Once again, I've been too busy or not inspired enough to write for over a months now I think. I have started posts but they aren't quite ready to come to fruition, so I'll just do a quick update on Rini's progress in the past couple months.
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| I'm eating Hungarian mákosbejgli, and it's goood! |
Height: 76 cm
Weight: 9.2 kg
Clothing size: 80cm
Shoes size: 11.5cm (or 3 in the US as we recently found out)
Diaper size: medium
Teeth: still the same 6 from last time
Eyes: They also have not changed from their beautiful greenish brown.
Food: One of her main foods is definitely rice. Since she doesn't like mushy food anymore, but can't quite manage most foods without the hazard of choking looming over the meal, we have been giving her rice to help with texture. It's working out real well. Also, unfortunately strawberry season is over, so we're trying to find new seasonal fruits to give to her. Watermelon has been a great hit, we just take out any seeds beforehand, and make sure she doesn't wear her nicest outfit.
The one thing that has been becoming increasingly difficult to deal with is her tendency to ask for a bite from our (or when I'm around, specifically from my) food. Now this would generally not be a problem, except there have been a few times when I've been eating something she really shouldn't have, so when I tell her no, it causes tension and problems. Well, OK, to tell the truth, it's mainly my almost complete lack of ability to keep to my "No" is what's causing the problem. I'm working on it, but it's true that my parenting style is more lax than I originally thought it'll be, probably due to my desire to keep her happy during the short time we share together. This is a really dangerous territory of spoiling that I wish to avoid and it definitely needs work.
Bottle/Milk: After some tough nights, it seems like we were able to coax her to not expect milk anymore from the feeding when she goes to bed until midnight, and be content with her dad helping her get back to sleep if necessary. I feel like that because of this, she has been waking up less and less between 8P.M. and midnight, with usually first waking up between 1 and 2 A.M. However, once she wakes up, I feel like she comes to me almost more often than before, every hour-ish to be exact, until about 4-4:30A.M., when I'm getting out of bed soon after anyways. I think our next step will be trying to rule out those feedings between midnight and 4A.M., to have a final schedule of feeding at bedtime, midnight, and 4A.M. Another interesting thing I've been seeing is that at bedtime she seems to want milk from both breasts, which is somewhat a first for us.
Sleeping: Lately it's been harder to get her to sleep before 8P.M. Our routine hasn't changed, and she's still eagerly awaits her bedtime feeding at her usual time, however she doesn't seem to fall asleep anymore during these feedings. Instead, after she had her fill (usually 10 minutes or so), she gets up and starts crawling and bouncing all over the place. Then she comes back for a little more, then bounces all over the place again... and repeat. This has been making bedtime for me really difficult, because if I try to leave to let her play herself out on her own, the crying begins. On the other hand, if I stay, it's impossible for me not to fall asleep, losing out on some precious hours that I could spend with my husband or work when I must. If my husband tries to help out and take my place, that's still not good enough for her. I understand her, because the time we spend together during the week is mighty short, but it's been making our previous battle of keeping her asleep until midnight almost useless, if I'm right there next to her sleeping. I've been thinking about maybe letting her stay up just a tad longer, but I'm afraid of starting on a downward spiral of ever later bedtimes.
On the up side, I feel like she has stopped traveling around the world, or at least her and our futon, and has been sleeping more in the same spot than ever before since she's been mobile. Although I'd love that same spot to be on her own futon, I'll content myself for now with her current position of right in-between the two futons. She also has been much better at detaching herself after a few minutes of nighttime feedings, though if she catches me in a bad position, I still cut things short.
Finally, we've been toying with the idea of moving her from the family bed to her crib. If we could get her comfortable with it, I feel like she could play there safely whenever she's not ready to sleep yet, and could even help us with establishing some self-soothing techniques and possibly sleeping through the night more. Though to be honest, that's not a battle I'm looking forward to, so we might dilly-dally a bit longer, and see if things improve when she doesn't want to feed quite so much anymore.
Milestones: Her biggest achievement, at least in my eyes, is her finally able to give us kisses and hugs. Her first ever kiss happened while we were waiting for our flight at Hiroshima Airport during our NYC trip, and it was completely unexpected. It's the cutest little thing, and warms my heart beyond words every time she does it. Sometimes she kisses me when I ask her to, other times it's completely out of the blue, sometimes she'll only give maybe the one no matter how I beg, sometimes she gives me more I can count... or at least it feels like as such. She also gives the deepest of hugs, putting her little arms around my neck, snuggling her head on my shoulder, and I can actually feel her strength of pulling me in close to her and holding me there. It's such a different feeling from when she's holding on to me for support, but I can't really describe it.
Lately she's been vigorously practicing standing up on her own by pushing with her hands on the ground, instead of pulling herself up as she holds onto the table or wall, which is a pretty "old" skill by now. Most times she succeeds and stands for 10 seconds or more, before plopping down on her behind again. Although she has been able to stand at least this long for quite some time now, she only used to manage it when her attention was on anything but herself standing. This consciousness is what makes this a new and exciting milestone for me.
She is also much more comfortable at cruising around the house, and my husband tells me she's been trying to take her first step without any help. She has not succeeded in that yet, to my knowledge, but I feel like it will happen any moment now.
TMI alert: As a side note, I'd like to congratulate my daughter for going 1 year, 2 months, and 5 days without pooping into her bath water. That was a learning experience for all parties involved, and a prime example of jinxing oneself, as my husband and I just had a conversation maybe a day before about how we're looking forward to summer and swimming, and me arguing the non-necessity of swimming diapers, since she has never pooped in the water before. Yeah...
