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aryanhwy
We celebrated a few days early by finally getting a bike seat:
I'd originally gone out the weekend she turned 6 months, because by then she was sitting solidly and I figured that was the key qualification for getting a bike seat. But then I found that the recommended ages on the seats themselves was 9 months +. So that triggered three months of waiting. After Gwen's 8 month appointment, when I was handed literature that said basically "once they can sit solidly on their own" I decided that my next free weekend I'd cast caution to the wind and get her a seat, about two weeks early. I was so looking forward to no longer having to walk out to work, so I was pretty peeved to go out that weekend to not one but two bike stores only to find that they were closed on vacation; one is still closed, but the other opened again on Tuesday, so we went out Tuesday morning, picked out a seat (and a kickstand for my bike!), and then I left my bike there for them to put the seat on, since I wouldn't have trusted myself to figure it out on my own. We were able to pick it up Thursday morning.
That first trip back was moderately terrifying. She, and it, weighs a lot! And if you're not used to having weight sitting there, it changes the balance of the bike. But the worst is that the gap between my seat and hers is small enough that I have a really hard time getting on the seat (and I have to get off it whenever I stop in order to put my foot on the ground). I'm really hoping that lowering my seat will give me just a bit more clearance so that stopping at intersections and then having to get started again isn't so trepidatious. I did dig through Joel's tool box yesterday morning to try to find the right kind of wrench to lower my seat, but couldn't, so we just biked very carefully and tried to stop as little as possible to and from campus yesterday. When Joel's back tomorrow I'll ask him to lower the seat.
The last two weeks or so, since my last update, have been characterized primarily by frustration. She really, really, really wants to be able to crawl, but she just can't seem to get both knees under her. When she's sitting, she's very good at turning one leg around so that her foot is behind her, and then leaning forward and resting on her hands, sometimes pulling herself towards whatever toy she wants, and then she can sit back and switch to the other foot, but whenever she gets both feet behind her, the knees splay out and her stomach goes down, and she gets frustrated because she knows it should work better than this. Even so, she's still quite mobile, with rolling, turning on her stomach, etc.
She still absolutely adores standing. When we went to BabyLab for her experiment, the staff there commented on the fact that she stands flatfooted, rather than on her tiptoes; she has since the first day her knees were strong enough to support her. The lead research also commented on the fact that she didn't fuss when I wiped her face off with a wet washcloth after eating. I told her there's a trick to it -- she doesn't fuss if the appropriate sound effects (roughly "vwhup, vwhup, vwhup") are made. Fail to make them, and she complains. Make them, and she grins. Works for both me and Joel.
I've been intending to start doing baby sign language with her (I've learned the signs for "tired/sleep", "hungry", "dad", and "kitty"), but I haven't been very good at using them yet. Partly this is because she's not always looking at me when I talk to her, and partly because often when I'm talking to her I'm carrying her, so both my hands are full. But she's already beginning to use her arms for expressive communication; I think she's beginning to get the concept of waving good-bye, but the thing she has down pat is something that she's also taught me and we both use to communicate, and that's bending our arms so that our elbows stick out and our hands are in front of us, and then wave your elbows up and down so that your hands shake. This has become a sign for "I'm happy" and, more specifically, "I'm happy to see you".
She's become more interactive, rather than just reactive. Once or twice she's pulled her pacifier out her mouth and tried to give it to me. A few times she's initiated something like peak-a-boo. And the other day, she had the hiccoughs, and whenever she hiccoughed, I responded with a fake hiccough of my own, and then she'd give a fake hiccough, if a real one didn't come fast enough! It was really cute.
A few days ago I got a package of board books for her from my mom. Books of any kind are good, especial ones that you can eat, but she's shown particular appreciation for Chicka Chicka ABC; she'll sit and bounce in my lap making happy noises while I read it, rather than squirming to get away or grabbing at the book to read it.
Now that she has teeth on both the top and bottom, she likes to grind and click them together. Uggh, that sounds makes my soul shrivel up.
I think that's everything I've been mentally filing away for the last few weeks.
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Date: 2012-08-11 02:22 pm (UTC)Yeah....That used to happen to me, too-short-legged guy that I am. A salesperson at REI put me on to flat-footed bicycles (http://www.electrabike.com/Technical/electra-bike-flat-foot-technology) (note: I am referring to this page not as a product endorsement of that company, but because it's a simple explanation, and, well, it was the first page up that did have a simple explanation). I use one now every time we go to Long Island, which has a lot of, errr, "drivers inexperienced with bikers" (read: Manahattanites who can't deal with anyone not in a car), which means a lot of stopping if you're on a bike.
Dunno if such things are available in your neck of the woods, or if there are any new or used within your price range, but it might be worth looking into for you.
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Date: 2012-08-11 02:27 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure lowering my seat will do the trick to let me get on and off...I hope, because that's definitely cheaper than buying a new bike! (Though even that is cheaper than buying a car).
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Date: 2012-08-11 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-13 10:49 am (UTC)I love her smile in the 9 months pic.
Good Luck, riding with her.
Figlia loves her face being wiped...so I don't have issues with it. You have to see her fuss, when I try to put nasal drops into her nostrils...
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Date: 2012-08-13 10:50 am (UTC)If you do not share it, that's okay with me too.
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Date: 2012-08-13 02:32 pm (UTC)Figlia is the only baby other than Gwen that I've ever come across that doesn't fuss at getting her face wiped!