Present for you!

Sasha has fun with a diaper box.

Took this on my camera phone and had to post :)

Standing game captured on film

I finally got some pictures of Sasha doing that little standing game she's been doing lately. I went back to one of the older posts here about the standing game she likes to play and attached a pic to that too.
Notice the little tongue hanging sticking out of Sasha's mouth in the picture above? For some strange reason, Sasha has been doing that a lot lately. No idea why. She used to do that for a day or so whenever she got a new tooth and was getting used to it being in her mouth. But I double checked and no new teeth or anything. She just likes to stick her tongue out a lot I guess. It looks cute to me, like she's really thinking deeply.
She's got some heavy motivation in this pic...daddy's glasses. She loves to rip the glasses off his face and play with them.

I forgot to mention the other day that Sasha said a new word the other day: light. She has a thing for lights, led's, blinky things, or anything that illuminates. She was sitting in my lap pointing at the lights in the living room. I said "light" to her a few times and clear as a bell she pointed to the lights and said "light".
She's also been signing more and eat a lot more lately. Tonight, she saw my husband drinking a pepsi. She was staring at it and started signing "eat". She wanted a sip. I think it was pretty cool that she was able to actually request what she wanted by using sign language.

New Standing Record

Sasha's current record for standing without holding on to anything is now 61 seconds. I saw it myself this time. She still plays her standing game many times a day. It seems to be one of her favorite pasttimes. Of course, she waits for her cheers and applause, and she cheers for herself, claps, and says "yay!".
She also accidentally took her first steps yesterday. She was holding on to a toy, and I think the toy in her hand gave her a false sense of holding on to something. Once she realized she was not in fact holding on to anything for support she sat down. She only took about two steps. She's still got a bit before she's walking I'm sure.

My husband told me a cute Sasha story today. She loves to try to put random objects in our mouths sometimes. She decided to try to shove the handle of one of her teething toys into his mouth but she was not satisfied with how far it went in his mouth. A panicked look came across her face. She looked around the room frantically. She saw a wooden block nearby, picked it up, and pounded the toy with it to try to hammer the teething toy further down his mouth. Wonder what she was thinking. She certainly thought she was being helpful.

Cassie likes to play Dance Dance Revolution on her playstation. She's really good at it and it's good exercise too. Sasha used to like to watch Cassie play it. But now she's no longer content to be just a spectator. She wants to try to play it herself too. Today I had a hard time keeping a very determined Sasha off the dance pad so her big sister could play. She almost got stepped on a few times.

Pigtails!

Sasha: Too cute!
Hehe, I love her little pigtails. She gets lots of comments and complements whenever we go out with her hair like this. I think they are adorable too. But functional, as well. Her hair is long enough that it keeps getting into her eyes. I don't want to cut it yet but I can tell that she finds hair in her eyes irritating. So for the last month or so I've been putting her hair up. Sometimes I put it back with a barette. Other times I put it in a ponytail up at the top of her head and it sticks straight up in the air. Then there are her little antennae pigtails like in the picture above. She won't really let me play with her hair except when she is in the bathtub, distracted with her bath toys. So that's when I put her hair up.

Here, you hold this!
I think Cassie took this picture and it makes me laugh. The expression on Sasha's face is amusing. It looks like Sasha is being robbed of her ball at camera-point or something but I can assure you she is not.
Cassie took this photo and photoshopped the ball into a grenade. I didn't post that pic here but it looked pretty funny.

Cassie's first day of school

Nothing much new lately. Sasha is still practicing trying to stand. My husband has let it be known that her current record for standing is 21 seconds. However I don't think I've seen her go longer than 10 seconds myself.

