A Day in the Life

I got a video of Paige with her walker, doing her typical Paige things. The video is really long (maybe 5 minutes?), but you get a very good snapshot of her character. She says hi a few times, as well as ok, and you get to see the extreme head nod. Something really cute...if you notice, her favourite bear is on her walker at the beginning. She picked that bear up 3 times and put it on her walker and walked around with it.

Extreme head nodding

Mike taught Paige how to nod her head even more when she says ok. Now we see her randomly "practicing" her nodding. We'll be watching tv and she'll be playing with the DVD's doing the extreme nod...head all the way back, and then all the way down. It looks like it hurts.

nope.

Paige is still refusing to walk at all costs.

She is now adding head motion to her "ok". She nods her head when she says ok. Like up on "O", down on "K"...try it out and you will see what I mean. Ok is winning over hi now. Also, the fireplace is now winning over the TV as a place to stand. We gave in on the TV, but we won't let her stand against the fireplace. If we tell her no in a stern voice and pull her away, she just thinks it's a joke and bolts it back to the fireplace at top speed. We never have the fireplace on, but it is surrounded with hard marble.

We had our first mother's day yesterday. "Paige" made me a card, and got me a new laundry basket and a gift certificate for a pedicure and a manicure. We had a huge breakfast, and then bought some new house plants, and then had a big dinner over at our place with my dad, Maura, Amanda, and Greg.

Looking forward to our cottage weekend, but Paige will be everywhere...

Paige's first steps??

Wow, I have not written in a long time. Basically we have been on and off sick for the past 2 weeks. The bad thing was that it effected Paige's near perfect sleep record. She started sleeping through the night during the last couple of weeks in April, but as soon as the cold hit she had some pretty rage-filled nights where she would scream and stand up and refuse to do anything but be held. Fun times. I kept telling myself that she will only get bigger and bigger and I will miss these times when I can still fully hold her in my arms and rock her. So it seems that as the cold wears off, her sleeping is getting better. I remember my dad told me that I slept through the night continually at 9 months and I thought, nooooo that is sooooo far away, I won't make it! But here we are!

Anyway, I have to write more often because right now I am finding it difficult to remember what has happened in the last little while. hmm...

Well, something from this week...Paige took her first steps! On Wednesday afternoon I put her in the standing position and backed up from her. She took 3 little steps toward me and then wiped out. She did this whole thing 2 more times (standing, 3 steps), and then she did one time with 4 steps. She didn't totally wipe out either. It was as though she just lost confidence and decided to give up. What is really odd though is she has not done it since. I assumed since she did it the one time she would want to do it again. Nope. In fact, she refuses to stand up when I try to make her...she makes her legs go really limp so that it is impossible. She really doesn't want to try to walk anymore. I don't get it!

She is getting really really good at the cruising though. She can go all over the place and she will even grab her walker and use it to get it to places across the room. She even uses the walker as a prop, like someone would as a cane, and just drags/pushes it along by its "antennae"(it looks like a car), just so she can have something to balance on. So, who knows when she will walk next???

2 more things that Paige says (but has no idea what they mean)..."ya" and "ok". I think I must say these a lot so she is just repeating them, but she walks around and says, "OK, ok, oK". She still says hi and bye a million times a day, and whenever she sees a phone she says "HI!" Like literally EVERY time she sees a phone. If I am on the phone she says Hi, hi, hi again and again. She has stopped saying duckie, but we are pretty sure she has said daddy. No mommy yet, but maybe on mother's day. ha.

I have begun to love going to the grocery store. I used to completely hate it when I was working and when Paige was little. Now I love it because she loves it in a hysterical-like way. She wiggles around in the cart and makes her body jump up and down and she looks at people and make noises. When they actually look at her though she freezes up and gives them her best poker face. She wants people to look at her and give her attention but when they do she gets shy.

The pictures at the top are of Paige and her friends Amy and Clara, and then their is a photo of Paige and Amy on the swings by our house. That day it was really cold but they really wanted to go on the swings (they cry if we pass the swings without going on them). Their hands turned blue from the cold.

Word.

Paige fell asleep in her jumper yesterday. I don't get it; she's not a generally "sleepy" baby, and I wouldn't expect this from her normally. We had tried to put her down for a nap a bit earlier than this, and she wouldn't sleep. I think she is getting to the point where she wants to be up playing and exploring rather than sleeping unless she is really tired. So she started off jumping, and then it looked like she was intensely playing with the toys, and then suddenly she wasn't moving at all. We were sitting in the living room having a little Saturday afternoon appetizer before dinner, so we were just talking, and then we looked and thought What the heck?? Pretty cute. We were able to transfer her into her crib still sleeping. The same thing happened on a walk the other day. She wouldn't sleep before the walk like I thought she would. Then at the very end of the walk I noticed she was slumped forward in her stroller, sound asleep. Luckily I could do the same thing and transfer her over into her crib.

Paige can now say:

hi
bye
duckie

and she understands 'cow' and 'light'.

We have a little foam cow that I got from a milk company when I worked at Second Cup. It's on top of the fridge and she can't play with it because her little teeth dig into the foam and she can bite chunks off it. But when she sees it she goes mental. There's no way she would make the connection with a real cow, but she knows this one. Maybe we'll take her to a petting zoo in the summer. I think they have one at Springridge farms..

I think she could clearly say 'daddy' now if she can say duckie, but who knows. She said it once or twice, but still not sure if she knows us as mommy and daddy.

