17 September 2005
Raina is "consolidating" her bowel movements, which means that instead of emptying her bowels 5 times a day, she cleans out her system once every two-three days. And those events are MASSIVE! Today's far surpassed the capability of any diaper: exploding on all sides, going up her back, and down her legs. She was extraordinarily happy after this occurrence.
Raina is making friends with other babies. Gavin, another kid at daycare, is frequently accosted by Raina's forward advances. Raina will roll over, grab Gavin's hand, and squeal at him -- the workers don't know if Gavin knows how to respond to this exuberance. Raina is trying to woo an older man.
Raina's spastically happy at times: frantically kicking and flailing arms and SQUEALING at the highest pitch possible. Krystal will try to squeal back at Raina in the same manner that Raina communicated to her, but Krystal can barely keep up. She lost that capability for such high sounds a long time ago.
Raina LOVES mornings, and she easily goes down to bed at night. We put her down in a dark room, and she immediately assumes "the position": arms bent behind the head, eyes closed, ready to sleep. She woke up randomly this morning around 1am or so, and entertained herself quite successfully. She rolled around, stared at the pictures, played with her feet, sucked AGGRESSIVELY on her thumb, and squealed in general happiness. Not once did she cry. She really doesn't cry when put down at night either. This has happened within the last week or so -- Raina just knows that she's supposed to sleep and so she doesn't complain about it. This may correspond to its getting dark earlier -- I guess we'll see if she regresses at daylight savings time's end.
Raina is always happy to see her parents again, whether in the mornings, or when playing peekaboo, or when being picked up at daycare. On Friday, Raina was unhappy and crying, but when she saw Eric she immediately brightened up and smiled and did her excited breathing pattern. (She pants like a dog. But a cute dog.)
Raina not only squeals, but is making bona fide vowel and sometimes consonant sounds. She has "AAAAH!" down without any sort of problem, and she also likes to make "rrr" sounds. We're trying to supply appropriate words like apple and rutabaga, but she hasn't pieced it together that much.
Raina loves her exersaucer much more than ever before. She's so much more independent in her play -- even more than last week. We've had a little bit of a setback though. She has to wear outfits with footies, and she cannot keep the traction that she needs to stand. She flops over a lot.
In the past, cleaning Raina was a chore that no one wanted to do, because she would immediately start screaming unconsolably and would continue until Krystal put a breast in her mouth much later. Baths were not fun. Around 3.5 months, things changed. Raina wouldn't freak out immediately, but she would tire of the situation quickly. By the end of that time frame, she would have reasonable success and then her parents would do something stupid to ruin the moment. Krystal dropped the shampoo bottle on Raina, and Eric doused her with cold water (separate occasions, thankfully). Anyway, now at 4.5 months, Raina is perfectly content to be bathed. I'm not convinced that she enjoys the experience, but she certainly likes the rubber ducky that comes along for the ride.
She does enjoy the lotion massage that she gets after the bath, and mommy/daddy like it too because Raina is TICKLISH!!!!! She squirms and giggles when you get her upper leg, armpits, and under her chin. She also is amused by daddy blowing on her belly and mommy munching on her cheek.
We are amazed each and every day by what a great baby she is. And she really does get better everyday, and we're not certain how that could be possible, but it's true. Raina is a wonderful baby, and we are tremendously blessed and lucky to have the lives we lead.
Raina is making friends with other babies. Gavin, another kid at daycare, is frequently accosted by Raina's forward advances. Raina will roll over, grab Gavin's hand, and squeal at him -- the workers don't know if Gavin knows how to respond to this exuberance. Raina is trying to woo an older man.
Raina's spastically happy at times: frantically kicking and flailing arms and SQUEALING at the highest pitch possible. Krystal will try to squeal back at Raina in the same manner that Raina communicated to her, but Krystal can barely keep up. She lost that capability for such high sounds a long time ago.
Raina LOVES mornings, and she easily goes down to bed at night. We put her down in a dark room, and she immediately assumes "the position": arms bent behind the head, eyes closed, ready to sleep. She woke up randomly this morning around 1am or so, and entertained herself quite successfully. She rolled around, stared at the pictures, played with her feet, sucked AGGRESSIVELY on her thumb, and squealed in general happiness. Not once did she cry. She really doesn't cry when put down at night either. This has happened within the last week or so -- Raina just knows that she's supposed to sleep and so she doesn't complain about it. This may correspond to its getting dark earlier -- I guess we'll see if she regresses at daylight savings time's end.
Raina is always happy to see her parents again, whether in the mornings, or when playing peekaboo, or when being picked up at daycare. On Friday, Raina was unhappy and crying, but when she saw Eric she immediately brightened up and smiled and did her excited breathing pattern. (She pants like a dog. But a cute dog.)
Raina not only squeals, but is making bona fide vowel and sometimes consonant sounds. She has "AAAAH!" down without any sort of problem, and she also likes to make "rrr" sounds. We're trying to supply appropriate words like apple and rutabaga, but she hasn't pieced it together that much.
Raina loves her exersaucer much more than ever before. She's so much more independent in her play -- even more than last week. We've had a little bit of a setback though. She has to wear outfits with footies, and she cannot keep the traction that she needs to stand. She flops over a lot.
In the past, cleaning Raina was a chore that no one wanted to do, because she would immediately start screaming unconsolably and would continue until Krystal put a breast in her mouth much later. Baths were not fun. Around 3.5 months, things changed. Raina wouldn't freak out immediately, but she would tire of the situation quickly. By the end of that time frame, she would have reasonable success and then her parents would do something stupid to ruin the moment. Krystal dropped the shampoo bottle on Raina, and Eric doused her with cold water (separate occasions, thankfully). Anyway, now at 4.5 months, Raina is perfectly content to be bathed. I'm not convinced that she enjoys the experience, but she certainly likes the rubber ducky that comes along for the ride.
She does enjoy the lotion massage that she gets after the bath, and mommy/daddy like it too because Raina is TICKLISH!!!!! She squirms and giggles when you get her upper leg, armpits, and under her chin. She also is amused by daddy blowing on her belly and mommy munching on her cheek.
We are amazed each and every day by what a great baby she is. And she really does get better everyday, and we're not certain how that could be possible, but it's true. Raina is a wonderful baby, and we are tremendously blessed and lucky to have the lives we lead.
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