Cassie started her first day of school today. I tried to send her to school a day early but they wouldn't take her. Ok, I didn't mean to send her a day early. I really did think school started on the 22nd but apparently the 22nd was for seventh graders only. Poor Cassie was a little embarassed. She was all dressed up in her first day of school best and ready to go. I had made her a bento lunch and she went out to the bus stop. The bus driver came to pick up the kids from the bus stop and told her that school was only for seventh graders that day. I was very surprised to hear the doorbell ring and have Cassie come right back after I had just sent her out. Oh well.
So yeah she had her real first day of school today. She came home and said she made two new friends, which makes me very happy as Cassie is a shy girl. She didn't really have many friends last year. She was mostly a loner.

The other day we got Cassie her 'dream bed' for her bedroom. It is really neat. It's called a loft bed. I know I would have loved to have a bed like that when I was a kid. It's sort of like a bunk bed. But there is no bottom bunk. Instead we put a desk and lamp and bookcase under the bed so she has like a little "office". She tells me many times daily how much she loves her new bed and gives us lots of thanks. Cassie and I love the black and white look the bed has. It looks more her style than the wooden or metal loft beds. For now she has a black computer desk set up under the bed along with a light colored wooden bookcase and a tv tray table.

Here we have Cassie and my husband assembling her new bed in her room.

A Great Performance

I have learned about a month or so ago that babies LOVE applause. Of course we all do, but babies will automatically assume that all applause is for them and will unabashedly bask in the glow of it. Back in July, in a room full of babies, I applauded a baby and said "YAY!". Every single baby stopped dead in their tracks and beamed as if I was applauding for them. Even the canned applause on television is greeted with a big proud grin by a baby. Applause is a very potent tool in the baby playing and training arsenal.
Sasha, like all babies, LOVES applause. She is a great cruiser, walks around the whole house so long as she has something to hang on to but on occasion she will just stop and balance herself and let go. About a week back, Sasha was practicing her new standing without holding on to anything trick and I gave her a rousing round of applause.
So now the routine basically goes like this: She stands holding on to my leg or a table. She lets go with her hands and puts them half-way up in the air, balances standing for a second, looks at me as if to say "LOOK MA NO HANDS!" then falls on her butt. Next she gets a big proud grin on her face and that expectant "Where is my applause?" look on her face. (If she doesn't get it? That's no problem. She will just applaud herself and say "YAY!" anyways.) She'll pause for a bit to bask in the glow of her applause and then she'll pull herself back up to a stand again to repeat. She repeats this about 5-10 times.
The past few days, she will ask for applause without any accomplishment. She'll just say "YAY!" and start clapping and usually her father and I will copy her. Perhaps I should save the applause for her tricks.

OMG Not Teething!

Sasha's been in a great mood the past few days. For the first time in a long time she is not teething!
I may have mentioned this before, but my two girls have had two completely different teething styles. Pardon me if I express a preference for the way Cassie went through her teething process.
Cassie dear had not a single tooth in her mouth for the first 13 months of her life. I know this is very strange. She was my little toothless wonder, walking and talking before she even got a tooth. I loved that gummy little baby grin. But then she went through an OMGWTFBBQ mother-of-all teething period where she suddenly erupted 8 teeth at once. Poor baby. She was feverish and miserable but at least she got it all over with in one shot.
Sasha, on the other hand, seems to have been non-stop teething since she's been 3 months old. That's a bit of an exageration but it really feels true. Once the teething process for one tooth ends, another one begins and it feels like we're not getting any break. Sasha has a very pleasant disposition...when she isn't teething. But she is so irritable and crabby when she is teething. It feels like we've had an irritable baby for so long that we were worried that her personality was actually an irritable baby. So now that she is finally not teething, I am glad to see her old cheerful self back.
Whew!
I know it won't last long. She's got 7 teeth. That 8th tooth has to come in soon. I don't feel any bump in the spot where it should be coming in yet so nature has decided to give us a break to remember what our little girl's true personality is like.

