11 June 2006

So Raina has lovies now. It was highly recommend by Dr. Lazaroff that she should get one. We didn't know what he was talking about but a while back Raina would fuss before she would go to bed until we gave her something to hug. So we chose the cute white kitten, which Raina took to pretty quickly, but she choose another one on her own. That grotesquely ugly purple bear with the satanic eyes. So now we give her both, she hugs one with each arm and lies on top of them to go to sleep. For a while this worked swimmingly, but as it has gotten warmer, Raina has seemed to thrash about in the bed even more than she used to, particularly when she is "trying to get comfortable" to go to sleep. We find her in all sorts of strange positions once she finally choses one and nods off.

Raina doesn't sleep quite as much at night anymore, she usually stays up past 7:00 and as late as 8:00 or 8:30, and then promptly gets up at 5:15. If she is in bed when she doesn't want to be she will stand up at the edge of her bed and scream. If you come into the room while she is doing this, she will hop up and down and reach her arms toward you. She has woken up in the middle of the night multiple times lately, but Mom and Dad have gotten better at handling the situation. We tell her from the hall to lie down and go back to sleep, which she usually does. Mom even successfully gave the command from the bed last night.

Big yellow bear battle. Raina has an odd reaction to the Big Yellow Bear. She has this implicit need to attack it by charging towards it with her arms spread and mouth open and drooling. She then tackles the bear and chomps on its nose. She likes it even more when the bear fights back by picking her up and throwing her onto the couch.

Raina talks sort of. Raina says things like uh-oh and mama and dada. We still don't think she knows what she is saying but she is getting more expressive. She will point to something and say "Dah" when she wants something. This is particularly common when mom or dad are eating food, and she'll add the expressive "mmm". She will also pitch a fit when she isn't getting what she wants. woo hoo .

Raina reads books. Raina has taken a liking to books. She will look at books independently on the floor as well as bring a book to a loving parent, hand the parent the book, and then attempt to shimmy her butt into their lap, without any regard for whether the lap is prepared. Mom was lying on the ground when she received a book offering from Raina. Then Raina attempted to sit back on Mom's belly only to find there was no back rest. The quick reactions of Mom prevented a head bonking.

Raina likes trips. Raina gets rather giddy whenever we take her out of the house. Whether that place is the grocery store or particularly day care, she starts jerking around in excitement.

Separation anxiety. Raina has rather suddenly gotten very possessive about those that take care of her. While she was never excited about Mom leaving the house, she now freaks out anytime she leaves the room. And she had a tough time getting reaquianted with the YMCA nursery - lots of crying. Originally we had planned to take her out of day care all summer while mom is at home, but given Raina's change in mood we have decided to let her keep going once a week so that she doesn't have quite the shock in the fall.

Time out for Raina. Speaking of day care, Raina has been jealous of the new baby at day care. She takes up way too much of Melissa's time (Raina's favorite day care worker) Raina showed her displeasure by shoving her hands into the baby's face while looking at Melissa. This earned Raina her first time out. Melissa was quite crushed to have to force Raina into time out and listen to a brand of crying she had never heard before.
Raina has been adept at climbing stairs for quite a while, and is disappointed when the opportunity is not available (baby levee). Recently she has been interested in the going down the stairs. Although this requires the assistance of a parent.

Raina likes to shove things around preferably large things like bar stools, baskets, boxes, whatever she can move

Party Party. Reuters had their family picnic last weekend. The free food was so so, but they had a sprinkler fountain for kids to play in, and although we didn't come prepared, we let Raina join in the fun. Her diaper visibly expanded as soon as it touched the water. Raina was mostly interested in sitting down in the water and splashing. The following day we went to the Matt Gossage fairwell carnival. The food was much better here and Raina got to see some crazy birds, snakes, and a monkey. She called them duck. She also helped us defeat Debbie Higgins and her son at foosball. We also let her wander about a bit. She really liked the bean bag toss clown. We fed her hot dog and cheese balls made from shredded cheese. She refused to be put down for the first hour or so, but she was perfectly content to be handed off to strangers (including the ice cream worker), in fact she requested it by reaching out to them. Very strange.

Raina hugs now. She will hold on to you and cuddle with you at certain times, and at others she will cling to you in fear.

Raina pointed to the TV the other day and said "Dah". So in attempt to satisfy her request, Dad put in the baby einstein video which Raina sat entranced by for a half an hour. Now commeth the dark time of TV babysitting our child.

Whenever a parent goes to use the bathroom, Raina gets very excited and hurries to the bathroom door. She will then proceed to open the door and smile lovingly at whoever is inside. We tried to discourage this at first, but it is hopeless, so now we embrace it and encourage her to go interupt the other parent's bathroom experience.

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