ABC

This post is belated, but I wanted to say that Sasha can finally sing her ABC's from beginning to end with no errors as of about a week ago.
The problem with the ABC song is that it is sung to the same tune as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, so for the longest time her attempts at singing the ABC song went like this: "ABCDEFG, How I wonder what you are". Lately I've made a more conscious effort to never sing the two songs close together to avoid confusion.

As a ni-nite routine at 10pm, Sasha climbs into bed and has a cup of chocolate milk. She hugs me and her dad and usually protests going to sleep. Finally my husband turns off the light and I lay down with her. She cries in protest a little and I comfort her. I ask her what song she would like me to sing and I give her a few choices. The usual selection is among the following: 5 Little Monkeys, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Rain Rain Go Away, ABC's, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She calms down and tells me what song she wants and I sing it to her. I sing her a few of her choices and then it is quiet time. I stay very quiet and still, and she tries a few times to get my attention. I fake a few yawns (they're contagious you know) and she yawns back. She wiggles around for about 2-3 minutes, trying to find a comfortable position. Next thing I know in a matter of seconds, she is zonked out cold and I can get ready for work.

We've been having fun working with her letters and today she is able to identify a few of her favorite letters on a computer keyboard. Her favorite letters today were P, W, and M. So if I ask her to press P, she'll hunt and search the keyboard until she finds it and presses it. I can actually see her scanning the letters searching for the requested letter and that makes me really happy!
I had Sasha sitting on my lap and we pulled up a fun website that helps with teaching letters. http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/abczoo/default.asp and it either displays the letters to the tune of the abc song, or you can press a letter and it'll display that letter. Between the game, and mommy & daddy playing with her, she's doing well.

I know I probably shouldn't, but sometimes I catch myself comparing Sasha to my older daughter Cassie. They're very very different personalities, but by this age, Cassie was already able to identify every letter of the alphabet, and right before Cassie turned three I had her starting to actually write letters and her name (I have it on video somewhere, she wasn't even 3 yet and she was writing her name correctly). I was a young mother. I didn't know what stuff to teach toddlers so I just taught Cassie everything, and she soaked it up like a sponge. I worked much more with Cassie on teaching stuff than I do with Sasha, and I play more with Sasha than I did with Cassie. So I guess I'm trying to catch up on teaching Sasha some stuff. I probably won't drill Sasha as hard as I did with Cassie (I was downright drill-sergeant like at times with Cassie), but I should probably do a little better with teaching Sasha stuff.

Frog

Yesterday, I noticed Sasha was hopping around the house saying "Ribbit! Ribbit!". She's been doing that increasingly lately. I joked with her and asked her if she was a frog. She looked at me funny, thought a second, then said "uh-huh".
I didn't think much of it until a little later. I called to Sasha, by her name, as I always seem to be doing lately. She sternly responded by patting herself on the chest and saying, "NO! Frog!".
She kept this up all day. She gets upset with us if we call her Sasha. She is now Frog.
Cassie finds this very amusing.
There was a break for an hour yesterday evening, when Sasha was playing with her toy doctor set. She no longer responded to Frog nor Sasha. "No! I Doctor!" she corrected. But once she was done with her doctor set, she was back to Frog.

This is a first for Sasha. Pretend play? She's always played with her dolls in a pretend play sort of manner. She mothers them. But I think that's a bit different. That was more like mimicking than pretending. I suppose now that I think of it, Sasha first started giving her dolls voices a week or two ago.
Something interesting is happening in her little head.

Damn

Another milestone that doesn't quite fit in the baby book. Sasha said her first bad word. Two days in a row. Bad mommy!
I came home from work during my lunch break to feed the baby a bowl of cereal. As I was spooning fruit loops into her mouth, I looked at my watch and realized that my lunch break was over. It was time to return back to work.
"Damn!", I said.
"Damn!", said Sasha. "Damn! Damn! Damn!".
I didn't know what to do. She kept saying it over and over and was laughing.
What's really strange is this same scenario repeated itself two days in a row!

UPDATE 3/20/08- Well this word seems to be a regular part of her vocabulary now. She likes to chant "damn! damn! damn!" and laugh at our reactions. Bleh!

First Haircut!

Sasha had her first haircut!
There is a place here that specializes in children's haircuts so I decided to take her there. I was very nervous because Sasha can be a bit high strung and easily upset, especially when it comes to strangers. She's fine with strangers if they keep their distance but once they try to get too close to her or touch her, she gets a bad case of stranger anxiety. So when I called and made the appointment I asked them to make sure that the person who does her hair is very patient.
We arrived late because I got lost. Let's not talk about that though. The ladies at the children's salon were very nice, however, and didn't make me cancel my appointment. I brought Cassie along with us so she could take pictures.