Meanwhile, Sasha learned a new trick today. She figured out how to crawl off the bed. No easy task I can assure you as it seems so high up for a baby. I saw that she wanted to get off the bed today. I wanted to just pick her up and put her on the floor. It took a lot of effort to stand by and let her do it. I kept myself at the ready, prepared to grab her if she should fall or encounter any problems and let her figure things out. She crawled to the corner of the bed, put her hands on the bedframe at each side of the corner, then swung her legs over the side and landed on her feet. The whole process took about three minutes, very very slowly. I was so surprised that she did it but once it was done she didn't think it was a big deal. I really expected to have to grab her to save her from a fall.

Welcome Baby Madison

Sasha has a new baby cousin.
Baby Madison was born on August 16th at 2:45am at 4lbs5oz and 17 inches long. She is such a tiny tiny little girl but very healthy. She got an 8 and a 9 on her APGAR score. Her mommy got a bit of food poisoning which threw her into early labor but otherwise mommy and baby are fine.
So we went up north to go visit my family and see the new baby. Sasha was mostly disinterested but did stare at the baby with mild interest for a minute or two. Cassie and I got to hold the new baby. As I held her, it reminded me of what it was like to hold a newborn Sasha. My how she has grown in the past year and it is sort of bittersweet that it is all just a memory now.
While we were up there visiting family, we stayed at a hotel. Sasha and I slept very well as the bed was comfortable. I had wanted to take Sasha to the hotel swimming pool but we just didn't have the time or energy.

Despite the 11 month age difference, Sasha and her new cousin should be classmates as Sasha missed the birthday cut off for most schools, and Madison's birthday should put her in the same school year. Basically Sasha will be one of the oldest of her class one day and Madison will be one of the youngest. It would be so neat to see the two girls off together to kindergarten one day. But we shall see what the future has in store for us. 5 years seems so far away anyways.

Growling, biting, and clawing

From the title, I guess you'd think I was talking about a kitten. Despite the fact that I sometimes wonder if Sasha is a kitten, she is a human baby girl with some strange habits lately.
Growling
Ok she's been growling lot for the last few months. The way she runs around the house constantly growling really does remind me of an animal. Thank goodness she started babbling and trying to talk again a few weeks ago or I'd be very worried. But since I'm pretty sure it's probably just a phase, I think it's kind of cute. I suppose I might be accidentally encouraging it as it makes me laugh and sometimes I growl back at her. Sure it might be cute now but eventually she'll reach an age where it's no longer cute and I hope she stops before then.
Biting
A new kind of biting problem. It's gradually grown on us but it is not really a serious issue. She gives us occasional explorative bites once in a while and my goodness does she have some sharp teeth. There's this one fun thing she likes to do. I take my finger and wiggle it up and down across her lips and she makes a funny noise. She loves it. But sometimes she'll just bite my finger instead. Again, it seems more like she's curious and wondering what will happen.
I'll chalk this one up to teething for now. I do not remember what it feels like to have teeth force their way through jaw and gums but it doesn't sound pleasant. And plus it must be a novelty to suddenly have all these new teeth in her mouth so I'm sure she's just exploring and being curious, trying them out and seeing what they can do.
Clawing
Ok, now this one is really frustrating me.
Sasha has always had a habit of rubbing my arm or neck as she drifted off to sleep. I have a mole on my chest. For the past week, whenever she nurses or dozes off to sleep, she started scratching and picking at it. It is driving me nuts. I know this sounds gross but now it's always bleeding and sort of hanging there and I wish there was a way I could just remove it. Any ideas for how to remove a mole would be appreciated. But even if I did remove it, I doubt she'd ever let it heal. Sasha now knows it's there and looks for it. Now even when I'm holding her, she occasionally tries to move my shirt to scratch at it. She looks for it when she's trying to go to sleep. And if she can't get to it then she'll just start clawing and scratching at my chest.

