As sometimes happens, there hasn’t been any actual event to report on regarding Lexi, nothing big that has made us run to this blog to report on. So this is just a general update.
Lexi will be a whole 10 months old next week. She is growing so fast. In May, her progress was remarkable. Fortunately, my (the Padre) grandparents were here on a visit to see all of it. By May 1, she had finally gotten coordinated and had mastered crawling and started to move around on her own. But almost immediately, with some willing helpers around, she also wanted to start walking. Especially Lolo (grandpa) spent a lot of time holding her up by her arms so she could start walking around.
By the last week or so of May, she was starting to pull herself up onto things – the coffee table, the side of the bathtub, the footboard of the bed, etc. And by early June, she had learned to return from this standing position to sitting on the floor again and even to squat, while still holding on with one hand, to pick something up.
During May she also fearlessly decided to start climbing stairs as well. Nobody ever showed her how to do this, but one day she was crawling along toward the two stairs from the living room to the dining room, and without stopping or even hesitating, she lifted up her arms and legs and climbed them! She must have keenly observed where the stairs are and what happens on them every time we carried her up and down them. So it wasn’t long until she was crawling toward the big staircase, eager to ascend to the upper floors of our house. They don’t sell the typical baby gates (for doors or stairs) here, so we had to go to a furniture-making shop down the road and ask them to cut us a piece of plywood that we now use to block the bottom of the stairs.
In terms of her disposition, she is still a very happy baby. She often chatters away during the course of the day with a lot of different noises and laughing. She is starting to wake up a little earlier than her usual wake-up time at 7:00, but often she will entertain herself with a variety of noises until we’re ready to wake up. And, best of all, she is starting to sleep through the night. Most nights now we can count on her to not wake up, although she sometimes does and makes a few noises but seems to put herself back to sleep.
Thanks mostly to Grandma Bradway, she learned “Patty Cake” and now starts clapping whenever you say those words. For a few weeks now, she has known how to wave, first when someone said “bye-bye,” but now I think she does it when people say “hi” as well. And she can lift her hands above her head when someone says, “so big!”
Of course we are amazed at this rapid progress and very proud of her as well.
June 6, 2008
May 24, 2008
A boyfriend??
The family in#7 in our compound have 3 children - a girl, age 5, a boy, age 3 and a boy, age 1. This morning, the mother told me that they were talking over breakfast about who was in love with who - "thing" right now for the 5 year old girl. Charlie, the middle boy, when asked who he loved, said ..."Lexi"! I got a kick out of that. A boyfriend, already?? I'm sure things will change for him - before Lexi even knows he was interested. :)
May 18, 2008
Growing Up
Our girl is getting big. And while the doctor says that she could put on a little more weight, I think she weighs a ton already.
When she gets up in the morning, we often find her standing up in her crib. When we had the mosquito net on her crib, because of the fact that we don't have a proper frame for it, she ends up with her little head pushing up against the netting. I think she looks pretty funny.
Her crawling has improved and the other day, Stephen watched her back while she climbed up the two stairs between the living and dining rooms. Oh, boy, nothing is safe now.
Lexi is mostly sleeping through the night though she does still make her noises. If I don't hear them, then that means more sleep for me. Otherwise, I listen and wonder if I should go and try to make her quiet down. She doesn't seem to need anything really but a little comfort.
When she gets up in the morning, we often find her standing up in her crib. When we had the mosquito net on her crib, because of the fact that we don't have a proper frame for it, she ends up with her little head pushing up against the netting. I think she looks pretty funny.
Her crawling has improved and the other day, Stephen watched her back while she climbed up the two stairs between the living and dining rooms. Oh, boy, nothing is safe now.
Lexi is mostly sleeping through the night though she does still make her noises. If I don't hear them, then that means more sleep for me. Otherwise, I listen and wonder if I should go and try to make her quiet down. She doesn't seem to need anything really but a little comfort.
May 14, 2008
Show us the teeth!
More updates on Lexi’s development:
With Lexi moving so quickly in so many other ways in her development, a big question is when her first tooth will come in. It’s the biggest question on our minds, and everybody else is asking us too. Observations of her gums reveal no signs of a tooth. She’s not drooling or chewing her fingers any more than usual. I asked the pediatrician about it yesterday. He said not to worry if she has no teeth by this stage. So we will continue to wait.
