Sunday, November 23, 2008

Playing with new toys

Since day one, Sara Beth has not wanted to miss out on the action.  Whenever we ate supper, she would sit in her swing and look forlornly at the dinner table pining for the day when she too could join in the meal and merry making.  Well, it wasn't really like that, but she did start to fuss rather quickly and wanted to sit with us.  So we took down her high chair and strapped it down so now she can join us.  The doctor has told us that we should probably wait until she is four months old before beginning to give her solid food, so in order to distract her while we eat, we got a toy down for her to play with.  At first we gave her a rattle.  That quickly degenerated into a game of "Lets fling it off the side and see how quickly Mom or Dad puts it back".  It got old quick, so we moved to a toy that had a rubber suction cup on the bottom of it, so it would stay afixed to her tray.  However, in the contest of strength between Sara Beth and the suction cup, Sara Beth wins.  Note how I am still having to hold it down in this picture.  


Every weekend is more fun then the previous one.  This weekend, we danced to the entire 1812 Overture when it was played on the radio.  I did most of the dancing, but she did wiggle with the rhythm for some parts.  I can't wait to take her to the symphony.

We also laid down on the floor together and she used her hands to learn about different facial features.  She is rather good at finding my nose.

After a long weekend we gave her a bath and got her ready for bed.  For a while, Sara Beth was not interested in me reading to her right before her night time meal, but she now seems to have reverted to her more snuggly ways.  We read about 6 pages before she decided to call it quits and asked for her meal.  I have noticed that I have to hold the book further away from us then before.  If not, I find that Sara Beth wants to help turn the pages, but she hasn't figured out when to turn them, or even that pages should be turned from right to left.  Perhaps next week.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Sleeping through the night

So Sara Beth was smiling right until a couple seconds before the camera captured this picture. 


So, Sara Beth decided that she wanted to sleep straight through the night.  We put her down at 8pm and didn't hear a peep out of her until 7:30 the next morning.  We were both pleasantly suprised, as the 4 am feeding was a regular part of the daily routine, at least for Heather.  I regularly slept through that one.  The next day, she did the same thing.  We were wondering if that was the end of the early morning feedings.  Heather was actually kind of sad as SaraB is apparently extra snuggly and cuddly before the sun comes up.  Well, her fears were assuaged as Sara Beth has re-added her early morning feeding.  But now, instead of a regular 4am thing, she will wake up any time between 2am and 5am.  

Through this ordeal, she has dropped one of her daytime feedings, so she is now down to just 5 during the course of 24 hours.  Of course, that does not include all the times during the day that she will chew on her hands, burp cloths, or her sleeves.


I don't know if music fascinates all babies, or if Sara Beth is unique.  When she is acting fussy, I can sit her down on the couch and play guitar for her.  Instantly, she will stop fussing and get a focused look on her face.  She will stare at the guitar or off into space, but after a couple minutes she starts to wiggle in time with the beat.  I wouldn't call it dancing... yet, but it is as close as she can get, given that she has rather limited mobility. She will be content to sit and listen for up to 30 minutes straight.  I enjoy the audience, and Sara Beth apparently enjoys the show.

Heather found a giant 206 count box of diapers online, and she got two boxes.  One box of size 3 diapers and one box of size 4.  And it looks like Sara Beth will be about ready to move into the size 4 by the time that we finish off the box of smaller ones.  She is a big baby.  We have quite a few friends with one year olds who still wear size 3s.  It will be interesting to see what she weighs in two week when we take her back for her 4 month checkup.

In other poop related news, we have found that the jumparo works as an excellent laxative alternative for Sara Beth.  Quite regularly, when we place her in it, she will bounce around for a minute or two, then lean forward, grunt, and fill her diaper.  Once we hear that noise, we need to take her out.  There have been times that we leave her in there, and if she does it a second time, it is almost guaranteed that there will be a need to change her clothes along with her diaper.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Outsmarting the parents

Sara Beth is one smart cookie.  I've mentioned before about how she really does not like naps.  She will get fussy if she is allowed to stay awake so we put her down in her crib for naps.  If she fusses over every little thing then we have let her stay up too long, so typically we keep an eye out for the cues that SaraB gives off when it is getting to be time.  Yawning; rubbing the eyes; that sort of thing.  Well, in the past week she has stopped with the cues.  She will still get fussy when she is overtired, but all the cues up to that point are no longer there.  She has learned that if she yawns, then she gets put down for a nap, so she stifles them.  Heather has only seen a single yawn recently; SaraB started to yawn when Heathers back was turned and couldn't finish it before Heather turned around.  

Her dexterity has greatly improved.  She loves to stick things in her mouth.  With her new found ability to use her hands, she now shoves anything she can wrap her hands around into it.  One day I was eating cookies out of a large tupperware container.  It had a 10 inch square lid, which I gave to Sara Beth to play with while I continued with my breakfast.  She had one hand on one side of the lid and slowly inched her hand up the other side until it grasped the opposite side.  She then smushed it into her face in an attempt to explore the object with her mouth.  Below is a picture of her trying to decide if she wants to stick a burp cloth or her fist into her mouth:


For Halloween, Heather brought Sara Beth into work in the afternoon.  She was actually able to do a little trick or treating.  I held her next to the candy bowl and she dunked her and in and wiggled it around, and pulled it out, empty.  She then repeated the process.  I was reminded of the plexiglass machine where you pay to use the metal claw on a crane to pull out one of the stuffed animals stored inside.  On the fourth try, she was successful.  Her hand came up grasping a sucker, which she then immediately tried to stick in her mouth.


I'll close out this post of Sara Beth with my hat.  Aside from the occasional dip in a swimming pool, the hat has not been washed since high school.  I think Heather let me put it on Sara Beth because this was about a minute before bath time, so any horribly infectious disease that might have been on the had would be washed off of her head in only a handful of seconds.