EDITED 9/13/07- Do you know that apparently this is one of the most popular pages on my blog? People from all over the world are doing google searches for "baby growling", "baby demon" or something similar and coming to this page or my other post about my growling baby. Maybe you just did it too? So it heartens me to know that a lot of other mothers out there are sitting there at their computers thinking to themselves, "Gosh my baby is weird. Why is he/she growling?". Cheer up, mothers of growling babies! I guess it must be normal if there are so many of us :)

Little sister

"Mom", Cassie said to me today. "You know what Sasha did to me today?"
I had just woken up. I asked her what Sasha did to her.
"You know that nose sucker thing? Well she was playing with it and she put it in her mouth. She used it to suck up all her spit. Then she came over to me and squeezed it all over my leg."
I had to laugh. I thought it was pretty funny. I have no idea if it was intentional but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. I know I wouldn't find this nearly as funny if Sasha was older, but she's an innocent and curious baby and probably found it very curious.

Oops, more tantrums. (AKA zucchini, green peppers, and carrots are a NO GO)

Oh yeah, I forgot to add. Sasha had a HUGE temper tantrum this weekend.
I was out of peaches, which seems to be her favorite food. So I thought to myself in one of my not-so-bright moments, "Oh I wonder what she'll think of zucchini". So I cooked up some zucchini and pureed it up for her. But I didn't just stop there. It looked so bland. So I thought to myself "hmm it needs more flavor, maybe I could add some pureed green pepper. After all, green pepper is a great source of vitamin c". So I pureed a little green pepper, I swear it wasn't very much at all, and added it. Two little slices. But the zucchini didn't really taste like anything so the green pepper sort of overpowered it. Then I thought, "darn, now I need to dilute out that green pepper taste. Maybe she'll like some carrot". I steamed and pureed up some carrot and added it.
I personally think it all turned out very tasty. I could imagine using it as some sort of sauce or in a stew or something. Too bad I didn't make it for myself.
Sasha didn't think it was tasty at all. She took one taste and gagged. I've never seen anything like it. It was a tiny taste, barely any in her mouth. She just held the food in her mouth (there wasn't any food in her mouth but she didn't care), refused to swallow, stuck her fingers in her mouth to wipe the taste off her tongue, and gagged and cried until she threw up. And not a little throw up. She emptied the whole contents of her belly out onto the high chair. Poor thing.
So when she doesn't like a food, she can be quite dramatic.

Tooth ponderings

Sasha's 7th tooth popped through on August 5th. This is her bottom right tooth. I feel bad as I didn't even notice it was coming in. I swear this baby has been constantly teething since her first tooth started coming in. She hasn't had a break. Once one finally finishes coming through another one begins. I think we all could use a teething break but I don't think that is going to happen. Common sense tells me that 8th tooth, her bottom left, is next and should be along soon since it isn't here yet. Have I checked to see if there is a bump on her gums yet? No, but I should do that.

I have been bad about keeping Sasha's baby book updated. Thank goodness for this blog. Now when I finally sit myself down to update her baby book, I will have to have this blog pulled up to reference all the correct dates and measurements and shots. Does it matter? Well it sort of does. Now that I have a baby again, I keep comparing Sasha to when Cassie was a baby. I just can't help it. It sort of gives me an idea of what I could expect. Now these two girls are obviously very very different so comparing them sort of seems rediculous. Cassie didn't get her first tooth until she was 13 months old, and Sasha has 7 teeth already at 10.5 months. Cassie first sat up at 7 months (same for Sasha), first walked at 13 months, first really started talking at 11 months. Sasha has been back to babbling and saying dada (in reference to Jon even, she doesn't say dada about anyone else) and a few words I swear are words but I don't really count her among the talking babies quite yet.
But anyways, back to the baby book thing, Jon's parents kept a meticulous baby book for him and gave it to him at our wedding along with a photo album of 23748923742389 pictures of him. I thought that was really neat. I wish that I had a baby book for me. Then it would be neat to be able to say "Oh Sasha is a late crawler like her mother" or "Sasha got her teeth at the same age as her dad" or whatever. I am a statistical geek sometimes, and I really get a kick out forcibly comparing apples to oranges via nonsense trivia like that. And who knows, maybe some day 30 years from now she'll have a baby and she'll say to me "Mom, when did I get my 7th tooth?" and I will be like "AHA! I KNOW THAT ANSWER CHILD".