They had these neat little seats shaped like cars, with steering wheels and everything. Sasha got a really hot little red Mercedes Benz convertible, and she really liked it. Lately she's loved toy cars. Sasha did not consider the hair stylist to be threatening. She didn't smile for her, but she didn't cry either. She was very neutral, which was still better than I hoped for! I tried to make her feel calm by offering her sips of juice, and the lady offered her a sucker but she didn't care for suckers. The salon had little tv's at each haircut station, with a dvd player. The lady put in a Baby Einstein video, and Sasha was captivated. Once she put the video on, Sasha didn't have a care in the world. She watched the video and we were free to cut away.

We mostly cut her bangs so they don't hang in her face, and straightened the back out. It didn't take long at all.

And the final result. Aww how cute! Just look at those big blue eyes.
Once we were done with the haircut, they saved Sasha's hair in a little bag and made a little "First Haircut" certificate for her. They put a ribbon in her hair and took a polaroid picture to put on the certificate. They gave her a balloon, some suckers, and let her pick a toy from their little toy treasure chest. She picked a mini slinky.
On the way out, Sasha saw a display stand full of sunglasses. Did I mention that glasses are one of her obsessions? She got so excited when she saw all those sunglasses, so we let her look at them. She posed for Cassie and the camera just perfectly, with her new haircut, some sunglasses, and a Jeep.

Isn't it cute? She is just too cool for words!
I had to get the sunglasses :)

Sasha Can Moo....Can You?

Sasha has added some new "words" to her vocabulary...animal sounds! I've been working with her on those, especially now that she has a puzzle with pictures of animals on it that she likes to play with. She's also taken a new enjoyment in reading with me, and some of her books have animals in them also.
She can now Quack like a duck, Tweet like a bird, Woof like a dog, Moo like a cow, and Baa like a sheep. We're working on some other sounds too but I don't think I've heard them yet. Yesterday, I saw a flock of geese flying overhead while we were in a store parking lot. I pointed up in the air at them and said "Look Sasha! Birds!". She watched in rapt amazement at the geese flying through the air. She then signed the sign language for 'bird' and said "Tweet Tweet". Clever little girl!

Like I said, Sasha has a great interest in books lately. She'll grab a book from her bookcase, then she'll walk over to me. If I am sitting on the floor cross legged, she'll turn herself around so her back is facing me and will slowly walk herself backwards and sit herself down in my lap. That means it's time to read. She turns the pages and points at the pictures in her books, and I read to her or tell her what is going on in the pictures. I'm so glad that she is so interested in reading.

Sasha still has a mouthful of teeth coming in and several of those teeth look painful. My husband is still sick, and he's been trying to keep from spreading it to me or Sasha. Sasha has been a little more crabby than usual today and she's been grabbing at her neck. I'm not sure if that means she's getting a sore throat or not. I hope not! My husband says he feels absolutely miserable so I hope she is spared.

Stacking Blocks

Well here's another milestone caught on camera: stacking blocks! Yay Sasha!

She's all recovered from her cold, thankfully. This week in general has been a rough one so thank goodness it's my equivalent of a Friday. There were building inspectors that came through our apartment, maintenance work in our apartment, plus smoke and fire alarm testing which made the fire alarms in the building keep going off during the day. That made it tough to sleep this week. Oh the joy of being a night shift worker. Then add Sasha's new teeth and her cold to the blend and it made for a challenging week. Especially for my sleep-deprived husband. He has the patience of a saint I swear. I don't know what we'd do without him. He adores his little girl, and she keeps him going.

Remember that post a week back or so where I said Sasha was finally eating? Well scratch that. She's not eating anymore. I am so terribly worried about her. She ate nothing the past few days. We've tried but she just wouldn't eat. Nothing but nursing and I don't think a nearly 14 month old can survive on nursing alone.

I might be switching her back to a day shift. I may also start working on getting her into her own bed. Wish me luck with that. It is going to be a very trying week for us this next week if we do.

The Climbing Begins

Sasha has slowly become more adventurous with her climbing, but this is a big leap forward. She rolled her car over to the computer desk so she could reach the mouse, keyboard, stapler, cell phone, and other fun stuff she's not supposed to play with.
I know this mischevious smile well. Had to include this pic because it is a classic Sasha smile.
Oh look, she found a cell phone!

I was at work when this happened. My husband suddenly asked me where the camera was and was quiet for a while. That's when he took these pictures. He's normally very jumpy when it comes to Sasha climbing so I'm surprised he was able to take these pictures. Hehe!

