Date: November 20, 2020
Sleeping Pattern: Things are pretty steady in the sleep department. Rose doesn't have super long naps during the day (they're usually around an hour-if I'm lucky they're longer, if I'm less lucky they're shorter) but she sleeps for a long while at night (like 12.5 hours on average) and she's a generally happy lady so no complaints! (I knew this would happen-she went through something for a few days after I wrote this where her sleep got kind of crazy but I think we're back on track again.) She wakes around 7ish every morning and then is awake for 2.5 hours before her 1st nap and then she's awake for 3 hours after waking before her 2nd nap. Then she's up for 4 hours before we start her bedtime routine. She still usually stays pretty still while sleeping, not moving around or rolling around much. Just assumes her classic sleepy time pose of left hand in her hair and right thumb in her mouth when I put her down and then her arms may lay in other positions whilst asleep but periodically pop back into position lol.
Eating Habits: Nursing has been fine still! She eats and then is done and it's never very long and all pretty chill. Solids have been consistently good too-she still hasn't disliked a single thing. Little girl has eaten spicy curry and loves it (when something spicy catches up to her she does eventually cry because it hurts but then I give her yogurt and she's cool). It's pretty awesome. She is now eating 3 times a day (breakfast, lunch-which is after her 1st nap, and dinner) and happily chomps away. She may have started signing more at one point but now that's unfortunately disappeared--I always try to model and ask "more" and "all done" and so far still having some issues on sorting out what she wants in that area. She always lights up when I ask if she wants a drink and give her the cup of water. She looooves water.
Eating Habits: Nursing has been fine still! She eats and then is done and it's never very long and all pretty chill. Solids have been consistently good too-she still hasn't disliked a single thing. Little girl has eaten spicy curry and loves it (when something spicy catches up to her she does eventually cry because it hurts but then I give her yogurt and she's cool). It's pretty awesome. She is now eating 3 times a day (breakfast, lunch-which is after her 1st nap, and dinner) and happily chomps away. She may have started signing more at one point but now that's unfortunately disappeared--I always try to model and ask "more" and "all done" and so far still having some issues on sorting out what she wants in that area. She always lights up when I ask if she wants a drink and give her the cup of water. She looooves water.
Development & Firsts: On 10/24 Rose got her 1st tooth (bottom right incisor) and on 10/30 she got her 2nd (bottom left incisor)! Now she's got 2 cute little toothers in the bottom of her mouth. She also had her 1st Halloween (she was a Care Bear! We stayed home because of COVID but still dressed the kids up for fun). She's crawling really really well and started being able to crawl on all fours (as opposed to the army crawl) and is super fast! She's also pulling herself up to standing on things and frequently gets up on her feet from crawling (she just can't get her upper body off the ground unless she's holding something). She loves to crawl into my lap and then pull herself up to standing on me and then just bury her face in my shoulder (she loooves me!) And she sits up from laying/crawling. Annnd claps two toys together (and sometimes her hands). She also points, a lot. Big fan of pointing. And she'll sort of wave too (hold her hand up and open and close it. She does this to daddy a lot, or to me if he has her, or sometimes when we video call). I'm incredibly impressed by how good she is at making things fit together-she's always attempting the puzzles and shape fitting things that we have with much more dexterity than I would expect at her age and she can even put all the rings on the stacking cone (which kind of blew me away honestly). And I think that's all? Lots of separation anxiety if you want to count that as development-she is not a fan of not being without her mama. If she had her way I'd be holding her 90% of the time.
Mischief: Rose is still a fan of going after things even (especially?) if you try to redirect her from it. One time there was a toy I had moved her away from (not good for chewing on and she of course chews everything) and while I was doing something else she crawled over to the toy. She then looked at me, very purposefully, and held up the toy and when I said, "Nooo," she like laughed at me. She's also always wanting what James has, even when he's yelling at her that she's not allowed (*sigh*). Most of the time, though, she just gets mad and yells at you or cries when you deny her something. Now that she has teeth, Rose has experimented with biting me during nursing a couple times (very tentatively like she's literally testing it out). When I gently say "Noo Rosie no biting" she looks crestfallen and sobs about being reprimanded. (James had a biting phase at this age and thought it was amusing when I said no. So here's a very clear difference between them lol). She's still made of more sweetness than mischief!
