Week 56:
Our trips to the cabin seem to feel the need to be way more dramatic than is necessary. We had the trip that resulted in us needing new floors, the trips where Tank really had to use the potty, and now the first time Spud has thrown up. I'm not counting when she was tiny and had some baby spit-ups. This was where there were chunks and smelled like stomach acid. An upset stomach would explain why she didn't want to eat much at lunch. She did not want to go back into her car seat, which made sense, even though we wiped it down. It took both of us to get her secured. To reward her we let her play with Bill's dead smartwatch. She threw up some more liquid and then seemed to be hungry. It took some searching but we found her some bread(a hotdog bun), and some Pedialyte. She even felt up for some chicken bites later and was singing.
Week 57:
We had a historian over to tell us about the cabin. Miss Spud spent most of the time walking around and getting better at walking over the threshold between the living room and kitchen. At one point she leaned over Tank from behind, wrapped her arms around him, and tried to pick him up.
I saw her walking quickly after Tank at one point and watched her walk over the threshold a few times.
She tried to help her Grandma pack and unpack on Sunday when we were getting ready to head home. At one point she snagged an onion and was carrying it around. She tried to eat it, but wasn't impressed with the dry wrapper.
On our way home we made an extra stop because we had to use the bathroom. We got dinner at McDonald's as well. Miss Spud ate almost an entire 4-piece chicken nugget Happy Meal. The only thing she didn't eat was her apple slices, and that's probably because I didn't give them to her in the car. She also showed off how she's able to get her water bottle into the cup holder on her car seat.
She is so smart. When I need to take something from her that she isn't supposed to have I usually offer a trade. She has now offered me two of her carrots for my computer mouse and also my keyboard on separate occasions.
On Wednesday, Mary came over for a bit and Miss Spud showed off her toys and how well she can walk. When it came to nap time she only wanted to be held by Mary and kicked and fussed when I took her.
She ate a lot and did some babbling at knit-night. She smiled at everyone and giggled. She was not happy when I put her in the cart to go grocery shopping, but my mom distracted her with a tape measure.
Since she has started to protest diaper changes, I keep needing to figure out new things to distract her with. For a while the wipes container worked, then it was a sparkly gift bag, but the Smart Watch tends to be the one that usually works. She's figured out how to take pictures on my phone with the watch. She even managed to start calling Emergency Services. I cut the sequence off before it actually called, but she got close.
Friday night I told her that I love her. She then said Lou back to me. That was before I changed her one toy away from planting carrots to planting trees. She was unhappy with me when I did that until I changed it back.
Week 58:
When getting ready to go to Melly's birthday party she kept trying to crawl into the master bathroom. We kept putting her on the bed so she could chase Tank around, but with no hesitation she kept sliding off. She would plop on her butt from the force of the slide, but even though she was practically free falling for a bit of it, she kept sliding off.
She had a lot of fun at Melly's birthday party. She liked watching the big kids play. Melly and her interacted with each other, but didn't seem to quite know what to make of each other. She had a lot of fun going up and down the stairs to the deck. At one point she snagged a cup with some soda in it and managed to take a drink out of it. She tilted it back and then used one hand on the bottom to hold it against her mouth. She got some liquid in her mouth and lowered it some before she just dumped it all out.
When it was close to her nap time she got snuggly, but got a second wind when the desserts came out. Mark held her a bit and commented on how differently they feel. Melly still has all those nice baby rolls while you can feel Miss Spud's muscles working while you hold her. Before we left, she got to pick out a toy puppy and we also got her birthday present. She tried to fight it a little, but was out on the car ride home.
When we first started brushing her teeth, she was fine with it. Lately she hasn't been a fan of it. I've managed to get her to work with me on it by making it more fun or distracting her with a toy. She started flopping over and getting into sleep position when I would bring the toothbrush over to her. I then would waggle it at her and she would giggle. I could then get a few teeth on that side before she moved her head, and I went after more teeth on the other side.
She loves blanket caves. One of us will lay on the LoveSac and will pull the blanket over her and us. On Sunday night she had both of us under there and she was having the best time. I had some YouTube shorts playing that had some fireplace noises. Miss Spud was having fun flipping through all of their videos. Their username is TinyHousePerfect if you want to look them up.
