Week of June 18 - So Many New Things Learned! & A NEW TOOTH!

This is pretty much true for all babies, but it still amazes me how much Emily is capable of learning in one week when given opportunity and stimulation. The last week has been filled with new learnings by Emily. Where to start!?......

Well let's start with all this standing action she has going. While we were working with Emily to establish crawling, more and more she developed leg strength and desire to be standing. So we worked on this while working on the crawling gig.

Needless to say, she is getting really good at standing for long periods of time (and enjoys it, laughing and giggling when she succeeds) with limited outside intervention for the balance-assist. Such as in her bedroom in the morning now, she likes to play with the jungle menagerie play set on her little table. This is free standing and playing at the same time while simply using her left hand and the edge of the table for balance, yet keeping a toy in each hand. I'm impressed, even though I am the dad and pretty much impressed with everything Emily does. :)

When she inevitably gets tired of standing, but still wants to play with the jungle animals, we move it to the floor for her to play some more. Emily loves to play with the little animals, and have mom or dad push the little landing pads where the animals sit to trigger the different animal noises. Emily loves to hear animal sounds. She also has a book with farm animals and little buttons to trigger each of the animal sounds and just loves to hear the rooster crow and the duck quack.

And TALKING NOW! Emily promptly developed Ma Ma, un nai (baby short for milk in Mandarin), and Da Da. Un ya is big now when mom is around and baby is hungry :) Ma Ma is huge anytime she is not getting her needs met for some reason, and she will call out for Ma Ma .. over.. and over, and over.. and over... well you get the idea :) Da Da is just an occasional event it seems and I think she just does that because she feels sorry for me :-P Of course we still get the bla bla, bra bra, jibber jibber, etc. that means nothing to me in english and nothing to Nancy in Mandarin. Emily loves to make pursing, clicking, and vibrating sounds with her lips and tongue now as well and that can go on for minutes at a time. Oh, and the not so wonderful gleeful screaming has begun in earnest now. She will scream out at any ole time, for any ole reason. Add ecstatic laughing and giggling on top of that and we have one very noisy baby girl on our hands now days.

But the big hit item of the last week is the Parents® Magazine My MP3 Player that dad bought for Emily last week at Target. Basically, this is not really an MP3 player, but a toy copy of the IPod that is children friendly (12 months +). It has 30 different childrens songs stored, and simple IPod like button controls. Emily loves the MP3 player, and within a couple of days learned to push the buttons and cycle through the songs. Emily loves gadgets of all types, so the first couple of days were spent carefully inspecting front, back, side, etc. of the player and waiting for mom or dad to push the buttons. But once that was completed, she began to push buttons at will and laugh and giggle when she found a tune she liked. (she is particularly fond of I'm a little tea pot, this old man, and jump-jump-jump), and has developed the skill to cycle through the songs until she hears one she likes, then she will listen to the whole song before pushing the advance button again. I'm doomed if she ever gets the remote controls to the cable or TV!! Speaking of which, she did manage to grab one of our cordless phones that mom had carelessly left within reach and promptly started keying in numbers. Took mom a moment for figure out what she had done and reset the phone.

Oh!! A new tooth!! Emily has her two bottom front teeth well grown in now, and over the last week her left hand top front tooth poked through and is developing fast. Happily, she seems to suffer no teething problems at all, nor does she try to chew on things yet. Not even any real drooling to speak of. The little tongue (she is now famous for sticking out her little tongue playfully) perhaps interferes with the drooling, I dont know. :) Since she has developed a love for watermelon now, but does not like to eat the pulp, we will be giving her lots of watermelon this summer to gnaw on. We will put chunks into a Sassy Teething Feeder so she can chew away to get the juice she is so fond of yet dispense with the pulp.

This week we begin teaching Emily how to clap hands and do patty-cake movements. She loves when mom or dad do hand claps, and is starting to interact with her own hands, but we have a ways to go here.

To end this weeks update, I wanted to share with you Emily's little ritual for nap or night time sleep. I am a big believer in little rituals (things done the same way every time, in the same context, to develop a reconized and friendly chain of events), and it has paid off splendidly for putting Emily down for sleep. So when it is time to sleep, I curl Emily up in my arms and take her upstairs to her bedroom. She relaxes in my arms and likes to look at the pictures in the stair well as we go upstairs. Next we take a moment to pinch the little Lady Bug in her hanging flower basket on the wall, which plays music for the first verse of You Are My Sunshine. This always receives a smile on Emilys face. Then it is time to settle down in the crib. I always rub Emily's back (or side)gently for a few moments and tell her nite-nite. She will almost always turn on her side for this, reach out and grab the bumper in her crib, and smile. Then she will roll over on her back and wait for me to put the blanket over here. Another smile, with a little kiss by dad on the left cheek and forhead, and a gentle stroking of the head for a moment. Then up with the crib rail, another "nite-nite", lights softened until they are out, and I shut the door. This works very very well with Emily, even if she is in a fussy mood and does not want to sleep. While mom and grandpa and grandma all have problems at times putting her down to nap without some crying, Emily will never cry when dad does it. I consider this both a pleasant bonding experience for myself and Emily, AND job security :-P By the way, when she wakes up I repeat the process with the lady bug as she loves to hear the lady bug melody and to touch the velvet flowers.

That's it for this week....