fourteen months

I'm kind of thinking I'll keep doing bi-monthly posts about Nell, because she's cute, and surely no other baby in the history of the world has done the things she does.

Also, it's important to make any future siblings of hers jealous when they sit around in their hand-me-downs wondering why they didn't get as many blog posts.

Perks of being the eldest, Nell.

{Although, truth be told, all but approximately two of her outfits are hand-me-downs, freecycled, or thrifted, so... we don't seem to be in the business of raising a diva so far.}

Nell has four molars now, making twelve teeth altogether, I think.  It's hard to be certain because anytime I try to look in her mouth she acts as though I'm trying to murder her.

Nell is a busy girl these days.  She can stack her blocks on top of one another, loves playing with her purple ball, crawls everywhere quite fast, and pulls herself up on everything - including my skirts sometimes, which makes me feel like we're always living on the edge around here.  She was sick a lot just before turning one, and after that, it seems she was intent for a while on making up for the lost time of that month of viruses and ear infections and fevers.

Her favorite activities include dropping things over the edge of our bed, dropping things down from her high chair, and shoving things down the crack between our bed and the wall.  Faced with a basket of toys, she'll almost always choose to hold on to a tube of mascara, a lip balm, or a wooden spoon instead.  We've taken to calling my mascara her "security object."  Other babies have security blankets; Nell has security... makeup.

Nell gets immense enjoyment out of copying everything Mama and Daddy do.  For one thing, anytime she sees a phone, she goes for it with glee.  She picks it up, slams it against her ear so hard we wonder why it doesn't seem to hurt her {Nathan jokes that maybe she thinks that's how you activate it}, and starts babbling, always starting with "Haaaa!" (Hi!).

She is amused by non-verbal sounds, too, like clicking her tongue, sucking in air on a high-pitched screech, and making a "woo woo woo!" sound by clapping her hand over her mouth.  {We used to call it an "Indian" sound when I was little.  Now I'm sure nobody calls it that anymore.  Native American something or other?  Help me out here.}

Nell LOVES music, and whenever she hears it in any form, she stops whatever she's doing and begins waving her arms as if to conduct.  She learned this from watching her Dad and her Uncle Andrew imaginatively conduct recordings.  She also dances to the music.  Undeniably the cutest thing ever.

About a month ago I had a phrase from the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra stuck in my head, and kept humming or singing it absentmindedly.  One day I noticed that Nell was approximating that little tune - a descending fourth followed by a descending fifth - after hearing me humming it.  She likes to sing!

I've been sporadically doing some baby sign language with her, and she's great about showing me when she's "all done!"  The others are pretty hit or miss, although she can sort of do "more" and we're working on and "potty" (because we do Elimination Communication around here, but that's another post for another time).  I should really be more consistent about teaching her signs, but let's face it: I'm not one of those moms that has it all together in life, and this is only one of many things falling through the cracks, I can assure you.  

One of the most hilarious things about Nell right now is that she gets very jealous whenever Nathan and I hug.  Any time she catches us hugging each other she starts yelling or crying, sometimes weeping dramatically and sometimes yelling angrily!   We then quickly include her in a family hug, but to tell the truth, it's hard not to laugh at this particular trait.

Nell has quite a few words now that she uses regularly and I can pretty easily understand.  My personal favorites are probably "Nuh," for Nell, and "Nuh," for nursing.  There's just something cute about the fact that she uses the same word to refer to herself and to her favorite activity.  Oh, and she also has a cute, conspiratorial way of drawing near to me and whispering "duhbuhduhbuhduhbuh..." in a way that makes me grin.

Nell's Words:

Bah! (ball)

Mama (used specifically)

Dada (used specifically)

Na-na (Hannah)

Nuh (Nell)

Nuh (nurse)

Uh! (up)

Da *snort* (that)

Buh *snort* (book)

Bah *snort* (block)

Duh *snort* (duck)

Haaa! (hi)

bah-bah (bye-bye) (accompanied by hands waving)

She also imitates "woof woof" for a dog and "oo oo, aah aah" for a monkey pretty effectively.

{Oh, and if you're in the dark about the snorting thing, you might need to go watch this video.  Nell's working on her ending consonants.}

Dear Ellen,

It's been a wild ride these past couple of months.  I got mastitis -- twice -- and you got your molars in and then you had a cold and for a while you thought you should stay up until 10:00 pm and/or wake up at 5:00 am and then I got what might have been thrush or might not have been but in any case everything seemed difficult for a while and I even thought about quitting nursing.  But here we are, both still alive, and I think we're on the upswing - for now at least.  