Oh--Paige likes Dora the Explorer. Mike actually rented her a Dora video just for a laugh, and she really likes it. She says EEEEEE when it is playing. She usually makes this noise now when she is excited. Actually, I'm sure she would like other cartoons too, but I try not to turn on the tv for her specifically. When I watch tv now, she doesn't really pay much attention to it. So, it was kind of funny to put in a video for her, and have her (half) watch it. I hope she likes that show when she is older because I sort of like it too. haha.

CHEATING!

Paige is starting to cheat when she stands on her own! Little scammer! If she is standing along the couch we say "Paige, stand stand!" and she puts her little hands up, palms facing outwards, but she LEANS HER STOMACH ON THE COUCH!!

I am now thinking that she understands "stand stand" as putting her hands up like that, rather than actually standing on her own!!

I think we confused her because the 3 things she seems to know are "dance dance", "stand stand", and "hands hands". Yes--we say everything twice. So now she is probably really confused. Say all of those words back to back and they all sound exactly the same.

I will have to work on that with her today! haha.

So cute I can't even stand it..

I can't believe how much Paige is starting to understand and be aware of things. Last night she was acting like a puppy, that is the only think I can compare it to. You know when dogs do something again and again for treats? Well, while I was sitting on the couch, Paige was standing in front of me, holding onto the couch. She let go and was just standing there with her palms facing outwards towards me for balance. So we went YAAAAa!!! and clapped. She eventually lost balance and put her hands down on the couch again. A few seconds later she would do the same thing. we would say yYAAAAAaa and clap. She did this again and again probably about 10 times. Sometimes she would even do a little pivot turn as if she was going to try to walk in the opposite direction! when she would do this she would wipe out completely on the floor. She would then crawl back to the couch, stand up, and do it again. By the end she was standing on her own and clapping. She could probably only get in 2 claps before she would need to put her hands down to steady herself, since it wasn't as easy to balance and clap. I just can't believe how insanely cute she looks with her hands out, a serious look on her face seeking approval, and tiny little wobbles as she is steadying herself.

I have realized that shopping for a baby girl is difficult--there is waaaaaay too much selection. You know how you go to the store to shop for yourself and you might see 2 items that you like, if you even find anything that fits properly? Well, with Paige, I look in the store and I could really get anything for her, and all of it fits. Everything is ridiculously cute, it's just a matter of matching things that you already have, and not going crazy. I have bought most of Paige's forseeable summer wardrobe. I guess we'll see how dirty she gets and what she likes wearing. She has:

5 onesies
3 t-shirts
2 tracksuits
1 water-resistant jacket
1 bathing suit
1 dress
1 terry cloth bathing suit coverup dress/normal dress
1 sailor suit
2 sun hats
3 shorts
and, hhmm, 5 pairs of pants...ok, but 2 of these are 18 month leggings that she wears now, so they fit now as pants all scrunched up, but will probably fit until she is 2, just under dresses.

It's funny because some of the stuff was in her closet since she was born. At the time it seemed so huge, so I didn't even imagine that it would fit now, but it will definitely fit by July. I think it seems like there are a lot of clothes, but once she starts playing in the grass, I'm assuming that some stuff will get stained. Already one of the onesies has food stains on it.

Can't wait till I can shop for our cruise...the stuff from last summer is maternity, and the summer before that I was a size XS....not going to happen by this summer...so I need everything new! woohoo! I won't go crazy, but I will need a few things anyway..

New Achievments

1. Paige can stand up for about 15 seconds on average. She uses her arms to balance herself if she wobbles at all.

2. She randomly finds her walker and starts walking away.

3. She can now dance on cue: "Paige, dance dance!" and she moves side to side, or if on all 4's, apparently she moves back and forth--she did this last night.

4.Toast has become another food option. If you give her a half piece of toast she will rip off tiny pieces with her 2 teeth.

Ouch

I just glanced at myself in the mirror as I was putting Paige's last bottle of the night in the warmer and I thought, "what the heck is that all over my face??" I had Paige's FOOD ALL OVER MY FACE! Little splatters of food mainly on my nose. Lately, she likes to spit out her food. Most of the time I take it to mean that she is finished, but sometimes she seems to do it for fun. Also, she does it when she tastes meat or carrots which she hates--but those are always accompanied by a disgusted expression.

I probably didn't notice that there was food all over my face or bother to wipe it off when it happened since I had another one of those, "OMG, I just hurt my child" moments. I had heated up some cereal for Paige and then gave it a (apparently) crappy stir. I tested it with my finger like I always do, and then gave Paige a spoonful. One look at her face and I knew I had just burned her (or close). I must have taken a spoonful from a hot section. As soon as the food hit her tongue, she kept her mouth wide open with her tongue sticking out, she started shaking and crying. I scraped the food off as quick as I could, then I gave her a drink of my water. She was fine, but once again I felt awful! Add that to the list of bad things I have done. It could have been way worse, and now I will be over cautious I guess. As a treat after the incident, I let her play with her sippy cup without the membrane in it, so she could drink the water really fast (which she loves). She got the water all over herself which she thought was hilarious, so obviously, I hadn't really hurt her, just shocked her.

Paige says hi

I was able to get a video of Paige saying hi very clearly. I put together a few clips of her using her walker, crawling really fast and then saying hi. She says hi 2 x actually. The second time is the best.