Singing Baby

There have been plenty of times where I sing songs that have hand motions to Sasha, like Itsy Bitsy Spider, Herman the Worm, or Patty Cake. Sasha likes to try to gesture along. But today, she did something very cute: she sang!
We were at the dinner table, eating jambalaya. My husband was taking a nap so it was just the girls and I. At some point, she decided to stop eating. Eventually, she became bored of watching me eat my dinner and fussed. She didn't fuss long, maybe 30 seconds, when she resigned herself to try to entertain herself. She did a few hand motions with her hands that I did not recognize as sign language, but the movements were peculiar and deliberate. She babbled to herself a few times, and then it happened. She started singing. She has a beautiful little voice.
It wasn't a song that I recognize. She made some hand motions to go along with it, sort of similar to the "roll it" part of patty cake. The words to the song were all "dadadada dadada". But it was a cute sweet baby voice that varied in frequency. It took me a bit to realize what she was doing but I was pretty surprised when I figured it out.
I just wish I knew what song it was, if it was a song we've sang to her. My husband and I have a habit of making up our own songs and singing to her. Some of my husband's songs are not songs that I've ever heard, and vice versa. Half of my made up songs, I doubt I'd even remember them. I just sort of make them up on the spot, pertinent to that situation only, and they're non-sensical. For example, if Sasha is fussing while I'm busy cooking, I might start 'singing' the recipe or actions I am doing in an effort to calm her down.

Besides the singing, we have another molar coming in! Her first molar is through now and she's really chewing foods well. Now this second molar is at a stage where it looks pretty painful. Her gum is huge and swollen and I can feel the tooth beneath but it hasn't come through. So she has 9 teeth and a 10th on the way. She has intermittent bouts of fussiness, which I think is related to the new tooth. I'm sure it has to hurt. Poor girl.

Bubbles in the Bathtub

Today, Sasha made a fascinating new discovery - bathtub farts! Well, isn't that an interesting new milestone?
Of course, she was taking a bath. After I finish washing her up, it's always play time. I give her the rubber ducky, a bathtub book, her squeegie, and her stackable toy cups from Ikea. Usually, I read her the bathtub book and I brush her teeth. Once I finish brushing her teeth, I give her the toothbrush and she practices brushing her own teeth. She is then free to play with her toys while I brush her hair.

It was during this playtime portion of bath time that she first let one rip in the bathtub today. Bubbles forced their way to the water's surface. She curiously looked down at the water, smiled a huge smile, and giggled. She wanted more bubbles. I noticed that she was grunting and listing off to the side and she forced another one out. The bathtub erupted in another round of bubbles and she laughed at her new discovery. For the rest of bath time, she was grunting and trying very hard to get more bubbles, and she did manage to see those bubbles about three more times!
As hard as she was trying to push out some more farts, I'm so glad that she didn't do more than pass gas in that bathtub, hah!

Blah!

I found a small 'park' closer to my home. I never knew it was there. So on Saturday, I took the baby for a walk to the park. It was good to get the exercise. The park had some baby swings, and a slide/playground set.
I let Sasha swing on the swings but she seemed scared. She had only been on a swing once back in July so I don't think she remembered that. She only lasted a minute on the swing before I had to take her off. She didn't like playing with the playground set.
But it was nice to get her out of the house and let her see something 'new'. Something other than the walls of the apartment.

I took her again on Sunday. This time, having been exposed to the park concept the day before, she was a little more open minded. She loved the swing and slowly drifted off to sleep in it. It was beautiful. After she woke back up, she played around with some of the playground stuff. There were these blue steps that she liked to bang on. I let her run around and explore whatever caught her interest, and I just followed her around. It was neat to see the world through her eyes and see what sort of things interested her. She had fun climbing up and down a curb. She found a stick and some leaves and played with those.
She discovered a pile of bird poo on a curb she was climbing on and wanted to poke at it with her finger. I caught her finger before she could touch it and said "No no! That's dirty! Blah!". She looked at me and started laughing like I said the most hilarious thing in the world. She stuck her tongue out so that it was hanging down to her chin and said "Blah! Blah! Blah!". So we sat there a while, laughing til our bellies hurt, saying "Blah!" to each other. She thinks that is the most hilarious word.
Even today, when she's fussy and I want to cheer her up, all I have to do is stick my tongue out and say "Blah!" and she erupts in giggles and starts saying "blah!".

And there she goes...

