11 Months: No Longer Eating EverythingFor the first time, Abigail is beginning to find a lot of things entertaining without having to chew on them the whole time.
It might not seem like it, but this is a major change. I've had to be very careful about what she gets hold of for months because she will chew holes in boxes and eat paper or anything else that's remotely chewable. This month, though, she started to find out that things are interesting even if you're not currently tasting them. Now she's moved on to taking things out and putting them back in. Give her two boxes with some small items in one and she will sit quite a while trading the items between the boxes. She has also learned to point, which allows her to tell us what she's asking "what's that?" about and has the handy side-effect of letting her push buttons, like the ones on her little musical toy computer. She gets a big grin on her face every time she successfully gets it to play a song. |
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We had a pretty eventful month - it was probably our least healthy one so far, since we had two colds and Norovirus all within the space of three weeks. Abigail handled it all like a champ; I'm not sure what to do with a kid who doesn't get croupy or have ear infections and who only throws up once when she has a stomach virus. We must've just been more sickly kids in my family growing up.
In spite of viruses, we managed to be well enough to attend various get-togethers over the holidays, shovel snow, go out for lunch (Abigail has only rarely been to a restaurant) and do interesting things like dry clothes at the laundromat (Abigail thinks this is fascinating).
Abigail continues to add words to her vocabulary - some useful ones I hadn't thought of have been "hot", "bath", "bread" (she asks for bread when she's hungry even if she doesn't necessarily want bread). She says "puh" for please, "up", and her favorite "all done!". She has a bunch of others she use almost randomly since they're not consistent, such as "it's cold", "yeah" for "yes" and actual "no" instead of just shaking her head. She occasionally says, "I can't". "Baden" is "water", though now she's trying to say the w sound so I don't think she'll keep that one for long. She heaves a big sigh to say "outside" since Ben always takes a deep breath and says "outside!" to here when he takes her out the door. Whenever it's snowing and Abigail notices, she does the big sigh while pointing to the window to let me know she sees something is going on outside. She also sings and points at the computer to get us to put music on, which is funny since she sings two songs recognizably enough for me to know which ones she's talking about. I guess that's what happens when Grandma's been practicing or the classical radio station's been on since she was just forming.
Though still nursing, Abigail eats regular meals now and there isn't much she doesn't like. She is becoming a little more discerning and will occasionally spit something out, but for the most part she eats whatever we're eating as long as she can chew it. She hasn't gotten any more new teeth for a while, though one of her molars keeps trying to come through and her bottom teeth keep swelling up and then going back down. Favorite foods are oatmeal, scrambled eggs, bread with butter and brown sugar on it, plain sourdough bread, turkey lunchmeat, raisins, graham crackers, celery, apples or applesauce, yogurt, oranges, blueberries and bananas. She has grown very fond of tea, which she drinks without sugar in it since I don't; though she definitely prefers it with cream. She thinks tea is actually called "hot", though, because she always points at my cup and says "hot? Hot?" She also enjoys jelly beans and chocolate, though she only gets small amounts of chocolate occasionally and I've learned I can only give her one jelly bean since she puts however many she has all in her mouth at once.
A big change this month has been Abigail beginning to go to other people instead of insisting on Mom Only. The first words out of her mouth in the morning after she's done nursing are always, "Hi Dad!" and she looks all over the house for Ben if he's not home. She squeals and races to Grandma Lila whenever she first sees her. And while she now goes to all her grandparents and aunts and uncles, she spends the most time with Nana Turner and cries when Nana leaves. She goes next door with Nana and Grandpa now and then and has fun playing with their new cat, Heidi - she now looks all around for the "tat" when she's next door.
She has also begun to do a variety of small "jobs" like putting her dirty diapers in the garbage, drying silverware and picking up her toys. She usually only dries a spoon or two before she starts playing with them, but it's definitely a start.
To my disappointment, Abigail still isn't interested in the least in me reading to her. I persist in trying, but she usually makes it through about two pages before she begins closing the book or trying to crinkle the pages. I never met a kid who didn't like being read to before, so I expect she'll enjoy it eventually; and after all, I said last month I didn't think I was ever going to take her monthly photo without her putting the sign in her mouth and this month she didn't even try once. She's changing by the day. Maybe next week she'll like stories...
In spite of viruses, we managed to be well enough to attend various get-togethers over the holidays, shovel snow, go out for lunch (Abigail has only rarely been to a restaurant) and do interesting things like dry clothes at the laundromat (Abigail thinks this is fascinating).
Abigail continues to add words to her vocabulary - some useful ones I hadn't thought of have been "hot", "bath", "bread" (she asks for bread when she's hungry even if she doesn't necessarily want bread). She says "puh" for please, "up", and her favorite "all done!". She has a bunch of others she use almost randomly since they're not consistent, such as "it's cold", "yeah" for "yes" and actual "no" instead of just shaking her head. She occasionally says, "I can't". "Baden" is "water", though now she's trying to say the w sound so I don't think she'll keep that one for long. She heaves a big sigh to say "outside" since Ben always takes a deep breath and says "outside!" to here when he takes her out the door. Whenever it's snowing and Abigail notices, she does the big sigh while pointing to the window to let me know she sees something is going on outside. She also sings and points at the computer to get us to put music on, which is funny since she sings two songs recognizably enough for me to know which ones she's talking about. I guess that's what happens when Grandma's been practicing or the classical radio station's been on since she was just forming.
Though still nursing, Abigail eats regular meals now and there isn't much she doesn't like. She is becoming a little more discerning and will occasionally spit something out, but for the most part she eats whatever we're eating as long as she can chew it. She hasn't gotten any more new teeth for a while, though one of her molars keeps trying to come through and her bottom teeth keep swelling up and then going back down. Favorite foods are oatmeal, scrambled eggs, bread with butter and brown sugar on it, plain sourdough bread, turkey lunchmeat, raisins, graham crackers, celery, apples or applesauce, yogurt, oranges, blueberries and bananas. She has grown very fond of tea, which she drinks without sugar in it since I don't; though she definitely prefers it with cream. She thinks tea is actually called "hot", though, because she always points at my cup and says "hot? Hot?" She also enjoys jelly beans and chocolate, though she only gets small amounts of chocolate occasionally and I've learned I can only give her one jelly bean since she puts however many she has all in her mouth at once.
A big change this month has been Abigail beginning to go to other people instead of insisting on Mom Only. The first words out of her mouth in the morning after she's done nursing are always, "Hi Dad!" and she looks all over the house for Ben if he's not home. She squeals and races to Grandma Lila whenever she first sees her. And while she now goes to all her grandparents and aunts and uncles, she spends the most time with Nana Turner and cries when Nana leaves. She goes next door with Nana and Grandpa now and then and has fun playing with their new cat, Heidi - she now looks all around for the "tat" when she's next door.
She has also begun to do a variety of small "jobs" like putting her dirty diapers in the garbage, drying silverware and picking up her toys. She usually only dries a spoon or two before she starts playing with them, but it's definitely a start.
To my disappointment, Abigail still isn't interested in the least in me reading to her. I persist in trying, but she usually makes it through about two pages before she begins closing the book or trying to crinkle the pages. I never met a kid who didn't like being read to before, so I expect she'll enjoy it eventually; and after all, I said last month I didn't think I was ever going to take her monthly photo without her putting the sign in her mouth and this month she didn't even try once. She's changing by the day. Maybe next week she'll like stories...