Week 43: November 4 - 10

Nursing
Nursing is going great!

Sleeping
Sleeping is going great, too. We were a little worried about daylight savings on Sunday, but Madeleine once again rose to the challenge. On Saturday, we went to a friend's house, and Madeleine took her second nap there. She was asleep before 2pm and she slept until about 3:50! On any other day, I would have woken her at 3:30, but because of the time change, we let her sleep. She was asleep for bed at 7:45pm (way later than usual), then woke at about 6:30am (new time; to her, it was 7:30am). She did great most of the day, but by bedtime, she was super tired. Even though she'd slept great, her little body still said it was up too late.

Monday she woke at 5:30, Tuesday at 6, and Wednesday she slept until 7am. Totally awesome little baby! Things are looking good! Also, her naps are great. I think it may be because she is so much more active, what with cruising and crawling all over the place. :)

Solids/Food
Madeleine really likes eating with people. On Sunday, we went out to eat with our friends Todd, Amanda, and Manning. We'd gone out with them and Amanda's family two Sundays before. On both occasions, Madeleine sat in her high chair with her cloth napkin bib on and ate her little pieces of food with complete contentment. She smiled at everyone, laughed occasionally, and generally seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself.

The Baby-Led Weaning book says not to make a big deal out of baby eating, to just go on with our meal like normal. Matt and I have gotten used to doing this. We give her some food and then talk like normal. Sometimes one of us laughs, and more often than not, Madeleine will laugh too. It's as though she's trying to participate in what's going on at the table beyond just eating. It seems as though she knows that meals are important and she wants to be part of them. It is totally awesome. SHE is totally awesome!!

She tried green peas for the first time this week. I'm not sure if she was just not hungry at the time or if she didn't like them, but she had a great time smashing them one-by-one on her high chair tray!

Her progress with eating is phenomenal. She's starting to swallow! Less food is hitting the floor! Her poop is getting more solid! All good things. I've noticed that for certain foods, like biscuit, we give her one or two pieces and she'll work on those for the entire meal instead of eating some and then dropping the rest. She used to go through half a biscuit at breakfast, but now just those 2-3 pieces. Yay!

Foods she LOVES: biscuits, apples, cantaloupe, peaches, tomatoes
Foods she likes: zucchini, green beans, chicken, carrots, asparagus
Foods she doesn't love: bananas, cucumber.
Potential problem foods: cheese, yogurt (dairy??)

By the book...
According to "Your Baby's First Year, Week by Week," during this week, Madeleine:
1. May be able to raise herself to a standing position (she still needs us or furniture)
2. Carries two small objects in one hand (um? haven't seen her do this...)
3. Reaches behind herself to get a toy without seeing it (um... she definitely reaches, not sure about her seeing it or not...)
4. Is interested in fitting things together (not yet. Supposedly, this comes with the next Wonder Week, which is after week 46)
5. Seeks social approval (YES! I think the mealtimes with others is evidence of this)
6. Seeks companionship and affection (well, she wants to be with one of us at all times. She's more cuddly sometimes)
7. Fears strange places (haven't seen this yet)

New Things
Oh boy, does this girl like to walk! She loves standing against furniture and playing with things or pulling perfectly folded laundry off and dropping it on the floor. :) BUT, if I get too close to her, she reaches out and grabs me--my hand, my pants, my arm, whatever. Then she's trying to get me to help her walk. I feel like one of those robots that is controlled by a person perched inside the machine. Think "District 9." She will get "loaded" and start walking. When she wants to stop, she'll let go of one of my hands, explore or whatever she wanted to do. When she's done, she searches for my hand again so that she (and I) and move on. It's hilarious.

Matt has taken Madeleine on multiple walks around the house. He holds her hands and she walks all over the place. It's one of the best things for her to come around the corner and see me. She smiles really big and turns on the jets, walking faster to get to me. Of course, she gets distracted halfway there, but it's still totally awesome.

More walking news: a few times this week, she played with her basket, but in a different way. I turned it over so that it wouldn't tip (in the carpeted room), and she stood beside it with her hands on the bottom. Accidentally, it scooted forward a little because of Madeleine's weight. It was kind of like using a walker. She was surprised, kinda like, how did I get to here from there? But then she just kept playing. :)

We got Madeleine a cool toy for crawling or walking after (you can see it here). She does crawl after it, but what's more fun to watch is her holding Matt's hands, walking after the worm, and kicking it. Yes, kicking it! See the video in the video section.

On a totally unrelated note, Madeleine has become VERY ticklish, and it seems like it's happened just in this last week. We noticed that she's ticklish under her arms a few weeks ago, but lately she's ticklish on her tummy, her feet, her neck, and sometimes totally unexpected spots, like her elbow! She is so delightful when she's laughing that we have a hard time not trying to tickle her ALL THE TIME. I personally hate it (though I don't know many people who like it), so I don't want to tickle her if she isn't enjoying it. Cuz it's hard to tell---laughing isn't a voluntary reaction. But there are times we just can't help it. She is simply too cute!

Something NOT so cute: crying when a toy is taken away or she is moved from somewhere she was playing. I think she has more trouble with this when she is tired, because she doesn't do it very often. We are always surprised when she protests like this, so I think that speaks to its infrequency and unpredictability. We are never sure what to do, though. Cave and return the item? Or stick with our reason for taking the item away? My gut reaction is that it's about naptime, and distraction is always good. I don't know if she's too young to try and teach her that crying doesn't get her what she wants---though, crying is the only way she can communicate.

Misc
Madeleine has a game that she plays with Matt. He'll have something in his hand, and he will give it to her. Then she'll take it, but almost immediately try to put it back into his hand. She'll do this over and over. It's fun to watch, though I wouldn't mind if he didn't play this game while driving. HA! Just kidding. Only when we're stopped at lights.

Madeleine is awesome right after she eats. She's always in a great mood. She and I play for a few minutes after each meal, anywhere from 5-15 minutes. We do all kinds of little things, but she'll get this awesome smile on her face and lean into me, like she's shy. Sometimes, she'll give me little kisses, but this week, she put my whole nose in her mouth and licked it. LOL. She's so funny!

For months, I've been singing the same song to Madeleine before bed. In the last week or so, she's started to relax and lean her head against me while I sing and rock her. It is one of the best things ever. She also will do this for naps, but there's something super special about bedtime.

CAMP CRAWL!
On the subject of crawling. It is true that Madeleine doesn't crawl much, and that her technique is not textbook when she does crawl. We discussed this with her doctor at her 9-month visit, and the doctor said not to worry. She thought Madeleine would have it down by a year old. Madeleine doesn't get a ton of practice crawling because our floors are mostly wood and it's a lot cooler now than in the summer. If she has warm enough clothes on, it's hard for her to get good gription on the floor.

Still, we do want her to learn to crawl, and we need to provide those opportunities. So starting Wednesday, we put her on the floor a lot. This is the inaugural run of Madeleine crawling. She's already improved since starting Camp Crawl. She's got a decent grasp of technique, but she just needs to realize that it's more efficient to get her belly all the way off the floor. And the doctor said she'd get it eventually.



Teething Update
Madeleine seems to really like having four teeth now. She can rip into food, and chew on her toys differently. The food, especially, is great. I think her improvement in eating may have something to do with her teeth. Anyway, in this pic, you can kinda see both sets of teeth.



Slideshow

Video of the week!