On Monday at Boardgame night she was doing pretty well until Bill took the snack tray out of the wagon and she managed to get her finger stuck in the buckle on the other side of the wagon. After that she wanted to he held or set free. She was not happy being placed in her playard at all. She ended up hanging out with Heather and tried to type, spun in a chair, and watched some Paw Patrol. Once we got home she started playing with her carrots again. She did her More sign and then tapped the box when she had pushed all the carrots inside of it.
We play ball with her before she goes to bed. She's starting to get really good at throwing the ball down instead of just dropping it. She's managed to bounce it most of the way across her room a few times.
She's been making "fishy face" more often, but never when I can easily take a picture. I don't know how they are so good at avoiding cameras.
Steven, Miss Spud, and I went to the Apple store. We had decided to get lunch and he needed his iPad checked out. While there Miss Spud tried out a bunch of smart watches and wasn't impressed with any of them. She also waved to two dogs. I'm trying to get her into the habit of waving to dogs now and then petting them once she can ask if it's okay and follow the answer.
She did not want to nap on Friday and I ended up giving her a nursing-nap to get her to take one at all. She only slept for about one hour before Tank also wanted attention and ended up waking her up. Around 8:30pm she started getting easily grumpy. We played with her LovEvery Wooden Stack and Slot and her LovEvery Slide & Seek Ball Run. Once we were tired of that, we made a small blanket fort. That didn't last long before she kept lifting the side of the blanket. I was looking at my phone and she crawled up to me and leaned on me. Before I knew it, she was moving her head from side to side to get comfortable and try to fall asleep. I supported her butt and let her snooze a little before we put her to bed. When she was placed in her crab after her bottle, she just sat there and didn't just stand back up. She didn't give too much fuss when I brushed her teeth and didn't fuss at all when we left without playing ball with her.
Week 59:
After finishing her lunch she spent the rest of the time at knitting walking around. She didn't bother anyone's bag too much. She found the toy corner and had a lot of fun with a tow truck, a fidget dog, and a generic truck. She opened the cabinets by the sink in the main room a few times. Everyone was impressed by how well she walked around.
We went to Rocky Horror, but we didn't know how long we were going to stay. Before the show Miss Spud was acting shy and was hugging my legs while watching people get ready. At one point Funkle Ryan handed her two packets and challenged her with a third. She impressed everyone around her with her problem solving skills by only taking two tries to get them all. When she got more comfortable she started walking in circles and hugged Ryan's legs at one point.
To get out of everyone's way we wandered around the theater. She loved going up and down the aisle. When the show started I tried to confine her to one row, but she started crying when she couldn't get to the aisle. I then took her out and we spent the rest of the time we stayed walking around the lobby, going up and down the stairs to theaters 1 and 2, trying to go into the bathrooms, poking the arcade games, and playing in the sink in the Lady's Room. At one point she did some quick stepping, like she was going to try running, but didn't commit to it.
At the neighborhood block party we let Miss Spud play in the bounce house. The bigger kids loved her being in there and kept some of the others from putting balls in there or playing too roughly. One of the boys was trying to become her friend. He moved a small seat over for her to use when they were inside the house and kept trying to share his snacks with her. He wanted to spell out her name in magnet tiles on their door to the garage.
Miss Spud got some free bananas. We were getting some that were ripe and some that needed some time. I put in the code for the Overripe Bananas but it gave me an error. I ran the other bananas regularly and then tried the other code again. It didn't work so the lady manning the self checkout came over to help. She tried entering the same code and it also gave her troubles. She then said to not worry about it and put them with the scanned bananas. She then told me to pay and to not worry because the ripe bananas are "damaged" so I shouldn't pay full price.
She was so excited to see her banana. I let some of her bananas get too ripe, which she doesn't really like. She wants them to have spots, but still have a firm texture. Too soft and she will eat some but then start to mush the rest. She did a little happy wiggle and almost started crying when she saw them and then thought I was taking them away. I've never seen her eat her banana spears faster.
