28 December 2005

Raina has the power of FORWARD MOVEMENT!!! Well, forward movement on very rare occasions. She has managed to string together four to five knee shuffles in addition to her expert hand stepping motions. But, as daddy likes to say, she is a drama queen who prefers to lay out to get the item, like Jim Edmonds in almost all situations.

Raina celebrated her 1st xmas, which means that her parents utilized the "traveling sleepy baby" method. The only hitch was that the Poplar Bridge was closed at 3 a.m. and her parents got lost in Saint Louis slums. MLK bridge, where are you? We narrowly escaped eternal plight by evacuating up an I-70 exit ramp and wheeling around into 60 mph traffic. Go Krystal! Sadly, we figured this was the safer of the two options. Go Saint Louis!
Raina had a cute xmas reindeer outfit and received a darling hippo stocking. She also got gifts of all sorts, ranging from foamy books to a puzzle clock to a mini-computer to college money. Most of all, she got to spend time with her family, which she enjoyed a lot. Raina refused to go to sleep at night because she knew there were people downstairs willing to play with her. So she screamed and screamed and screamed until we relented. We were weak willed and Granddaddy was perfectly willing to claim Raina at any time.

Raina was mostly traumatized by her experiences in Owensboro -- stimulation was overwhelming and the three kids continuously shoved items in her face, shook them, talked loudly, and then ripped the items away. They did not give Raina a chance to process anything. Raina was good, she tolerated this for about 3 minutes of full on assault, but then descended into confused wailing and tormented looks at her parents for saving. Speaking of saving, Raina has learned to lift up her hands to signal 1) pick me up, 2) cuddle with me, and 3) service me with food or poopy cleaning. Unfortunately, for some reason, Raina has decided that all diaper changes are a bad move and she immediately begins screaming like a mad baby when we lay her on the floor. We have found that singing to her sometimes stops the screams, but usually it's the diaper cream that's the overall winner. She starts screaming again when mommy and daddy actually need to use the diaper cream and we claim it from her.

While in Nashville, during a diaper change, Raina started to talk. (no screaming at all -- what a relief!) She softly babbled consonant sounds to herself, including saying da-da for the first time, and she somewhat contorts her lower lip. Throughout the weekend it became quite the standard and Raina was declared "cutest baby" in the Compton house that weekend. She has replaced scooting around with talking as her favorite thing to do.

Unfortunately, Eric did not hear Raina's first da-da moment, as he was upstairs recuperating from a yucky pukey illness. Then mommy was recuperating. This illness brought the Whomptons to a grinding halt for two days, during which Raina saw her parents barely at all: mom during feedings and dad never. Eric spent xmas morning lying on the couch underneath six blankets, watching as Krystal opened three persons' worth of gifts. Krystal and Eric ate xmas dinner a day late. Woohoo, and merry christmas!

post-note: Donna the day-care worker claims that "all the toddler teachers came down with the stomach flu on xmas eve or day." It's a match -- the culprit is daycare.

Raina stands up by herself and needs very little outside balancing. She will hold herself up against a parent or a couch and happily prattle on.

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