In the midst of all that, we've been having some good times this summer, you and I.  We go out to yard sales every Saturday morning together, and have found quite a few great deals on things you love or will love when you're a little older.  I found you a little toile armchair for $5 and you climb in and out of that thing at least a dozen times a day.  It brings you so much delight.

Every day when the weather is nice, we go sit on the front steps for a little while in the sunshine.  Sometimes we eat fresh berries or some other small snack, sometimes we look at the flowers in the flower pots, sometimes we watch for the rabbits that hop through our yard.

I know it's cliche to say, but you help me look around and enjoy the little things in life, like comfy chairs and blueberries and flowers in bloom, and I like that.  Getting to share the good things about summer with you makes it all the more fun.

Lovelovelove,

Mom

Outtakes:

twelve months

I posted about Nell's birthday party, but also wanted to jot down a few memories of what she was like at twelve months, before I lost those memories in a fog of how much fun she is at thirteen months, combined with how much "fun" she is while her mouth is under siege by multiple molars.

A year old!  Insert a half dozen clichés here, like "where did the time go," and "how can she be one already," and "it goes by so fast," etc.



Nell at twelve months became obsessed with pointing at everything.  Pretty cute.

  

She likes to "dance" whenever she hears music, a sort of ab-crunching, hand-waving dance that I promise I did not teach her.  She came up with it on her own, and it makes everyone laugh!

She received this little chair for her birthday from soon-to-be-aunt-Hannah's parents, and was so very pleased with it.  She loves to sit in it and survey the living room from her elevated perch.

She started getting that other foot out behind her and doing a "regular" crawl occasionally instead of scooting everywhere with one foot behind and the other one folded in front.  She still preferred the scoot, though.

She had six teeth, if I'm remembering correctly - three on the bottom and three on the top, with two more top teeth looking like they'd be emerging any day.

Her favorite sound was still "Da da da," occasionally uttered as a drawn-out exclamation of excitement or joy: "Daaaaaaa!"  People comment on how sweet her little voice is, and I am inclined to agree.

Nell weighed in at 24 lbs, 6 oz at her 12 month check-up.  She started taking showers with Mama sometimes, since she was rapidly outgrowing the kitchen sink for baths.

Her doctor told me she was so cute I ought to get her into commercials or something.  "No, really," he declared, "I know you think that she's cute, but you think you're probably just biased.  I'm telling you she is really that cute."  I was pleased by this.  I suppose every mother likes to hear her baby's cuteness extolled.  It's not because we mamas are superficial; it's because we don't necessarily feel like we have much else to show for our mothering efforts yet.  Virtue and character, education and ability will {we hope} be instilled in our children with the passing of years, but during these tender early years, the cuteness is what we have to show the world after hundreds of diaper changes and nearly as many night wakings.  So by all means, comment on the cuteness.  Thank you very much.

Dear Ellen,

I know you won't remember your first birthday party, but I hope you'll always know we planned that party because we love you so much, and we think your life deserves a real celebration.

Lovelovelove,

Mom

eleven months

Still behind.  Always behind.  And not just in Nell's monthly posts -- in pretty much every aspect of my life.  Can't get ahead.  Will life always be like this?  

I am behind on work emails, studio recital planning, dishes, and laundry, but sitting down and looking back at the pictures I took when Nell turned eleven months old was somehow relaxing.  Useful or productive?  Probably not.  Mood-boosting?  Definitely.

Just look at a few of the many faces of this girl:

Well, back when Nell turned eleven months old, she suddenly became a happier baby than she had been at ten months old.  Ten months seems so long ago already that I can't quite remember what it was that made that time seem difficult.  Maybe it was the two top teeth that emerged between ten and eleven months.  Maybe it was just a developmental thing.  Whatever the cause, she just wasn't quite happy.  She fussed a lot.  It made me feel like fussing a lot.  (Haha.)  Instead, I said to myself, "This too shall pass," and what do you know, it did.  

Nell learned to scoot around very intentionally and get to what she wanted, and I think that helped alleviate her frustrations with life.

She began sliding her wooden shapes with holes in them on and off of their pegs with surprising precision and dexterity.  I was impressed.

Sitting in church one day, Nell clapped her hands together for the first time, something she figured out all on her own.  (Her silly mother plays pattycake using her feet instead of her hands, so I had never really showed her how to clap, I guess.)  She looked up at me with absolute delight at her discovery, and continued clapping for the rest of the day.  She was downright gleeful.  In no time at all, she figured out how to clap when she heard or saw other people clapping, or any time she heard me say, "Yay!"