We are also eager to have Lexi start sleeping through the night. The pattern for the past several months has been for her to wake up once at some point in the middle of the night (usually around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m.) to drink a bottle of milk. In the past couple of weeks, however, there have been hopeful signs that she is ready to give up this nighttime feeding. She has slept through the night on three nights in this period. I asked the doctor about this as well yesterday, and, based on how I described Lexi's behavior, he seemed to be saying that her waking up was largely psychological, that it is just how she has been conditioned, that her internal clock has been set to do this, not necessarily because she's hungry and can't sleep without being fed at that hour. So he suggested we try weaning her off this nighttime bottle, which we will try.
With Lexi moving so quickly in so many other ways in her development, a big question is when her first tooth will come in. It’s the biggest question on our minds, and everybody else is asking us too. Observations of her gums reveal no signs of a tooth. She’s not drooling or chewing her fingers any more than usual. I asked the pediatrician about it yesterday. He said not to worry if she has no teeth by this stage. So we will continue to wait.
We are also eager to have Lexi start sleeping through the night. The pattern for the past several months has been for her to wake up once at some point in the middle of the night (usually around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m.) to drink a bottle of milk. In the past couple of weeks, however, there have been hopeful signs that she is ready to give up this nighttime feeding. She has slept through the night on three nights in this period. I asked the doctor about this as well yesterday, and, based on how I described Lexi's behavior, he seemed to be saying that her waking up was largely psychological, that it is just how she has been conditioned, that her internal clock has been set to do this, not necessarily because she's hungry and can't sleep without being fed at that hour. So he suggested we try weaning her off this nighttime bottle, which we will try.
May 13, 2008
Breezing past 9 months and not looking back
I have just returned from Lexi’s 9-month check-up at the pediatrician. As usual, she passed with flying colors. Here are her latest stats:
Height: 73 cm (28.74 in)
Weight: 8.3 kg (18.3 lb)
The doctor said she’s a bit under average for her weight. Sarah and I had made our usual list of questions for the doctor, and one of them was about when we could start her on cow’s milk. He said that the formula that we are buying here to feed her is derived from cow’s milk, so she could easily make the transition now, but because she’s below weight, he recommended keeping her on formula, which has protein added and which will help her add some weight.
I wanted to explain that probably one reason she’s below weight is because she’s getting too much exercise. She’s now joining me at the gym daily. Just kidding. But she is as physically as active as ever. Since about the beginning of this month, she has quickly gained good coordination of her limbs to be crawling in a normal way. In the first few days of crawling so that she was actually moving, it was sometimes upsetting to her. She would stop every few minutes and just cry. It seemed to be so much work for her little body. I was worried that she just hadn’t figured out yet why she needed to crawl, that she was still just doing it because instinct told her so. But now, while she still hasn’t totally figured out the benefits of crawling – so she can move around well and go get things to go to people – she’s not distressed by it so much now. It’s just so cute to see her little hips move back and forth and for this little body to be moving around below foot.
And we were also worried for a few weeks there that she would bypass crawling for walking. As reported earlier on this blog, she was beginning to get on her feet by pulling herself up to a standing position in her crib. She is having a lot of fun being held up and walking with an adult’s assistance.
She also has a lot of fun just crawling and climbing on people, like if someone lies down next to her on the bed or if she’s lying next to someone on the couch. She really enjoys cuddling next to someone or the challenge of climbing up onto them so she’s in a standing position.
In all of this, late last week she turned 9 months old. On that day I asked her what she preferred – living on the inside or outside of Mommy, since she had spent an equal amount of time in both places. She seemed to say that she preferred it on the outside or has chosen to stay out here because she seems to like exploring the house and moving around and eating waffles for breakfast, which she couldn’t do before she was born. Fortunately, my parents, who are called Baba and Lolo, are visiting us in Nairobi for several weeks, so we were able to have a little birthday celebration complete with a candle and a pineapple upside-down cake that I had made.
It seems that all of Lexi’s development and getting older is taking place at lightning speed, but we’re so proud of her for all the ways she is growing up.
