I had a niece born on Thursday, and I was able to hold her when she was about nine hours old. BEAUTIFUL! What a fabulous experience. There's nothing quite like a tiny baby that's all pruny from nine months in the water! She smelled so sweet and her skin was like silk. Mmm. I would LOVE another baby in our house.
Speaking of my toddler (whose diaper is emitting some nasty fumes at the moment - so this will be a brief post)... she just asked me to open the cabinet where I keep canned goods. I did so, because she likes to take them all out and put them back. Today, though, she had a mission. She pulled all the stuff out to get to the bags of lentils that were in the back. She grabbed a bag in each hand (and at a pound each, that's impressive) and brought them to me. After putting one in each of my hands, she grabbed my hands, looked me in the face, then let go of my hands so that she could eagerly sign please.
Guess what we're having for dinner! Lentils with ground turkey and onions, some crusty rolls and a green salad. Mmm.
Uh oh. She just brought me the prunes. I gave her a tiny bite and she made her "icky" face. Guess we need to keep working on that one!
All right, must go put another diaper on this child. BumGenius, Mommy's Touch or Happy Heiny? We'll have to wait and see!
I know I keep posting on this these days, but it's really the highlight of what's going on in my world. The last time I posted about Peanut's vocabulary, it consisted of:
This girl can seriously communicate, although her speaking vocabulary is limited to "dada," "yeah" and "hey." She also says "shhh" for shoes, splash, and anything that possibly has a "shh" sound in it!
Today I was in the bathtub, sneaking a few moments of warmth and solitude while she was ensconced in the living room, busily rearranging my coasters for me. She does this for about a half an hour a day, so I figured I had a few moments for myself in between cleaning the house (my in-laws will be here in an hour and I'm procrastinating from vacuuming and going to the store).
Nope. Thirty seconds after the initial "ahhhh...." of warm water, there's a Peanut standing at the tub vigorously signing "drink, please, up, please, please, please..." By drink, she was referring to the water in the tub. She's not very good at the water sign yet, and her rendition of drink gets applied to anything liquid... So she got in with me and had a ball!
I think her most common sign is please. It's a great one, because it saves a lot of squawking. Although she doesn't always realize that I can't see her hand, and she signs please when I'm not looking at her... then she gets upset and squawks!
Peanut really does have quite the vocabulary now, though, and I really need to learn some more signs, because she's eager to learn more!
One of my blogging buddies, Top Hat, is hosting a new swap - it's called "Baby A Baby!" It looks like a lot of fun, and basically is for people that love yarn and love baby stuff. That is DEFINITELY me. So... without further ado, here's my answers to the introductory questionnaire for the swap-a-roo! Hurry up and go join before the deadline (which is really soon because I procrastinated on this one!) if you're interested!
1) What is your favorite yarn? Favorite colors? What is your least favorite?
You know, I've never been a picky yarn-er when it comes to natural fibers / unnatural fibers. I have a tendency to go unnatural, just because they're cheaper and I have access to them. I'm not a big fan of the eyelash yarns, but used in moderation, they can add a lot of punch to your project. Favorite colors? For me, I usually like earthier tones, less saturated colors, but for baby? I'm all over bright pastels! I usually tend to go pretty simple in mixing colors - I'm not a daring forty-seven color mixer in a project - one or two satisfy me.
2) Knit, crochet, both?
Crochet.
3) How long have you been knitting/crocheting? Who taught you? Why did you want to learn?
My mom taught me how to knit when I was little, but it never stuck. In college, my household (a sorority crossed with a prayer group) sisters found yarn to be extremely therapeutic, and our business meetings always went better with a lot of yarn involved. I tried knitting again, and tried crocheting as well, and found crocheting to be much more tactile, which I loved. I have to say I don't remember who exactly taught me (it was 10 years ago) but it was definitely one of my sisters.
4) What is your favorite snack/sweet?
Oh, interesting question. I like munchies a lot. I love potato chips (there's nothing quite like them!), trail mixes (but without chocolate, they're not quite as good!), almonds, semisweet chocolate, dark chocolate, mint chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate, crunchy chocolate.... etc! I'm mostly dairy-free for this year, so no milk chocolate or caramel for me at the moment!
5) What did you want to be when you grew up?
A chiropractor. My grandfather, great uncle, uncle, first-cousin-once-removed and dad are all chiropractors. I never fulfilled that dream, but my little brother just went back to school for it, and he's going to join my dad in his practice after graduation. In my family, we all fulfill each other's dreams. Seriously. I have fulfilled my mom's dreams. I should post on that sometime. It's interesting.
6) What names would you NEVER consider for a baby?
Tatum. (It sounds like something a two year old would make up). Dallas. (A city name? Really, that is what you want to name your child after?) Madison. (Presidential last names do not make good girl's first names. Taylor also fits that category). I'm very much a traditional namer. I want my children's names to not scream a time period when you hear it.
7) What things did you, as a child, vow to never to do your children, but have since decided that you will? For example, we weren't allowed sugar-coated cereal growing up and I told my parents I'd NEVER do that to my kids. After some life experience, I think my parents were pretty smart in that decision.
I told myself I would never ever call my daughter "girly girl." I hated that. Passionately hated that. Yeah, I call her that all the time. Oops.
8) What is your favorite thing about being a parent/expectant parent?
This changes as she changes. Currently, it's being able to communicate with her through baby sign language, and watching her realize that she can tell me what she wants... we make jokes and share secret communication - and she can't talk...
So not only did Peanut learn how to walk last Sunday night, she's just soaking up as many Baby Signs as I can teach her.
In the last week alone, she's started using: more, eat, baby, cat, all done and a vague and thoroughly unrecognizable-to-anyone-but-me banana. Add that to her previous vocabulary of dog, milk and light, and you can see how much has happened since we came home from Christmas vacation!
It really lights up her face when she is able to communicate something to me! It's also made diaper changes easier since she grasped the concept of all done -she knows that she can't roll away until I say and sign "all done" and she knows that she can't be excused from her high chair until she signs "all done."
Today she walked into the kitchen (that's already a fabulous improvement over last week) and signed "eat." When I asked her what she wanted to eat, she signed "more." Not so helpful. She then gave her attempt at banana but laughed when I looked so confused. So she walked over to stand under the counter where the bananas were, and pointed up. OH! I gotcha! Of course you can have bananas....
Life as a mother has totally changed overnight. I am in the process of making a Shutterfly album to showcase 2007, and am amazed at exactly how tiny and fragile Peanut looked one year ago...
