Miss A

I wrote this before we went private, but the internet wasn't working, so didn't post it.  This is a really long one.  But a lot of it is for my memory. 

Miss A has really grown in the past few months both physically and developmentally.  She has quite a strong will personality and when she doesn't want something, she lets you know.  She also is quite vocal when she wants something.  When we're eating a meal and I'm not giving her food fast enough, she lets out a scream.  It's like she's saying "Hey! I'm hungry! I want food!!" just as loud as she can.  And since there is nothing on the walls and no carpet, it sounds really loud.  

She's starting to say a lot of sounds.  One of her favorites is "MmmmmmA" like she's blowing a kiss.  I've had her blow kisses to Nana and Grandma and now sometimes she says "MmmmmA" with her hand over her mouth.  Miss A also has started to babble like she's actually saying something.  She'll look at me and babble and I'll respond with a "Oh really?"  and she'll keep babbling.  She also says other sounds, but they almost always end with an "A". So "bA" (the 'A' is accented).  I think she likes to hear the echo in here, or how loud she can be because sometimes she hollers just to holler.  

I've been trying to teach her baby sign.  She hasn't copied anything that I've done yet, but she does know how to ask to be picked up.  She throws up her arms and sticks out her belly and arches her back.  It's so cute.  When we first came if I walked away from her, even if I stayed in the same room, she'd immediately start to cry and look at me like, "How could you, Mom?!?!" She wouldn't follow me, even though she could crawl and had been crawling for a month or so.  She was so distraught that she couldn't do anything but cry.  Poor girl.  But now she's used to being here and she crawls all over the place.  She'll come to me now when she wants to be picked up.  I love that she's interacting with us now and starting to communicate her wants more.  When she wants me to pick her up and I do, she pats me on the back or shoulder.  It's so cute.  

She is quite active.  She crawls all over and I have to keep a wide chair in front of the stairs so that she won't crawl up the stairs.  She loves the stairs as any baby does.  If I'm not careful and don't have the stairs blocked, she's up them before I know it.  We don't have a gate yet.  Our banister is metal and the stairs are very wide. We've been told that there is a guy who custom makes stair gates, so we may look into that.  

I do get more cuddle time than I did with Big E at this age.  She loves to give hugs and she even puts her arm around my neck.  Right after she's woken up is the best time to catch a snuggle, but she's likely to give hugs through the day unless she's tired and then she arches away from me.  She's also a big Daddy's girl.  When Steve gets home from work, she makes a bee line to her Dad.  If he comes in without picking her up and saying hi, she cries.  

Miss A has found that she can open things, cabinet doors, drawers the kitchen and the TV stand, the dominos tin.  One of them that I think is funny is that she's found she can open the drawer under the stove.  We have a standard electric range with a storage drawer under the oven.  She likes to open it and put things in here.  So sometimes I find the hand towel in there or tupperware containers that she's taken out of the cupboard.  She'll put something in, close the drawer, then open it again and look at it.  

Sometimes I'll find her sprawled on the floor.  She'll crawl somewhere and then just lay down, by a door, in front of the fridge, at your feet.  It's the funniest thing.  

Miss A loves her brother.  Big E can still get her to laugh and he loves to make her laugh.  He's so good with her.  She does watch him and I'm sure that when she's more mobile and capable, she'll be trying to do what he does.  

This picture isn't exactly the best depiction of the how much she adores Big E.  She wasn't into pictures that day.  Big E is in his new church clothes and so is Miss A.  Thanks Grandmas!

As for physical growth, Miss A has grown a lot, but she's still small for her age.  She's about 16 lbs.  At the moment I can't remember how long she is, but it's written in her baby book.  I looked up how old Big E was at about the same size; he was 5 months.  :)  She's below 5th percentile, but she's growing, so I'm not worried.  Since we've moved here she's cut 4 new teeth (6 total), all within the first 4 weeks of being here.  So on top of jet lag and adjusting to a new place, she was teething.  I'm sure she was miserable even with a teether and Ibuprofen.  

Here's Miss A showing off her new teeth.

Oh and another big thing is that she's started sleeping through the night again!  She started at the beginning of May all by herself, but the day after we moved she stopped and woke up at least once a night until about two or three weeks after moving here.  Now she sleeps through the night.  We've also been sleep training for about a long as Big E has been potty training, so about three weeks-ish, and we're just now seeing a change.  She sometimes cries for maybe a minute but then is quite.  It has been so nice.  

Her birthday is in 3 days.  I can't believe that she'll be 1!  She has been a wonderful addition to our family.  I look forward to seeing how she'll be as a toddler.  I have a feeling that we'll have a bit more drama in the house.