Nell continued to determine that all food wasn't abhorrent, and became particularly fond of my homemade yogurt with banana and frozen blueberries stirred into it.  In fact, she started eating pretty much anything I was eating.  Black beans, green peas, raspberries, corn, tomato, hummus, avocado, carrots, green beans, cheese, and more.  I think this girl is going to be a good eater after all!  I felt kind of proud of myself for persevering in patiently offering her healthy foods, all while nursing her practically like a newborn until she was ready to eat solid foods.

Fortified by her newfound acceptance of foods, no doubt, Nell perfected her waving technique:

And she learned to give kisses!  Well, loosely defined, anyway.  When I hold Nell close and exclaim, "Kisses!", she will give me an open-mouthed slobber on the cheek, which I say totally counts as a baby kiss.  I love it.

"Dadada" continued to be her most-uttered syllables, with the addition of a new variant: "Duh-nuh."  It crossed my mind to wonder if she might be trying to say, "done," a word she certainly hears frequently enough and might try to repeat.

Her fake coughing diminished in frequency.  I think I'm going to miss it when she stops doing it altogether.  

{At least I'll have pictures to remember it by.}

Her method of scooting around made us laugh - one foot folded in front of her, and the other one behind her, she propelled herself surprisingly quickly and effectively, her hands slapping the floor in unison as she pulled herself forward.

And she's off.

Dear Ellen,

Everyone tells me that once babies are scooting, crawling, cruising, toddling, they begin to lose their baby chub.  We love to see you move and explore, but I'm not ready for those dimpled hands, those rubber band-like wrists, and those thigh rolls to vanish quite yet.  I just... you... words can't... 

You.  Are.  Scrumptious.

Stay my chubby wubby baby a little bit longer, please?

Lovelovelove,

Mom

ten months

Seeing as Nell is already nearly a year old (how did that happen?), I thought I should finally get around to posting her ten month pictures.

At ten months old, Nell had three bottom teeth and no top teeth.  She loved clicking her tongue and making the sound "Tuh! Tuh! Tuh!" with great enthusiasm.  After a brief hiatus, she regained her ability to make the sounds "Mama mama."  Her babbles grew to drawn-out "sentences," and I even noticed her "talking" - and smiling - in her sleep.

Her understanding of cause and effect became increasingly clear.  If she did something that made us laugh, she'd immediately do it again, and again, and again.  And we began to see the first hints of a wave, a gesture she initially reserved particularly for my friend Melissa, who is an excellent baby-waver.

She loved riding in grocery carts, loved playing with her feet, loved taking baths (and hated getting out).  She thought dropping objects from heights was the best game ever.  She liked reading, but thought the best part about books was poking her finger into the binding.  The screws on her high chair held a similar fascination.

Everyone kept saying she was days, moments even, away from crawling, but she preferred to scoot around, one leg folded in front and the other one sticking out behind her.  Her method wasn't yet perfected, but she was beginning to get the hang of actually going places she wanted to go.

Just before turning ten months old, Nell began to give me some hope about the possibility of actually, you know, eating food.  She ate sweet potatoes!  And avocado!  And then pears!  She didn't gag!  She liked them!  I began to think that I wouldn't have to nurse this child until college, after all.

A typical progression of the faces of Nell are fairly well expressed in the following three photos.  First, she's happy:

Next, she's excited:

And finally, she's so excited that she has to cough.

Yes, cough.  Because the coughing game, which gave her so much joy, seemed to develop in this child the sense that when one is quite happy, one coughs.  We feel sort of bad for confusing her by playing this game with her so often, but not bad enough to stop, because let's face it, it's cute. 

Dear Ellen,

Your emotional state this month has had me a little mystified and more than a little curious.  Twice when your Uncle Andrew dropped by to visit, you took one look at him and promptly burst into heart-wrenching sobs.  It really got me wondering what goes on in your head.  Were you sad that he got his own place and moved out after living with us since before you were born?  Were you so happy to see him that you felt a little overwhelmed?  Do you just hate him?  (Just kidding about that last one, of course.)

It will be so much fun when you can tell me all the interesting things you're thinking and feeling, little one.

Lovelovelove,

Mom

nine months

I figured I should finally write Nell's nine month post since, ahem, she's ten months old as of today.  It's important to keep up with the monthly updates, after all, so that any future children we may have can have something to complain about when I don't keep chronicling their lives with the same frequency.