Cuteness: I cannot emphasize enough how adorable Rose is. She is the sweetest most affectionate good little baby that I can imagine. I love all her chunky baby rolls and her big beautiful eyes (of indeterminate color, I'm guessing they'll end up hazel?) and crazy long eyelashes and kissy little mouth (that's always drooling) and the cutest 2 little teeth that peek out when her mouth is open wide (which is a lot she is always giving big grins or yelling lol). And her super pretty long hair (whether it's down or in pigtails). She just adores me and wants me like all the time and man that makes my heart swell. She would be content to be held always pretty much. She'll just lay her head on me or snuggle up on my shoulder (or Michael's) and squeeze for a big hug/snuggle. She'll give big open mouthed kisses happily all day long-including to her sweet brother (he loves to hold her and she gets so excited and they'll give each other kisses. It melts you.) And now that she's mobile she does the cutest little happy "I'm coming to get you" crawl when she sees one of us and wants to come get us. Her face lights up and she speeds up her crawling-soooo precious. She'll also crawl into your lap (which we fully predicted would be the case) and now even uses you to stand herself up and then like forcibly hug/kiss you lol. She's actually pretty cool to just play with toys and crawl around most of the time-she doesn't really get into stuff she shouldn't much (including the Christmas tree!), she's pretty chill left to her own devices until she becomes demanding of wanting to be held/cuddled. One time she was playing near Michael while he worked (I was putting James down for his nap) and she just crawled from the living room to the front room, took one of the stacking rings for her cone-which she had been playing with in the living room-, and came back to her previous spot. Like just went on a little mission and didn't do anything untrustworthy. She's constantly talking and babbling-so many probable words are emerging and it's so cool to see the beginning of this 2 way communication. And I love her little voice. She calls for dada a lot and even has flapped her hand out demandingly while yelling "dadaaaaaa!!" (She loves her daddy too, he makes her smile and giggle so much.) She talks with her hands a looot (can't imagine why....we all talk with our hands lol) and especially likes to hold her hand out in almost a Shakespearean "alas poor Yurik" kind of way. Rose is also definitely recognizing the people that we video call with, she gets so excited to see them (she even tries to happy crawl to the phone :P) and also loves to look at pictures of them. On Halloween James was already in his (ninja turtle) costume when we went to get Rose from her nap and she did a double take when she saw him. Then she started pointing at him and like guffaw laughing. It was the most little sibling thing ever. She's getting more into books now and even took a book back off the shelf after I had put it back (and since then she's decided a fun new game is "take all the books off the shelf!"--luckily pretty much everything at her height level is kid friendly thanks to James lol). Clearly she is standing quite a bit and it's cute how excited she gets sometimes after successfully pulling herself up, she'll like wiggle and do a cry of victory. Rose also seems to be very interested in instruments, especially Michael's guitar. Like everything she does it seems like she's very experiential about it (like James is more cerebral and likes to figure things out in his head first and really understand how everything works)-like she's tactile and likes to test things in order to figure them out (like the stacking rings on the cone, puzzles, etc.) It's amazing to watch her learn and grow and just how full of love and wonder she is.
Talking: Always talking but absolutely with more intention and meaning. Like she's clearly saying words now (just not always clear on what the word is). Dada and bruhbah (brother) are very strong and distinct-she doesn't use mama a ton but she'll whip it out occasionally. She's definitely saying "yeah" (always a cute response to hear lol) and might also be saying done, baby, book, that/dat (when we put up Christmas decorations she just kept pointing at everything going "dat! dat! dat!"), and other things. Lots of babbling. She also might make the "vroom" sound for cars and the elephant sound (similar to raspberries but a bit different I think). She'll also do a big excited inhale when she's stoked about something.
Favorites: James, mommy, and daddy. Playing with, hugging, and kissing James (she'll give him big open mouth kisses and it's too sweet). Snuggles. Burying her head in your shoulder. Hugs. Kisses. Being held. Daddy wearing his glasses (she thinks it's funny). Daddy's guitar (listening to him play and also trying to play herself). Babies (she gets so excited when she sees pictures of her little cousin Mena). People (pictures and video calls especially, and most of all the grandparents and aunts and uncles and aforementioned cousin). Smiling and attention. Eating food (yogurt and applesauce have elicited particularly aggressive positive responses, amongst others). Playing peek-a-boo (especially with daddy). All forms of playing and attention and affection bring her joy. Toys (especially ones her brother likes and also the xylophone, and cone and stacking rings). Still anything with a face, especially elephants and, like I said, babies. Going where she wants and getting what she wants-the newfound independence of crawling. Baths. And yeah I mean a million things. She's so dang happy and loves all of us so much. It's the most precious.
Dislikes: Not being with mommy. Getting wiped down after eating. Being kept from being able to go crawl and be free if she so desires. Taking something away from her (or her away from the something) that she wants. Falling (starting to happen now that she's standing and she is not a fan of falling down. James never seemed phased so it's very different!) Being told no/reprimanded/stopped.
Concerns: COVID as always. And just anytime she's crying in her crib. And no one enjoys the teething and separation anxiety stuff. But that's pretty much it.
A Day in the Life: James wakes up around 7-7:30 (usually) and so does Rose. I get James then we go get Rose together (and she's always so excited to see big brother and he's so excited to see her). We all go downstairs and I get James situated then she nurses, I change her diaper, I give them breakfast, we play, and then down for a nap after being awake for two and a half hours. She usually sleeps about 1-1.5 hours then I nurse her, change her, give her lunch, we play, then we get James down for his nap around 1ish and she usually goes down after that (about 3ish hours after waking up). I get a bit of a break while they both sleep usually, but this nap is usually short for her because she needs to be awake by 3 so that her bedtime is no later than 7 (since James' is at 7:30). After she's awake I nurse her, change her, we might play for a smidge and then I generally get dinner ready and we all eat together. After that I maybe give her/James bath(s)-usually together now-or just play (maybe video call with someone). Bedtime starts 4 hours after she woke from her nap. Someone reads her a book, says goodnight to stuff around the house, then she says goodnight to James and goes upstairs. We read superhero rules, get her diaper changed and into her sleeper and sleepsack and then I nurse her and sing "Rosie". She usually falls asleep and I cuddle her before laying her down in her crib. Then she sleeps all night (Except for the weird days she wakes up and cries in the very early morning *sigh*)