Every time I see it I love how she has decided her own version of signing "more". The traditional way has your thumbs touching your fingers and then you bring your fingertips together with the tops of your fingers outward. She does that with her right hand, but touches them to the palm of her left hand.
I got a text from Bill that while I was at Stitch & Bitch, Miss Spud had pulled her diaper off and had thrown it over the baby gate while Bill was baking. When I got home she had gotten it far down on her hips again. We checked it to make sure it wasn't dirty, but it was fine. She then wanted to eat more of her dinner while wondering around.
When I tried to put her in her sleep sack she just wanted to act goofy. She was rolling around so it made it hard to catch her arms. I then started draping it over her and she thought that was hilarious.
She has started bringing me her snack cup to fill up when she wants something. She's seen me fill it up enough times that she will bring me her empty cup if I'm sitting at the table and wants me to fill it up for her.
Week 60:
We had planned on one of us taking her home during Rocky Horror on Saturday, especially when she couldn't sit still when we went out with Steven for dinner. I let her walk around before the show to get some energy out. She walked over to the brewery side of the building and there were two boys playing around while their family finished eating. One boy gave her a patriotic rubber duck. She enjoyed chewing on it. At one point I realized it was gone and we retraced our steps. I asked at the bar if anyone saw it and they all had seen it, but no one could locate it. They were nice enough to let her pick out a replacement duck. Lash managed to find her first one and Miss Spud went back to chewing on its hat. A few times she loudly babbled, so she's starting to get the hang of doing callbacks.
She ended up falling asleep during the last third of the show. Grace, one of the multiple employees who remembers her from last year, got a picture of her sleeping on me. She woke up again when it was done and Bill held her for a bit to give my arms a break. She stayed awake and even ate some of the pizza leftovers. We were afraid it was going to be hard to get her back to sleep but after some nursing she was out again.
This was the first time we left her at home for Boardgame Night. While spending time with her Gramma she learned about sock puppets. We got back to her with one of her old socks on her hand and she was waving it at us. She also showed my mom how good she is at climbing into the storage bins we have.
On Tuesday we went for a walking lunch. I keep meaning to take her out for a walk, but we keep getting distracted by her toys in her room until lunch time, then it's nap time, not long after nap time is her dinner, and then it's dinner time for Bill and me. I also want her to be able to get some energy out after she first wakes up, and before her nap. I decided to just pack up her lunch and give it to her on her snack tray on her wagon. When we first started out I had to keep reminding her to eat her lunch and not just hold onto it. She finished eating her lunch while we visited the local community center. I have not been inside since they finished remodeling it. I think she had a great time. On our way home I had to tell her to try and stay awake and that I would put her down for her nap right when we got home. She sat more upright and made it home. Now that the weather is getting cooler, I think we are going to do this more often.
When we pick her up, she has started patting us on the back. It seems we have done it to her enough that she wants to return the favor.
She really loves putting things in bags. She will take as many smaller pieces from her toys and put them into an external battery bag that she has claimed as her own. She can spend hours taking things out of the bag and putting them back in. When she heard mention of the cabin she put all the rings from her LovEvery Wooden Stack and Slot, the trees and carrots from her LovEvery Wooden Coin Bank Set, and whatever else she could fit into it. When I told her that we aren't all going to the cabin this time, she started taking things out.
For her bath I let her go up the stairs on her own power. She heard the water in the bathtub running and went right into the bathroom and climbed into her little tub in the big tub. I was worried that she wouldn't be able to handle it, but she crawled right in with no troubles and without getting distracted by Tank's litter box.
She has rediscovered her dancing crab. At one point the batteries died and I kept forgetting to charge it. I thought I charged it but it wouldn't stay on for long. She kept getting upset when it would stop moving. I charged it for over 3 hours but it still wouldn't stay on. I took a look at it and saw it had hair wrapped around the part that moves the legs. I had to hunt down a thin and tiny screwdriver, but I was able to get the legs off. I cleaned off the hair and put it back together. I had to take it apart again during her nap because I didn't notice that a pair of the legs got flipped. He is working fine now and she even got to show off her crab catching skill to her Grandpa.