This morning, I figured Sasha could use a little change of scenery. She was very awake and active, so I took her down to the lobby of our apartment building and let her run amok. We have no yard for her to play in, no nearby park. Nothing but heavy traffic all around. So the lobby was all I had. It was fun! Sasha walked all around the lobby, investigated every painting, art piece, every furniture item, the carpeting, flooring, lights, mirrors, and all.
Then after about 30 min, I decided to let her walk back up to our apartment. I thought it would be too much for her, but she did it! She mostly stayed a step or two behind me and followed my lead, but she had a few bursts of energy where she sprinted past me.
She walked to the elevator, stood in the elevator as we went up. We got out of the elevator and started down the hallway. She got distracted by the laundry room along the way, so we detoured. She took about 15 laps around the laundry room, opened and closed every dryer, and was back off in the hallway. She walked the whole way from the laundry room to our apartment door. To my surprise, she did not try to walk into other apartments. She ignored the doors of apartments that were not ours. Once we got to our door, she walked up to it like she KNEW it was the right one.
I opened the front door of our apartment, and she walked in. And out. And in. And out. At least 7 or 8 times, she just kept walking in and out of the apartment. I could she was thinking, trying to reconcile the walk down the hallway with entering the familiar apartment, putting the two worlds together in her mind.

She now knows that beyond the front door, there is a world out there.

Happy Birthday Baby!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY SASHA!
Today, we celebrate our beloved daughter's first birthday. I can't believe it's been a year. To think a year ago today, I was uncomfortable and in pain, yet excited to meet the little new member of our family. I was dying of curiosity to know what she would look like, how she would be, whether we would bond. Once I had her in my arms I fell in love and couldn't let go. I was mesmerized by her perfect little nose, ears, fingers, toes, and that thick head of hair she had.
We've spent countless hours snuggled together. Nursing, sleeping, just carrying her around. I treasured every moment. Even when she was colicky and crying, we loved her and made great memories that will stay in my heart forever. Someday, when Sasha is a sassy teen giving me attitude, memories of "daddy dance" and "peek-a-boo" will bring me through.
I love you baby Sasha! I am so grateful that you are healthy. I love seeing your little personality emerge more each day and watching you grow. I know that your babyhood and childhood will pass by in what seems like the blink of an eye so I want to treasure every moment. I remind myself to enjoy every moment as you are growing so fast. Next thing I know you'll be an adult on your own. I hope that I can be a good parent to you and I can remember that my true purpose as a parent is to raise you to be a happy and successful adult.

Signing and Language Explosion

I took two days of vacation, which gave me a four day weekend. I got to spend nearly every second of it with my little Sasha.
At first I noticed that she was very sleepy. She slept a lot more than usual. When this happens, it usually means one of two things. Either a growth spurt (which is usually accompanied by a huge baby appetite), or she is about to suddenly have some new major ability. She wasn't especially hungry so I figured she was going to learn something neat.
And she did! Suddenly one day, she was a signing baby. All those signs I've spent her whole life teaching her, she just suddenly started using. All in the same day! It was amazing. I spent the whole day nearly drop-jawed. My baby was talking to me. She's done a few of the signs before. But usually only for a day or so and not necessarily in the right context, and then she stopped. This seems different.
In her sleep, she would start to stir and whine, and signed "eat" without even opening her eyes. I'd feed her and she'd happily doze back off to sleep. She signed "more" when she wanted more of anything. She signed "eat" when she was hungry, and I didn't even know she was hungry yet because she hadn't even started fussing or whining yet. She signed "dog" when she saw a dog in the lobby of our building. She signed "light" when she was staring at our lights (LOVES lights, it's her obsession). She also said "ite" when she was pointing at the light and signing 'light'. She verbally says "muh muh muh" when she signs more, sort of like the word more without the r sound in it. She says "Duh" for dog. She squeals "DADA!!!" really loud when she wants my husband's attention. Her other obsession is our blue indiglo alarm clock...she smiles and gets excited whenever she sees it. Now she says "ock! ock! ock!" when she sees the clock and points at it. I wish I knew the sign for clock so I could teach it to her.

Cassie was at my parent's house for Labor Day and Sasha missed her. How I know? Well Sasha pointed at the computer chair where Cassie is normally sitting, yelled "EH!" (her name for her sister) and signed "sister" which is what we taught her to sign for Cassie. She kept pointing staring at Cassie's chair looking for her.
Sasha has a little dog stuffed animal, and when I play with her sometimes I pretend it's a real dog. I make it bark at her and lick her and jump around. Now she likes to grab the dog and bark and make it jump around too. It's very cute.

Basically, it just seems like something clicked in her mind and the language light switch just turned on. Watching a child grow from a helpless little infant into a real person is just incredible and it was weekends like this that amaze me.

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.

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.

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.

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.