, usually between me and Dave, and not very consistently. Then we went up to Tahoe for the weekend and she took off. That Saturday, the day after her birthday, she was suddenly walking as a means of transportation, and having lots of fun showing off!
She is definitely in a very cute stage right now. She has gotten much more cuddly and likes to climb into our laps and also give us lots of hugs. Her favorite hug is to come up behind us and hug our backs when we are sitting down. Whenever she gives a hug she says "Uhhhhhhh" as on "ohhh, that's so sweet." She gives hugs to lots of people but likes hugging other babies the most. She makes friends with little girls in the playground, targeting 3-4 year olds. Sometimes she is successful! She also likes to hug Brady but Brady is not a willing recipient and sometimes Sarah Jane gets bitten as a result. Speaking of teeth, Sarah Jane just got her 8th (4th on the bottom.) The last time she got a tooth was at Aunt Carrie's wedding. Was nice to have the two month break from teething. This one caused her to be a bit grumpy and off from her usual cheerful self but only required two does of Tylenol. The others seemed harder.
Current vocabulary includes:
"Uhoh" whenever she drops something
"Dis!" whenever she wants something
"Doog" for Dog
"ArArAr" - what a dog says
"uhhhh" - I'm giving you a hug, isn't that sweet of me?
"Huuh" - Hello! I'm pretending to use a cell phone!
Puckered lips and kissing sounds - what a fish says
Waving or clapping hands - Don't give me any more food! I don't want it.
She is learning to go to sleep without crying. Her doctor recommended that we put her in bed with the light on and some books to read. She went from crying 5-45 minutes ever night to fussing for 0-5 minutes immediately! (I LOVE our new doctor, Dr. McMahan and am SO glad we left our old doctor who was NOT good at listening.) She loves the books with 1 word and 1 picture on the page and is very good at turning the pages. When we get to the end, we go backwards, all the way through. At her last doctor appointment (1 year) she was 22lbs and 29.5inches. She is in the 50-75th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.
She loves music classes (she goes on Wednesday) and is the most enthusiastic baby there. She goes with Veronica, Brady and Grandma and switches off sitting in Veronica's lap and Grandma's lap. She likes to dance and does NOT like to give up the musical instruments when it is time to put them away.
Aunt Whitney comes over to babysit quit often (so I can go to exercise class) and she does not like it when I leave though she only cries for a few minutes, she does tend to get quit hysterical when Aunt Whitney shows up. I am VERY glad Aunt Whitney continues to show up.
She is a very picky eater and currently eats mostly bananas and goldfish crackers (or Bunnies - we buy the Annie's brand, at least they are all natural!) She also likes the fancy soufflés I buy her, sometimes she'll eat noodles and she definitely likes lots of fruits - peaches, berries, nectarines and applesauce (but she hates blueberries.)
Her favorite toys are the stacking alphabet boxes and the nesting colored plastic buckets. She likes to put things in other things and shake them. Great fun. She also likes to clean things up. Sometimes she even scrubs the floor with a cloth. Her favorite non-toys are mommy's shoes, mommy's purse, Veronica's purse and Veronica's makeup making her dad a bit scared. She got two purses for her birthday (from Grandma and from Brady) and she loves to load them up and carry them around. She knows just how to put them on and holds on just so, very sophisticated! She also loves cell phones and anything that might remotely resemble a cell phone including remote controls, ipods and credit cards. She holds them up to her ear and says "Huuh?" and then she runs around the house "chatting." It's very cute. (Though we are going to crack down on cell phone use until her brain is fully developed!)
She goes to sleep between 7:30 and 8pm and sleeps until 6-6:30am (which is a greatly appreciated adjustment from 5-5:30!) Usually we give her a bottle and then put her back in her crib for 45ish minutes of solo playtime with her toys. She is very cooperative and her mother and father truly appreciate the extra sleep they get. She is still taking two naps a day, one in the morning 10-11:30 and then one in the afternoon - 3-4:30. We have gotten her down to four bottles a day (6am, 9:30am, 2:30pm and 7pm) and switched her to real milk which she likes a lot. The first few days were sort of iffy (she had some gas) but no real problems.
Sarah Jane is great at clapping but not so good at waving goodbye or blowing kisses. She did a lot of waving about 2 months back but apparently that was SO 2 months ago, we've moved on.
