Week 34:
We took another trip to the cabin. We had some troubles getting her down for bed the first night, but it wasn't as bad as last time.
She has started carrying her crochet octopus around with a tentacle in her mouth. She will also fling it around her by one of its tentacles. She's really stress testing it.
I was wondering if we took a walk with her in her wagon, would it work like a car ride. I was going to put the insert in and have her lay down, but she kept trying to stand. I buckled her in to the seat and we set off with my mom. She didn't like it when we stopped. We only walked to the larger bridge and back, but by the time we were going up the driveway she was twisted around and falling asleep with her head on the backrest.
Week 35:
We took a trip to the dump and also The Necessary Mercantile. They have a lot of things for bees and mushrooms. They also have some of the baked goods and honey/maple syrup that we previously could get at White's Wayside. You can even make your own shiitake log, it takes about a year to start and it keeps producing for about 5 years.
When I had her nurse to sleep she was getting grumpy because the food wasn't coming out fast enough. While she was whining I saw two little white lines in her upper gum. I think her top two middle teeth are really close to coming in.
We have been dealing with the aftermath of the sewage overflow and so far she is taking it in stride. She is getting to spend a lot more time with her VA Grandma while we pack. She and Bill have been having Giggle-Offs when we take breaks. Bill will be on the stairs and she will be at the top behind the gate. He will start giggling and she will giggle right back. It's so much fun to watch.
She got to try the queso dip and fettuccine alfredo from Lazy Dog. She was a big fan of both. At one point she was just playing with the noodle, so I tried to direct her hand to her mouth. I think she thought I was trying to take it from her because she forced her hand as far away from me as possible and started to grump. Bill managed to help her.
Leaning over is now on the list of things she can do while standing. She can hold onto something and reach for a toy she dropped or saw on the floor.
Since we are having some work done on the house I made sure to have everything Tank needs on the top floor. The only place I could figure out to put it was on the couch, near the back of the sitting area. However, she was very quiet on Thursday and I thought she was distracted by Tank because I heard some kibble rattling. Turns out she has figured out how to use the gap in the cushions to get herself onto the couch and was eating his food.
During our Thursday Girl's Night my mom and I ordered empanadas. We got some that were spinach and some that were brisket. She was okay with the brisket, but really loved the spinach. It tasted like spinach dip. She kept bugging my mom for more and more. She then moved back to me once she found out that I had one with spinach and not just the brisket. Between the two of us she ate the equivalent of half to two thirds of an empanada.
Both Bill and I are having a lot of fun letting her try new foods. She is also a really good eater. At dinner out with my parents she got to try some pasta from Bill's jambalaya. She didn't think it was too spicy. She also liked the fish from my fish tacos and the sweet potato fries. I tried to give her some ketchup, but she spit that right back out.
Week 36:
For what felt like the longest time, Miss Spud wanted to be a no-nap baby. She would get so grumpy during the day. I finally fully caved and tried to give her one or two contact naps a day.
When playing on Sunday she kept handing me and taking back her orange-red wool ball. I'm glad that she is good at independent play but is also willing to share, as far as she currently understands sharing.
I think it started at the cabin, but she loves crawling around with a toy in her mouth. She completely stretched out a Worry Worm. I had to make her a second octopus because we think we left her grey one at the cabin.
I wasn't sure how she was going to do when we went to see a movie, especially since it started at her dinner time. I should have left Bill with wafers or the bottle because she became very grumpy when I went to the bathroom before the movie. During the movie she wanted to crawl around but we couldn't let her. We gave her some yogurt and chicken I had premixed. She also got most of her bottle and two packs of wafers. Early on in the movie she kept messing with her hearing protection, so we ended up just taking it off. I think she did pretty well overall. She quickly fell asleep on the way home.
I heard her grumping one night and looked at the baby monitor. She wasn't standing up, so I hoped she would go back to sleep on her own. She turned, saw her crochet octopus, crawled over to it, and grabbed it before going back to sleep.
Bill made beef stroganoff for dinner. Miss Spud really liked the buttered egg noodles. She thought one of the carrot pieces was okay, but liked the sauce more.
When I first tried banana spears they didn't work out. I decided to try them again on Tuesday as an appetizer for her dinner along with her puffs. She did great with them this time. She would pick one up and usually ended up taking a bigger bite than she needed to. She would then push half of it out of her mouth before getting that piece with her other hand.
When we pick her up she is now always grabbing for something to help stabilize herself. A shoulder, the neck of your shirt, or a bunch of hair.
She asked for a snuggle nap on Wednesday. She kept pulling herself up when I was in the rocking chair and kept trying to crawl into my lap. When I would pull her up she would smash her face into my shirt and rub her face back and forth. Normally I have to try and convince her to not fight the Sleepy Monster, but today she welcomed it. It makes sense that she can take a snuggle nap, because I can't do anything fun without her if she's on me. She might not see it that way, but it makes sense.