Note: I actually did take the pictures and start writing this post when she turned nine months old, it just didn't get finished until now.  All the things she's "currently" doing actually apply to nine months.

Nine months.  On the outside for about as long as she was on the inside!  When it comes to losing pregnancy weight, everyone says, "Nine months up, nine months down."  So naturally I woke up on Nell's nine-month birthday and said to Nathan ominously before going to hop on the scale, "It's the day of judgment..."

One pound.  Still one pesky pound over my pre-pregnancy weight.

{Also, my pre-pregnancy weight was nothing to write home about, so... le sigh.}

Meanwhile, Nell's weight, if not mine, is fair game to be broadcast across the internet, and at nine months she was weighing in around 22 lbs of sweetness, chub, and kissability.



At her nine month checkup, which actually took place when she was about eight and a half months, her doctor asked if she was working on developing a pincer grasp.  Oh, she already had that down.  If someone has tracked the smallest pine needle into the house, Nell will scoot around and find it, picking it up carefully between thumb and forefinger.  Each tiny bit of dust is fair game.  Suffice it to say, she's putting my {dubious} housekeeping abilities on trial.

Nell and I have a little game we like to play these days.  She coughs, and I pretend-cough back at her.  She pretend-coughs, smiles, waits.  I cough.  She coughs.  Etc.  She is downright gleeful about this game, and while it originated in response to an actual cough, now that she's figured out how to fake-cough, she can initiate a round of this game any time she wants to.  In fact, she decided to play at her doctor's appointment, and even 'invited' him to play, too.  She coughed, I coughed.  She coughed, I coughed.  She turned, looked at Dr. L., coughed, smiled, waited.  He was quite impressed with her little game!  And yes, he coughed back.

Aside from her regular wellness visit, Nell and I also took another trip to the doctor recently, when she unexpectedly vomited six times within about a half an hour.  The latter five of these were fluorescent yellow bile.  While I'm usually not the sort of person to run to the doctor's office for every little thing, Nell is my first baby, and I found myself a little disconcerted.  By the time we got to the doctor's office, she hadn't vomited any more, and they couldn't find a thing wrong with her, so that little incident will remain a mystery.  Poor thing though, she was sad and confused by the whole thing, and spent the afternoon a bit subdued and very snuggle-prone.

Nell has figured out how to put things into other things, and consequently, spends a lot of her play time putting smaller objects into her biggest stacking cups, taking them out again, rinse and repeat.

She loves reading books, her current favorites being "Moo, Baa, La La La," "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," and "Pajama Time."  She's recently figured out how to poke her little finger through the holes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and seems to derive endless enjoyment from this activity.

Nell can scoot herself around a fair amount now, and will regularly end up three or four feet away from where I set her down on a rug or blanket to play.  She's not crawling yet, but she wants to!  She always gets one foot stuck in front of her.  I think once she figures out how to navigate that, and get up on her knees, she'll be off to the races.

She's recently started to "share" her pacifier with me, or, as I said to Nathan, "Look, Nell's offering me a drag on her binky."  I perceive this as her first act of generosity - and perhaps even love? - and it warms my heart when she wakes from a nap, takes her pacifier out of her mouth, and holds it up to my mouth.

On the opposite end of her personality spectrum, this same little girl who sweetly offers me a "taste" of all the things she loves to put in her mouth also threw her first tantrum just a few days before she turned nine months old.  The reason for the tantrum?  I had a tortilla chip in my hand, and she wanted it, but alas, could not have it.  I explained that it was salty, had sharp corners and edges, etc., and removed it from sight, offering something in its stead, but too late - Nell could not be pacified.  Angry screaming and back-arching ensued and lasted for several minutes.  I admit that I was not ready for this to happen so soon, and the whole experience was a little upsetting and overwhelming for me.

Ironically, despite what The Tortilla Chip Incident might indicate, she still hates and refuses pretty much all foods, with the occasional exception of a bite or two of egg yolk or a nibble on a slice of avocado.  Most offers elicit extreme shuddering and gagging.  I'm trying not to get ahead of myself and start worrying that she's inherited her father's extreme picky eating habits.  For now, I just keep patiently offering, but not forcing.  Hopefully she'll come around.



Nell has an extensive vocabulary of sounds, her favorite of which is "da da da da da da da."  Along with the frequent babbles, though, she can also employ a real humdinger of a shriek.  She shrieks when she's happy, she shrieks when she sees something that interests her, she shrieks when she wants something.  She's in no way trying to be 'naughty;' these are definitely the shrieks of an excited or intrigued little girl exploring her world (and her vocal range), but nonetheless, they are ear-splitting and a wee bit uncomfortable since it's usually my ears being split.  We're hoping that the excitement for life continues, but that this phase is otherwise short-lived.

