Week of May 21 - Ready To Crawl [But Not Willing :) ]

Emily is gaining mobility very rapidly now. And I am busily child-proofing the down-stairs in preparation for the baby invasion. :)

She will push forward from a seated position to the crawl position, but is not yet ready to chug along in a full crawl. Emily typically will push forward from a sitting position to a crawl position, and then sit back again, using this to judge if she can reach what she is trying to get to (typically a toy). If she cannot reach her intended target, then she will push forward into prone position and rock around to juggle position and roll to her target.

The other interesting new event is new sounds! Emily has started to make clicking sounds and little munching sounds as she opens and closes her mouth. I have no idea exactly how she is making the sounds, but they are quite pronounced and deliberate now. We have added these to her rather long list of baby talk sounds.

A good friend of ours bought Emily a little Leap Frog Stages Piano last week. This has tuned out to be the latest hit with Emily. Since she loves anything musical, or anything that sings or talks, the little piano is a constant source of entertainment for her now. It has three thick mylar play sheet insert keys for different stages of development programing. Much as I would like Emily to leave them installed, she has quickly learned to reach and grab the insert tab. A quick and proficent pull of the tab and the piano is suddenly "single key" dumb, but Emily laughs as she holds the key tab in her hands. I guess that just reminds parents that the children define the "play" characteristics of toys, not adults :)

In the "new foods" department this week we are featuring dads special egg-yolk dish. This consists of 1.5 cooked egg-yolks, 1 scoop of Similac, and ~ 2 oz of stage 2 gerber carrots. Mix it all together and warm for 10 sec in the microwave, stir and test to remove any hot spots and it is meal time. This is a dish that Emily devours with joy. I must say too......during my taste test.... it was pretty darn good. By the way, the expedition into the "green zone" last week with baby peas was a hit! Emily like gerber baby peas. We did not have such good result with green beans however, so for now, "green" = peas only :)

I have probably said this before, but just to recap.... Emily just loves to push her tongue out when she is excitied or just having a blast and wants to show emotion. From reports from her nanny at the orphanage, this is something she has done since about 3 months of age and was a barometer of her happiness. While these days we are just as likely to see big open mouth smiles, or hear gleeful noisy laughs from Emily, the playful little tongue continues to be an easy measure of her happiness. For those skeptics out there... the final two photos here are "proof" :)

By the way, when the tongue comes out, there is a fine line between it being an expression of joy, and merely a practical step before she brings an item to her mouth for a big wet lick! The fourth photo in this post, just to be clear, is Emily putting on the happy happy Rawr, and NOT trying to lick Dad's camera!! Almost firece looking, isnt she!? :)

Emily's Dr called late last week to let us know the results of her more lengthly blood tests (for immunization antibodies and infections antibodies count). Happliy, it looks like all her vaccinations to date have been successful and she will not need to repeat any of her earlier vaccinations she received in China. On the other hand, there are of course a whole stack of additional vaccinations and bootster to come in the months ahead, so Emily will be back in mid June for her next round of shots. That pretty much concludes her current tests and exams. All healthy, and ready to progress on the well-baby routine in coming months. The only thing the Dr prescribed was vitamin drops with Flouride to add to her suppliments and to provide hardened coatings for ther emerging teeth.

And that's the report for this week! :)