I was worried that Miss Spud would get scared because of all the strange noises from the flooring getting done on the main floor. She likes watching the workers take things out the front door and bring new things in. She didn't mind having lunch in her play center a few times, which is good because I just wanted to stay out of their way.
Week 37:
I was hoping they would have gotten a lot of the flooring done on Saturday, but they didn't, so I was still not able to get to her highchair. I had washed her play center after a very messy lunch, so that was still drying. I put a bunch of puffs into one of her LovEvery Drip Drop cups. I made her pull them out and not just dump them onto the floor.
She is getting tired of getting fed and wants to be able to feed herself. Figuring out what to make for her would be a lot easier with a more easily usable kitchen and her highchair.
Scooting to the side is so easy for her now. She used to only be able to do it slowly and as long as there was nothing in her way. Now she can be concentrating on something and scoot over things like her Boppy.
My mom brought her a plastic toy that looks like a duck inner tube. When she is playing with it in the bath she will chew on it, dunk it into the bathwater, then chew on it again.
Bill took me to iHop for Mother's Day. Miss Spud got to try hollandaise sauce, eggs, pancakes, breakfast sausage, grits, and avocado.
We had gone to JoAnn Fabrics on Mother's Day, but one of the yarns I saw, but didn't get, I kept thinking about. Mary and I went with Miss Spud when Mary was done with work on Monday. I'm sad she won't remember going there to shop with me. However, when we got home she went right to sleep after her night-time bottle. That place really puts her to sleep.
It's really funny to come out of the bathroom and see Miss Spud laying flat on the floor. She's realized that she can see under the space at the bottom of the door. Tank will sometimes play with her if he's in there and she sticks her fingers under the door.
When she plays with the music palm tree on her play center I have been dancing to the music. She has started dancing to it as well. It's a bit hard during the floor remodel because she will play with it and dance while I'm trying to feed her. She will also sometimes do a little happy wiggle and giggle if she really likes what she is eating. She really liked my leftover palak paneer.
I got some spicy chicken for dinner on Tuesday. I thought if I took all the spices off the outside it would be okay, but it was still too spicy for Miss Spud. She would cry, her mouth would feel a bit better, she would chew it some more, then repeat until I pulled the piece out of her mouth. I then got her to drink some water, even though I had to hold her hand out of the way. She felt much better after that and even tried to drink some water on her own later that night. She couldn't figure out how to lift it right, so she would lay over it and drink from it when it was laying down.
She has been getting tired of having fruit oatmeal for lunch. I didn't just want to give her puffs and wafers, so I tried to figure out something for lunch. I microwaved some frozen broccoli and cooked some pappardelle to add butter to. She loved all of it, especially since she could feed herself. I even ended up having to make more broccoli for this broccoli fiend.
Sometimes when she is feeding herself she will smash the food against her mouth, scrunch her nose, and breathe in and out quickly.
I keep trying to teach her All Done in baby sign language, but Miss Spud has developed her own signal. She will clasp her hands in front of her mouth and move one arm up while moving the other down alternating arms or force her hands between her mouth and whatever you are offering.
Week 38:
She is becoming such a goofball. She likes to crawl all over us and will flop over while giggling. She also comes over to us when we are eating dinner and pulls herself up to stand so we will give her some of our food.
If she gets ahold of my yarn she likes to put it in her mouth and pull down, like the she flossing the outside of her bottom two teeth. She will sometimes eat her wafers by scraping it along her bottom teeth.
She ate really well at Texas Roadhouse. She liked the deviled eggs, broccoli, cheddar cheese, and mashed potatoes. At one point a table near ours had a birthday. They did the birthday thing and three of the waitresses stayed around to talk to Miss Spud and exclaim about how cute she is and how she is very alert to the things around her. A few times she took food I gave her out of her mouth so she could feed herself with it. The hostess loved her so much she wanted to hold her before we left.
She took a nap on the way home from dinner on Sunday, so she didn't want to go to sleep easily. I noticed that tooth number four has broken through. It hadn't earlier in the day.
I don't think she understands what waving is, but she does know that the adults go crazy when she flails her arm at them.
Bill gave her some pizza on Wednesday night and we split the leftovers the next day. She really liked the pizza and loved ripping bites off with her lower teeth.
I've noticed that she is smiling at people she sees on screens more consistently. If I'm watching a YouTuber that I follow she will smile up at them, or if Bill is on a video call, she will smile at them.
I have a small jewelry holder that is currently in the video game room. Miss Spud discovered on Friday that you can open the one door and that the drawers come out.
We got her some Singapore noodles because we thought she would like the flavor. Turns out they are a bit too thin for her. If she could get an end into her mouth she could slurp it up, but they were evading her. She got so frustrated with them. She did like the egg strings in my egg drop soup and Bill's rice.