Update 1: As of Saturday, May 25th, she learned how to slide down on a slide. True, it's a tiny baby slide, but she got the technical parts down of one leg forward, then next, then hold the side, and slide. (^_^)v
Update 2: As of Monday, May 28th, Rini comfortably walks around with holding only one of our hands. She went from not daring to take a step unless we held both her hands to this in a matter of 2-3 days. Can't wait to see what comes next!
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| Watermelon hat... It's the new style, don't you know? |
Words: There have been no new words in the past couple months, however, she has become much more expressive overall. Her babbling seems more purposeful lately with more intonations and varied syllables, making it sound like she's using complete sentences in a language we don't speak. She's also learned to shake her head for "no," and in the past week or so, we have seen a nod or two as well, as an answer to our questions.
For example, just last week, when I was trying to decide what clothes she should wear for our trip to the zoo, I decided to ask her about it. I showed her an outfit and asked her (in Hungarian), if she would like to wear it. She shook her head. Then I brought out another one in similar colors (it was light blue vs the dark blue from previously), and again she shook her head no. So I pick out this cute little orange dress with flowers for the third choice, and she looked for a second, then nodded. And there it was, she made her choice. Whether this was a coincidence or not, I don't know, but she did not fight me when I put that outfit on her, like the way she usually does.
There was also another communication highlight around the same time, where I gave her a banana halfway in its peel as a snack, then went back to doing something in the kitchen out of sight. After a few minutes I came back to the living room for one reason or another, and couldn't see the banana peel anywhere. I asked her where it was, and she grabbed it from behind the laptop and showed it to me. Needless to say, I was gushing about this for a long time. (And I guess I still am.)
There are two other communication skills that she's been using for some time now, but I don't think I've mentioned them before. The first is that she has pointing down to the T, and the second is the "AAAH" sound she makes whenever she wants to eat, or just have a bite from my food. She also often uses this sound lately when she wants to be fed in the middle of the night.
Favorite toys: While we were in New York, my mother-in-law took me and Rini on a shopping trip. One of the things she got for Rini from my suggestion was
this little seahorse, which emits a soft glow and plays gentle lullabies mixed with ocean sounds for about 5 minutes at a time, when its tummy is pushed. I originally saw this seahorse years ago at a friend's house, while I was watching their son, and have decided to get one whenever the need arose. Unfortunately, while it's possible to buy this seahorse in Japan, it costs at least three times its price in the US, so I decided to wait. Anyways, here we were in the store, and they had the blue little seahorse, which turned out to be one of the best gifts Rini has ever gotten. It makes putting her down for the night much easier now, and lately she has hugged it a few times like it was something she was quite fond of. If this seahorse ends up being her lovey, all the better. I also love that there are two volume options, making the lower setting the gentlest little thing as she drifts off to sleep at night, while the higher one is great for nap times when it needs to counter all the noise of daytime.
Another favorite of hers is
the walker that she also got from grandma. It makes a gazillion sounds and she likes to push it around, too, though there's not much space to do so in our teeny-tiny apartment. The only thing I don't much like about this particular toy is how it cuts itself off mid-song which it started up on its own, too, without any sort of input from us. Also there seems to be little to no difference in some of the buttons when we switch between the two modes of play. I feel like this was not the case while she played with it back in New York, so maybe it's not a design flaw, but instead something happened to it during our trip back here.
The final toys that she seems super fond of are
a big round Spider-man plushy and the
Oregon Duck Pillow Pet, both of which we got from friends. When it comes to the Spider-ball, my husband tends to very lightly throw it at her, which makes her giggle and then she tries to climb on it and wrestle with it. As for the Oregon Duck, I just have to say the Hungarian word for duck ("kacsa") in a funny voice as I hold it and she giggles and giggles. (I should note, this does not work with any other duck figure.)
Likes: She loves to make the sound of "bah" at random times to make us laugh. It's really quite hard to explain, and we should, and indeed must take a video of it soon for the future, because it's quite adorable. She also loves buttons, especially on the laptop. (Thank goodness for the child-lock for the keyboard!)
Dislikes: Her dislikes haven't changed much in the past couple of months.
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| Playing in the library. YAAAY, horsey!!! |
Mommy/baby update: I've been putting in much greater effort in spending more time with Rini. I try my best to get home as soon as possible, and then once home, focus only on her. I've also been trying to have mommy/baby alone time for at least 3-5 hours during the weekend, where we go somewhere and play. Up until recently, these places have been the park near by and the shopping mall (Ito Yokado) with its child play area, and once we also went to the zoo. Luckily, I was able to add another place to the list just last week. On the fourth floor of our library there's a kids play area, which is waaaay cleaner, more varied and fun, and overall better than the one in the mall. The age of the children is also much closer to Rini's, which is another bonus. The whole area is carpeted, and there is a little play structure, complete with carpeted steps and two baby-sized slides. I think from now on, I'll try to take her there whenever it's too hot to stay outside under the sun.
Mommy only update (TMI alert): The only thing that has been foremost on my mind lately is my period. It changed dramatically from before I was pregnant, many ways which I have not anticipated at all. My cramps are still quite as annoying as before, but they last significantly longer, going from a single day or maybe two to 4-6 days of almost constant annoyance. My period also became a couple days longer, from 5-7 days to 7-9 days when all things are said and done. It's now also much much heavier, so much so that I was forced to buy the biggest tampons Tampax offers (level 5-out-of-5) and still needing to change them in less than 3 hours. Just to give a bit of perspective, the heaviest Tampax I needed pre-pregnancy was a 3-out-of-5, and it lasted for 4 hours easy even on my heaviest days. I guess I'll just have to see if this is just my body trying to adjust back into this whole mess of ovulation and what comes with it, or if it'll be a permanent feature from now on.
And that is all. (^_^)v