In the list of things that probably only a parent notices or cares about, sometime between eight and nine months Nathan and I noticed that Nell whipped out an altogether new look for herself.  She now frequently employs the funniest little straight-mouthed smile.  Such a goofy girl, this one.




Dear Ellen,

I think the tortilla chip tantrum will forever be emblazoned in my memory.  I suspect that you have a bit of a spitfire in you beneath those big round eyes and sweet chubby cheeks, and this was only the beginning of things to come.  You are growing up quickly, as babies seem to do, and learning what you want.  You are rapidly becoming your own little person.  I just hope this growing up process isn't too painful for any of us involved.  I'm excited to see the kind of person you become: what you love, what you're passionate about, what you want out of life.  I know you'll find bigger and better things to invest yourself in than tortilla chips.

Lovelovelove,
Mom

eight months

On Tuesday, Nell turned eight months old.

She weighs about 21 pounds, 8 ounces... give or take.

{She wriggles on the scale and makes the readings a bit difficult to discern.}

After a brief hiatus, she has rediscovered - albeit intermittently - her ability to blow raspberries.

And adding to her repertoire of baabaabaa and vaavaavaa and yaayaayaa, she has learned to blow a little pffff sound, which is pretty undeniably the cutest thing ever.  She's also mastered a nice little smacking sound, not quite a "kiss" sound but again, beginning with a "pfff," just implosively instead of explosively.  

She is an expert shrieker, particularly when she is very excited about something.  Two notable such items include her red ball, and any glass of water she lays eyes on.

She loves water, and gets very excited whenever I get myself a glass, in the hopes that it will be for her.  Then, if she gets one sip, she gives a little yell if she isn't soon given another, and another.

She has a sippy cup, and she loves that thing.  Most of the time she seems to just squeak her gums against the rubber and forgets how to suck the water out.  But when she remembers, she is really quite enamored with the process.

She can drink through a straw.  Did I say her little blowing noises were the cutest thing ever?  Actually, the sight of Nell drinking through a straw is the cutest thing ever.  Okay, maybe it's a tie.

Nell really gets the whole idea of "peek-a-boo" now, and gets a kick out of it.  If I put my hands over my face and ask, "Where's Mama?" she will pant with excitement until I reveal myself.  And if I drape a blanket over my face -- or hers -- she can pull it off, and then laugh at the exclamation of "peek-a-boo!"

It isn't just peek-a-boo, though; she loves anything with a dramatic wind-up.  Crouching across the room and visibly creeping up on her will have her flailing with excitement.  Starting a gradual tickle at her feet and working up to her underarms makes her shriek with glee.  Pretending to sneeze with a drawn out, "aaahhh, aaahhh, aaahhh... choo!" elicits peals of baby laughter.

 In the past month, I've introduced Nell to bananas, avocados, and pears.

None of these were received with much enthusiasm.

That's okay; we'll keep trying.

Lately sometimes when Nell is sitting on her blanket playing on the floor, she reaches for a toy... and reaches farther... and a little farther... and finds herself in a semi-split position, supported on her hands, and unable to either push herself back into a sitting position or to move into a crawling position.  She sits there for a moment, stuck, and then cries for help.  But I think soon, she'll decide to crawl!  We'll be in for it then, and have to do some serious baby-proofing.

Dear Ellen,

In the past month you've had your first Christmas and your first tastes of solid food.  You seemed to enjoy the former quite a bit, but so far you are not impressed with the latter.

I find myself thinking a lot about how to help you learn to appreciate and enjoy healthful and nutritious foods.  I hope you grow up enjoying sweet potatoes, oatmeal, red lentils, guacamole, and a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables as much as I do.

I also hope we'll get to enjoy summer ice cream cones together from time to time, and bubbling fruit crisps, and many chocolate birthday cakes in the years to come.

I think we will have a lot of fun cooking and baking together as you grow up!  You already like holding wooden spoons and sitting in the kitchen with me while I cook or clean.

You still sleep beside me every night, and usually sleep from 7:30 or so until 7:30 or 8:00 am, with two snacks in the night - one when I come to bed and one in the wee hours of the morning.  Lately, though, you've been waking up at 4:30 and wanting to babble and play for a while.  Let's not keep that up, okay?

Lovelovelove,

Mom