Lessons in Motherhood

Every once in a while Hailey has a moment of complete clarity in the middle of her baby babble. It’s in these quiet moments, when I can point to something, sound out the name for it, and wait for her to try to say it. We had one of those teaching sessions just the other day when I tried to get her to say “ducky” in the bath tub. I kept saying “duh kee” very slowly, and she would say “duh blah” or “duh pa,” but she was clearly trying to mimic my sound. That’s how we’ve taught her all of her words so far. It doesn’t happen very often that she has the type of focus to really listen and try, but when she does it’s amazing, regardless of whether she gets it or not. Just the fact that she’s trying and she knows what she’s supposed to be doing is such a wonderful feeling.

In other news, she has two top teeth now, and I think that she’s getting one of her eye teeth as well. There’s a lot of teething going on. I’ll try to post a picture later tonight.

There’s nothing better than the moment that your child understands something for the first time. We’ve been trying to teach Hailey the signs for “more” and “all done” so that she doesn’t just sit in her high chair and whine. We started this when she was about 6 months. She’s 10 months now, and I think that she just might have it down. It’s not a perfect system. No, there are still moments of whining and crying, but I think that she gets the basics. This morning she not only said more when she was out of bananas (without whining), but she also very calmly did the sign for all done just before she started whining o get out of her chair. It was amazing. Tomorrow I’m sure that she won’t do it at all, but at least for the moment she gets it. So, I’m going to go bask in the glory of success before I move on to trying to teach her how to finally say Mama!

Let me just take a minute to brag…my child is a genius. Ok, maybe she’s not Einstein yet, but she has quite a vocabulary for a nine and a half month old. Here is a complete list of her formidable vocabulary:

Baba – that’s bottle, duh
Bubbles – when we’re outside blowing bubbles, obviously
Mama – only when she’s mad, not sure why!
Dada – all the time, particularly when she’s happy
Book – yes, she really says it
Uh oh – when she drops something on the floor and wants you to pick it up – usually uttered four thousand times during dinner
Bye Bye – includes a wave with her hand facing herself instead of outwards

We are still working on kitty cat, baby, nana, papa, etc. I’ll let you know. I posted some new pictures on Flickr

Here are some pictures from Grandpa Pete’s visit. I hope to have some more soon. We are going to try to finish our unpacking and settling in this weekend, which means that I will have a lot more time for picture taking and posting in the future!

The picture below is from Hailey’s first swing experience. This is the park near our house that we walk to almost every day. Despite what it looks like in this picture, she now hates the swing. We’re trying to warm her up to it again, but she’s been pretty unhappy when we put her in it lately.

Grandpa Pete calls this picture “Eating or Wearing?” You can see why…

I call this picture the “Vogue Look.” It’s funny how she completely understands what to do when we bring out the camera. She’s a ham already!

I am having some type of emotional breakdown. I guess that it’s a combination of the stress of the new move and the weaning. I’ve pretty much stopped breastfeeding. I had cut back, but now I don’t think that I make enough to satisfy her even when I do feed her. So, I think that she’s pretty much done with me. I thought that the weaning process would be easy. Kind of like just tapering out, but I am a complete witch. I’m having crazy mood swings. If this is what menopause is like, then count me out!

Life has been so hectic with our move into our new Atlanta house, but I wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that Hailey started crawling last weekend. Gone are the days of the army ranger belly crawl. She is up on her knees at this point. She also has started walking behind some of her pushable toys. That’s pretty funny to watch too. She’s going to be walking in no time. We’ve only been in the house of a few days, and it’s already time to start installing baby gates! I’ll send some pictures as soon as we get our cable hooked up!!!

Drum roll please….Dada. It’s true. She learned how to point yesterday. So, we’ve been naming everything that she points at. We had a long session of Mommy, Daddy, and Baby pointing. Then, she looked up, pointed at Luke and said “Dada.” It was amazing. Sure, she didn’t do it over and over, but it still counts. Mark it in the record books…first word 4/25/07. First pointing – 4/24/07. Oh, and first clapping 4/14/07. I forgot to add that one earlier.

I’m sure that every mother wonders what her child will be when he/she grows up. I think about that a lot now that Hailey is developing her own personality. So far, I’m thinking she’ll be some type of entertainer. She’s such an extrovert already. It takes her no time at all to warm up to anyone, and she loves to be the center of attention. She has such a happy, wonderful personality. I’m trying to soak in all of the smiles while she’s giving them. I’m sure they’ll be hard to find when she hits her teenage years!

Here’s a picture of Hailey playing the piano at Grandpa Pete’s house. She really enjoyed banging away on it. I certainly hope that she has more musical talent (and follow-through) than I did.

In other news, I did find a day care finally. She’s going to be in a family home similar to the one that she was in first in Nashville. There are only 6 kids and they are all older than Hailey. I like that she’ll have exposure to older kids. It should be a good fit. Luke’s office is also considering starting a daycare when they move to their new facility. So, that might be an option in the future.

So far, I love Atlanta. The people have been very nice. It’s much more diverse. There are more job opportunities, and I bought a GPS system to help me with the streets. So, it’s great!

However, these last two trips – to Buffalo and Virginia – reminded me again just how difficult it is to be away from family. It was one thing before the baby, but Hailey makes family even more important. I know everyone misses her, and we miss everyone as well. We have no support system here, which just makes life more difficult. Still, I’m glad we’re here, but someday I’d like to have family nearby again.

In other news, here is the website for our new community in Atlanta. We move in at the end of the month. www.glenwoodpark.com