Don't Forget About Me

I promised a post about Charley last week and am just now getting to it. She's doing lots of new things and saying lots of new things!!



1. She's getting lots of new teeth, too. She has five teeth now--two bottom, two front, and one to the right of her right front tooth. She seems to be working on the left one next to her left front tooth. Her smile is SO CUTE. I've got to take some pictures of it. Ryan was older when she got her teeth in so it looked cute in a different way. So, I'll just list the other tidbits of importance (or unimportance)....



2. This girl is a talker!! We know for sure she says: Mama, Dada (less often but has said it appropriately), Mimi, Ry Ry, Whoa (that is SO CUTE), and Wow (also so cute). I think I've heard her say book, baba (bottle), and baby. She blows bubbles and raspberries (I didn't know what rasberries were but have read other people talking about them-sort of like bubbles I think). Her voice is so cute!! Like the teeth, Ryan didn't talk as much at this age and by not as much I mean zilch. Dr. Moody said at the minimum they need to say one word by the age of 1 and Ryan was saying Mama but it wasn't even consistent. By 18 months they should say 20 words at the minimum-Ryan made that milestone but barely and I had to count different versions of words and animal sounds to reach 20. So, it's cute to hear a little baby that appears to be clueless saying things and seeing that she connects things. When Ryan reads this later I don't want her to think she isn't smart because once she started talking she hasn't stopped and I'd say she's advanced verbally now. She uses a lot of adjectives and words like always, sometimes, and maybe appropriately. So, back to Charley if she talks this much now I can't imagine what she'll be doing at 2 1/2 when she's Ryan's age. I think I'll have to get earplugs!!



3. She pulls up on everything all the time and then doesn't know how to get back down so immediately starts whining for someone to help her down. She'll stand and play on whatever she pulled up on if someone is there with her interacting but I think she is scared standing up if someone is across the room.



4. She has her Daddy's predisposition to be eaten by mosquitoes. We heard that mosquitoes tend to eat people who taste sweet and are not stressed. Ryan and I don't get eaten...I guess we are bitter and stressed. I know that's unfortunately true for me sometimes but don't think so about Ryan so much!



5. She is sleeping really well minus a couple of nights of difficulty. Sleeping all night from about 7 to 7 without needing parental intervention. She takes two naps usually about an hour each. Sometimes an hour and a half.



6. Her eating has been a challenge this week. I'm running low on milk and she's had to have some formula. She was eating it with no problem initially but now refuses it which stresses me out. So, I'm taking an herb to increase milk production. She's not loving my milk as much and has eaten less than the minimum the last few days. BUT, last week when she was weighed she gained 10 ounces in two weeks which Dr. Moody said was unheard of at her age. So, I guess she's got some extra stored to live on. She is getting very chunky.



7. She has had what we thought was ringworm and we treated it with anti-fungal medication for 3-4 weeks with little improvement. We took her back to Dr. Moody and it is a form of eczema that looks like ringworm. She's been using steroid cream for about a week and it looks so much better. Ryan had eczema as a baby too but when we moved to Arkansas (more humidity than WA state) it cleared up.



8. She likes to look at and read books. I remember Dr. Moody saying that babies that like books (even just playing with them) do better in school than babies that don't have any interest in books. So, that makes me happy. Ryan did (and does) too. She'll point at different things on the pages and say "whoa" and "wow."



9. She knows what "nose" is. She can point to Mama's nose or a doll/animal nose. She hasn't figured out her nose yet, though. Pat says he has shown her pictures in a book and she can point to "baby."



10. She loves her sister. Pat said he came home the other day with Ryan and Charley saw him first and was excited and squealing but just about went into a seizure due to the excitement of seeing Ryan. I saw her crawling toward Ryan's room the other day saying "Ry Ry."



11. She loves her Blah Blah doll that Mrs. McElmurry gave her and Ryan. It has been in her bed and when we put her in her bed to go to sleep she will scoot over next to it and either put her head on it or put her hand on it. IT IS SO CUTE.



12. She likes to stick her tongue out and have you imitate her and she will laugh and think it's hilarious.



13. She likes to feed people cheerios when she is sitting at her highchair eating them herself. She actually likes to feed people anything such as aluminum foil.



14. She LOVES to drop things off of the highchair and look at them fall to the ground and have them given back to her to do again.



15. She "loves" her animals/dolls and will put them up to her shoulder and hug them. She will also lean down and kiss them or kiss pictures in books. She also "loves" things that most people don't love such as plastic toys like food, pretend makeup, or a block.



16. She LOVES music and dancing. When Dora, Diego, or Cailou come on t.v. she immediately starts moving her arms up and down. If she's standing at her play table she will sway back and forth to music (I feel like I've posted about this before but can't remember and don't have time to go check so bear with me). I've downloaded this Sunday School song that I like from Children's Sunday School called Pharaoh Pharaoh and it's to the Louie Louie music. She LOVES that song!!


17. Ryan was lying on the floor acting like a dog today and I was patting her. Charley saw me doing this and crawled over and also patted her.

So, that's it. She's 10 1/2 months old and growing too fast!!

KK