First Tantrums!

Not exactly what we'd put in the baby book now is it?
But today, Sasha just seemed different. Something in her personality seems to have changed.
I got home from work and my poor overworked husband needed a nap. He hasn't been sleeping well so I had her all to myself for about two hours. Sasha and I had fun. I took her to the laundry room and let her bang on the washers and dryers for a bit, hehe. Then after a Korean couple came in and started the washing machine up, Sasha became scared of the washing machines so she started crying. We went down to the lobby. I let her run amok down there for a while as I sat in a comfy sofa. At first Sasha stayed RIGHT next to me but she got more and more brave until she was happily climbing all over the place. It was refreshing not to have to yell "Sasha NO!" every few seconds.
After about an hour of that, I got a chocolate craving. I took Sasha for a walk over to the local 7-eleven. I got a Milky Way candy bar and a buffalo chicken taquito. I was carrying Sasha so it was easier for me to hand her the candy bar to hold on to while we walked back home. She happily nibbled on it with it still in the wrapper and caused no damage to it at all. When we got home I went back to the lobby and tried to take my candy bar away from her. Well, she didn't want to hand over the candy bar so after I wrestled it away from her she threw a temper tantrum.
Now Sasha has cried many many times before. She cries when she's hungry or tired or has a dirty diaper. She sometimes cries when I lay her on her back, she gets easily scared by strangers. But crying for a candy bar? That's the first time for me that she's ever cried for a specific item that she wanted. Cried for a want, not a need, is I guess the best way to describe it. She threw herself on the floor and had a royal hissy fit.
Well if there was any chance of me handing the candy bar back to her, it ended with the tantrum. I don't want to give her the idea that her tantrums will make me change my mind so I had to stand firm and took her back home.

Sasha has started talking again! She had been talking a few months back, saying mama and dada, etc, but she had completely stopped. Well, there was a dog in the lobby, and I pointed it out to her and repeatedly said "Dog". She started saying Dog Dog Dog Dog and for the next few hours she was constantly saying dog. Then a few hours later when my husband walked out of the living room, she started a barrage of "DADADADADADADADADADADADADADADADADAADA!". That lasted quite a while. My husband aptly put it when he said that she seemed as though she was making up for the last month or so of not saying Dada anymore.

Standing

This weekend, Sasha hit another milestone with her big sister Cassie. Cassie is just racking up the cool points lately. Cassie was taking Sasha walking...everyone who has or had a baby knows what I mean, where you hold the baby's hands and let them walk around. Well Cassie noticed that Sasha was pretty well balanced and Sasha slowly let go of Cassie's hands. Cassie started squealing and yelling "MOM! MOM! LOOK! SASHA'S STANDING BY HERSELF". And she was! Sasha stood there by herself in the middle of the living room for a good 5 seconds. Sasha only plopped herself down because she was looking around trying to figure out what Cassie was yelling about.

She's done it a few more times but not nearly as long. She is very mobile and impressively agile, crawling around all over, cruising around from furniture item to furniture item, pulling herself up to stand and looking like she wants to crawl on stuff. I was laying on the living room floor the other day, right next to the coffee table. She held onto me to pull herself to a stand, climbed up on top of me, then used me to stand on to climb on top of the coffee table. She got up there too and proudly sat on it while looking at the books that were on it. So I can imagine climbing is not very far off now, as well as more standing.
I don't know how much longer after standing it takes for babies to start walking but we shall see. Maybe I'll go look in Cassie's baby book and see how long it took between when she was standing and walking and maybe that will give me a good idea.