Height: 73 cm (28.74 in)
Weight: 8.3 kg (18.3 lb)
The doctor said she’s a bit under average for her weight. Sarah and I had made our usual list of questions for the doctor, and one of them was about when we could start her on cow’s milk. He said that the formula that we are buying here to feed her is derived from cow’s milk, so she could easily make the transition now, but because she’s below weight, he recommended keeping her on formula, which has protein added and which will help her add some weight.
I wanted to explain that probably one reason she’s below weight is because she’s getting too much exercise. She’s now joining me at the gym daily. Just kidding. But she is as physically as active as ever. Since about the beginning of this month, she has quickly gained good coordination of her limbs to be crawling in a normal way. In the first few days of crawling so that she was actually moving, it was sometimes upsetting to her. She would stop every few minutes and just cry. It seemed to be so much work for her little body. I was worried that she just hadn’t figured out yet why she needed to crawl, that she was still just doing it because instinct told her so. But now, while she still hasn’t totally figured out the benefits of crawling – so she can move around well and go get things to go to people – she’s not distressed by it so much now. It’s just so cute to see her little hips move back and forth and for this little body to be moving around below foot.
And we were also worried for a few weeks there that she would bypass crawling for walking. As reported earlier on this blog, she was beginning to get on her feet by pulling herself up to a standing position in her crib. She is having a lot of fun being held up and walking with an adult’s assistance.
She also has a lot of fun just crawling and climbing on people, like if someone lies down next to her on the bed or if she’s lying next to someone on the couch. She really enjoys cuddling next to someone or the challenge of climbing up onto them so she’s in a standing position.
In all of this, late last week she turned 9 months old. On that day I asked her what she preferred – living on the inside or outside of Mommy, since she had spent an equal amount of time in both places. She seemed to say that she preferred it on the outside or has chosen to stay out here because she seems to like exploring the house and moving around and eating waffles for breakfast, which she couldn’t do before she was born. Fortunately, my parents, who are called Baba and Lolo, are visiting us in Nairobi for several weeks, so we were able to have a little birthday celebration complete with a candle and a pineapple upside-down cake that I had made.It seems that all of Lexi’s development and getting older is taking place at lightning speed, but we’re so proud of her for all the ways she is growing up.
May 2, 2008
'Mmmbwa!'
Last weekend, the first weekend that my parents and a friend were here on a visit, we went up to Lake Naivasha, about a 1 1/2 hour drive north of Nairobi. While there, Lexi discovered her latest favorite word: mmmbwa. Well, I would spell it mbois. I think it's a combination of the little bit of French she's learned from us (occasionally she gets a lesson from a French/English picture book in place of a bedtime story) and the Kiswahili she has learned from Jane. The "m-b" sound at the beginning is a typical Kiswahili sound, and the "wah" sound (oi in French) at the end is a typical French sound. She said this word a lot and repeated it whenever I said it back to her.
We decided that yesterday, the first day of May, Lexi was officially crawling. It's not graceful movements or anything totally coordinated, but it's happening slowly. She must have decided at the beginning of the month to start something new. We're so proud of her!
We decided that yesterday, the first day of May, Lexi was officially crawling. It's not graceful movements or anything totally coordinated, but it's happening slowly. She must have decided at the beginning of the month to start something new. We're so proud of her!
May 1, 2008
To Walk or To Crawl?
Lexi is still working on trying to figure out how to crawl - she is SO close. It is pretty amazing how we learn to coordinate our muslces to do such things - and then they become second nature. She happily 'walks' if you hold her hands and walk with her. It's hard on the adult's back, though! She is pulling herself up on just about everything and laying on the bed today with me, she was trying to squirm over me to get to the other side. What for, I don't know.
Stephen's parents are here visiting and are having a good time with Lexi. While they are here, we will leave Lexi with them for 3 nights and take off for Mombassa. It will be interesting to see how she handles that. She is getting a little more 'mommy' clingy but Jane (the house help) manages to distract her easily enough so she doesn't wail too long. And she is happy to be held by just about anyone. We are currently in Tanzania and the hotel staff have all wanted to hold her.
Stephen's parents are here visiting and are having a good time with Lexi. While they are here, we will leave Lexi with them for 3 nights and take off for Mombassa. It will be interesting to see how she handles that. She is getting a little more 'mommy' clingy but Jane (the house help) manages to distract her easily enough so she doesn't wail too long. And she is happy to be held by just about anyone. We are currently in Tanzania and the hotel staff have all wanted to hold her.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)