Everything is mine to play with

We believe we have now officially joined the ranks of parents whose houses are pandemonium due to their young children. With Lexi being mobile now, she is finding all sorts of ways to entertain herself by walking around the various rooms of the house. Consequently, it is now hard to keep the house clean and tidy. We are constantly picking up toys and equal numbers of other items that are not toys but that Lexi considers toys. And we are finding things spread all over the place. Now all the time, items are taken from one room, brought to another room, and left there. Several days ago, fortunately I discovered our travel alarm clock in a garbage can before it was emptied. In the past couple of days, Lexi has taken to putting candles from our bedroom in my sock drawer in a built-in closet in another room. And we’ve had to keep the toothpaste in an unreachable spot in the bathroom because somehow Lexi got it open.

Hi! How are you?

If you meet Lexi these days, you just might be greeted with a “Hi” or “How are you?” or even a “Habari?” (KiSwahili for “How are you?”). We are fairly certain she is saying at least “Habari,” something she undoubtedly learned from Jane.

She loves to pretend she’s talking on the phone and will often hold up her hand to her ear like she’s taking a phone call. She’ll do this spontaneously and on her own and start with a “hi.” She thinks this is the thing to do with other, non-phone objects as well, or even a doll or stuffed animal that she’s playing with at the time. She will often hand us the doll or animal, and we’ll bring it to our face to talk to it or kiss it, which makes her think it’s a phone, so she’ll take it back and then try to talk “on” it by holding it to her ear. A preview of the teenage years.

Sarah has also taught Lexi to utter that breathy “ahh” one says after one takes a big drink of something. She needs to be prompted to do it most of the time, but when she does do it, it’s pretty funny. Lexi is doing quite well these days drinking from her sippy cups. She is fully on cow’s milk these days and enjoys drinking that and water with meals. We haven’t quite weaned her off her bedtime bottle yet (she still prefers milk then and milk in a bottle, as opposed to a sippy cup). But she’s not drinking very much milk at this time, and we need to start reducing it so we can end this habit all together.

In other news, I was gone for a few days last week as part of my work on the annual report for 2008 for Sarah’s organization. When I returned home, Jane told me that on the last day I was gone, Lexi came looking for me in our “office”/computer room, calling out “Papa” (or something similar – I don’t always rely on Jane’s memory or accuracy). If this is true, then it’s interesting that Lexi noticed I was gone and knew where to look for me, whereas she didn’t notice that Sarah was gone for a whole week last month nor did she ever look around the house for her. Lexi has taken to visiting me a few times each day when Jane brings her upstairs to get her diaper changed. Now that she can walk, I think she enjoys going around to the various rooms upstairs, and she knows where to find me and can come and say hi to me during the day.

Light switches and a Forgotten Mom

Some of the light switches in our house are just above Lexi's head. She can easily reach them and if she lines up her finger right, can push the switch to the other position. These switches are at this level in all of the bedrooms, near where they think you will put the bed, so you don't have to get out of bed to turn off or on the light. Sunday morning, Lexi woke early and so I brought her into our room. She laid in bed with us for a while but then wanted to get down. We are hoping that she will find something to quietly play with while we get a little more sleep - or at least keep our eyes shut for a while longer. A couple of minutes later, it is suddenly blindingly light in the room. Lexi had found the lightswitch. I reached over and turned it off and she promptly turned it on again. It seems that she is a little TOO clever sometimes...

I arrived home late Saturday afternoon after being gone a week. Lexi looked at me blankly and when I picked her up, started WAILING. It took quite a bit to get her calmed down and to help her figure out that she knew me. Kind of makes one feel bad when one's own child forgets they exist in a span of a week.

Developments in walking (and eating)

It was only at the beginning of this month that Lexi took her first steps and started walking on her own. In just a few short weeks, she has practiced a lot and is becoming more confident on her feet.

She is still pulling herself up on things like the couch or another stationary object to get started, although we’ve seen her stand up a few times on her own from a crawling or sitting position.

She is also having fun carrying things around in her hands while she walks, so we are finding things scattered and moved around the house more. Plus she has access to a lot more things from her feet, so we are having to watch her more carefully and what she gets into.

We are also letting her walk around more when we go out, and it’s fun to hold her hand and walk with her and to not have to carry her so much anymore. But of course she’s a much slower walker than us, and the disadvantage is that she’s into things when we’re out, such as touching everything or pulling things off the shelf at the grocery store. I think we as the parents are learning as much about a baby walking and what we need to watch and be careful of as she is about this new skill. Last night it was fun to take her on an escalator as a walking person for the first time and see her try to figure it out. Of course they are stairs – just moving ones – and she didn’t quite understand that she needed to stand still and not to try to climb the stairs.

On a different topic, the one of food, a few times in the past several months when we’ve eaten out, at a couple of buffet places, we’ve fed Lexi a few bites of fish. Sarah and I detest all forms of seafood, but Lexi has not objected to the tastes she’s had of it. We would be delighted if we could get her to like seafood early on. So at the grocery store, we bought her some popcorn fish (breaded fish balls) that we can easily cook for her in the toaster oven and that she can eat with her fingers. She eats them like any other food she likes. So far, so good!

What a doll!

Yesterday I was updating my mother about what Lexi is doing these days, and I had sent her this picture that I had taken of her, mostly to show Sarah, who is away this week in Johannesburg on business, the new outfit and shoes that I had bought Lexi while Sarah is gone. I noted to my mother that she looks so serious and poised in the picture, wearing those red shoes and holding a book, like I caught her in a studious moment. She never really smiles for pictures and doesn't understand that she should smile when a camera is pointed at her.

I also told my mother that Lexi is just so cute moving around on her feet now. I was sitting on the couch yesterday morning watching the news, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her come running out from behind the couch and circle in front of the coffee table and go around behind the other couch. And then a few seconds later, she made the circuit again. Later I was sitting at the dining room table, eating my lunch, and she seemed so delighted to walk up to me, banana in hand, to just pat my leg. Sometimes, like that, she doesn't need anything, but she just wants to be close to me or Sarah and to get our approval, which she requests with a big grin, and that makes it all worthwhile.

What a doll she is!

My mother told me that this was the most loving, sweetest thing she has ever read about a little girl and that I should print out my e-mail in which I had told her these things and put it in Lexi's baby book. Well, we don't really have a baby book for these sort of things for Lexi. Some parents keep a scrapbook or a journal. Our scrapbook/journal is this, our baby blog, which is our way of recording these sorts of moments and developments. It just happens to be public so you can enjoy them too!

What a crazy kid!

Lexi seems to be exploring a whole range of facial expressions these days – and we think she doesn’t know what most of them mean! Puzzled, quizzical, scowling – all have flitted across her face at times that don’t seem to call for them to her parents.

She is definitely getting the hang of walking though she still doesn’t automatically pull/get herself up to be able to get started. She has new scraps and bumps and falling happens regularly but usually doesn’t upset her.

She also seems moody at times – she will cry for what seems like no reason and then the next thing, she is happy again. Her words are still not understandable by her parents so maybe she is telling us what the problem is and we just don’t get it. Sometimes, she gets in the car seat happily, other times it is like trying to lasso a wild horse.

She is certainly a lot of fun and brings much delight to our days.

Practicing those walking skills

We went away for a long weekend, to Lake Nakuru, north of Nairobi in Kenya. The various places we were - in our hotel, at restaurants - gave Lexi many opportunities to practice her new walking skills. Here she is in our hotel room having a ball walking around: