Showing posts with label signing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label signing. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Look What I Found!

The good news: The Kumquat is now doing the sign for "food" or "eat." Very helpful since she's just been signing "more" (which looks an awful lot like "ball" and "shoe") to tell me she's hungry (or so I've guessed).


The bad news: She has made another discovery so conveniently located near her mouth. And I'm sure her big cousin had absolutely nothing to do with this whatsoever!


-- A Mobile Post

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Ten Months!

It's true! As of yesterday, the Baby Kumquat is 10 months old! Cr-azy. What's also crazy is all the stuff she's started doing in the last few weeks. Let's see if I can hit some highlights:
  • She is a signing machine! I love it. She started signing "milk" almost as soon as we began doing the sign language thing when she was around 7 mos. It took a while for many others to catch on, but now she's all over it. Some of the ones she uses often (that I've recognized, anyway) are: "more," "all done," "fish," "ball," "shoe," "hat," "dog," "wash hands," and "dad."

  • She's talking more and more every day. It's funny to me how she gets and loses words. She'll start with a new word and use it regularly, but then stop for a while. Over the past few weeks, she's used "duck," "dog," "cat," "uh-oh," "bye," "mama," and "dada."

  • She's all over the place, too. She has gotten super quick with her crawling - and she's now doing a more traditional right-left crawl rather than her earlier inchworm moves. She pulling up and cruising all over the house. She seems to have lost interest in walking for the moment, but I have a feeling that won't last for long. She used to take a few steps if I held her hands. Now she usually just sits down. She has stood for a few seconds without any support a few times, too!


    Oh, and she's a dancing queen, too.


  • She eats so well. I'm very lucky that she's been pretty open to most everything I've tried giving her. She definitely does not prefer the green veggies, but she'll eat them if I'm persistent. She totally ♥'s cheese. It's basically her favorite thing ever. She recently has decided that she would much rather feed herself than wait for her mama to feed her mush with a spoon. Oh, and she's quite generous. She's more than happy to share her puffs with me.

  • She's still a great traveler, although I think our recent trip to and through South Dakota may have traumatized her just a bit. She was awesome on the trip, but for about a week, she cried every time we put her in her carseat. Hopefully she'll get over that soon. Her summer has included trips to SD, TN, Las Vegas, and MO. Busy girl! I recently counted them up and realized Baby K will be in at least 11 states by her first birthday. Now that's crazy!
I've always been fascinated by people's thought processes (part of why I became a counselor), so that's exponentially true for my daughter. I love that she's signing & talking more because I've been able to have more insights into how she's beginning to understand the world. It truly amazes me how much babies pick up. Yesterday we were singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (yep, she does motions for it - oh, and she claps & waves now, too!) she signed "wash hands" when I said, "washed the spider out." Impressive, no?

Funny story... When we were in SD, Baby K was able to say "cat" and she used it both for my bro's kitties and for her own stuffed kitty. When we came home, though, she seemed to forget that those critters are "cats" and started calling ours "dog." Given Connor's size and mass, it's a totally understandable mistake. I've been trying to correct her when she calls them dog, though. It happens often.
The other day, she pointed to Connor and said "Dog."
I said, "No, Baby. He's a cat."
K looked at me like I clearly was insane and signed "hat."
"No, Baby. Not 'hat.' Connor's a 'cat.'"
"Dog," said K, as she signed "hat."

So, that's our "cat" for now. A dog who wears a hat.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A Month in Pictures

Since it's been ages since I wrote a real post and we have a lot of adventures to tell you about, I thought I'd just skim through them all in one long post & give you the month in pictures!


July 2
Baby K turned 8 months old!

July 3 - 4
We headed for Missouri to reconnect with lots of family & old friends (including K's godmother, Auntie V...
and the priest who did our wedding!)
We spent the 4th in St. Louis for the wedding of one of my dear friends from college. It was actually the first time I'd seen her in 10 years! Crazy! There were 4 of us that were very close. It was a wonderful reunion for 3 of us, but we sure missed you, Chare!

July 5
We also had a chance to go to Mass at the Catholic Student Center, which is where we were married.
Then we had a lovely lunch with a dear friend before heading out to the St. Louis Zoo with one of DKG's best friends from college & his family.
It is seriously a FABULOUS zoo. If you're ever in the Lou, I totally recommend it. Besides being amazing, it's FREE. Yep, free. I'd been quite content with our zoo until this visit. Now I have total zoo envy! Did I mention that it's free??!


July 6 - 9
After that, DKG headed home (since apparently someone in this family has to work!) and the Kumquat & I headed on to visit Grammy in Farmington, where I grew up.
It has been years since I was there, so that was fun. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to catch up with many people. Grammy had broken a couple ribs the day before we arrived, so we really spent most of the time helping her out. We'll definitely have to make a trip back soon to have a do-over. Fortunately, Grammy was able to hold the baby girl (if I was very careful in the hand-off) and had a good time with K.

July 9 - 10
Baby K & I headed home. Oh, did I mention that we drove?
And that I insisted DKG fly home and K & I drive? And that I'm clearly insane? The girl was great for the first day & all but 2 hours or so of the second. By then she was d-o-n-e, but, sadly, we were not yet home. Not so fun for either of us. We did have a good time at a rest stop where she was happy as a clam...
but the meltdown resumed as soon as we got back into the car. We won't be doing that again. Oh wait... we're doing that again in about a week. Yup, my idea.


July 11 - 23
We were home for 12 whole days!! Up to our usual fun & games, like:
hanging out at the pool...
grocery shopping...
taking baths...
having picnics on the deck...
watching the ducks at Bradley Fair (Look how long her hair is! And, no, it's not a toupee!)...
brunching at The Good Egg...
and sporting ridiculously cute Cardinals gear...



July 24 - 28
We took our baby to Vegas, baby! We stayed at the Palazzo as we celebrated Lolo & Lola's wedding anniversary.
Baby K got to spend lots of fun time with them and with Tita A.
I feel like I hardly saw DKG the whole time (That's how we do in Vegas... the boys golf & the girls go to the pool. It was a bazillion degrees there; we totally got the better end of that deal!)...
but I guess I'll have more opportunities to see him soon. Right? I mean, I do live with him and all.

DKG & I got to see Jersey Boys while Lola, Lolo & Tita A babysat for us.
It was a fabulous show! And I hear fun was had (and some sign language learned!) by all back in the suite while we were gone.


July 29 - 30
Home again, home again, jiggity-jog.
Back to reviewing general surgery...
having picnics in the yard...

and standing up!!


July 31
This would have been my dad's 78th birthday. I'd intended to devote an entire post to him that day, but it just hasn't happened. Suffice it to say, he's one of the hugest influences in my life and I miss him terribly every day. This year (five years after he passed) is honestly the first time I've been able to really think about him without getting choked up. The times that do still really get me are when my Kumquat does something that I know would delight him. Or when I think about the fact that she'll grow up not knowing that amazing man. I never knew his parents and those grandparents were always sort of shadowy figures in my life that I have never had any true feelings for... in spite of the fact that I'm named for my grandmother. It breaks my heart to think it might be the same way for her. I hope and pray that I'll be able to share his life with her in a way that will help her feel like she knows her grandfather. I see him so much in my brothers and it does make me happy that she'll at least know him through them, even if it's not directly. I love you and miss you, Papa.

Now on to August!!