of all things new

Sitting on the couch in the family room, I should be writing a former student of mine the promised recommendation letter to graduate school and then start an editing job for a friend that I said I'd do (and then forgot about) before Christmas. But watching my not-quite-a-toddler, but-getting-there baby girl, I had to write about her. After all, it's been two months.

Currently, she's playing with a greeting card that I got from a friend when I found out I was pregnant. She pulled it out of the media cabinet (don't ask me what it was doing there in the first place), which she loves to open and close, open and close, pull all of daddy's music dvds (things like the Beatles anthology, etc.) and video games out, and then open and close again. She's actually pretty inactive this morning since she's had a nasty cold for about a week now, complete with infinite amounts of gooey yellow snot, raspy coughs, and trouble breathing toward morning. The trouble breathing often leads to us sleeping in dad's lazy-boy (borrowed it during the pregnancy, still haven't managed to give it back yet) the last couple of hours in the morning. I actually got the cold too, a couple of days before Bridget, or I would have had her to the doctor's three times already worried about pneumonia, bronchitis, and everything else I could dream up. Colds, they do nothing for; I know we're in the clear.

I was actually quite surprised when I realized I haven't blogged since Halloween. Really? That long ago? I missed blogging Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve? Guilty. And since Bridget's already 9 and 1/2 months old, there are a lot of new things to blog.

New: Bridget's crawling all over the place. I thought she might start a few weeks ago when she crawled backwards about five inches, ran into the ottoman, and stopped. Then a few days later she was doing a very difficult army crawl. Within the last two weeks, she more than perfected the army crawl and is now up on all fours--although sometimes she drags her legs instead of using them to help propel her. At the rate she's been going, I'm sure she'll have that down pat within a day or two. She can crawl up the one step from the sunken family room to the kitchen and has discovered the dog dishes. She also discovered the cast iron fireplace tools, which are now in the garage, and the floor lamp, which I've had to hide behind a giant snowman so she won't pull it down on her head. She can pull herself to standing, too. And has begun walking holding onto the ottoman and couch--baby steps, of course, going between the two, but walking nonetheless. I should be losing weight soon from the running I'll have to do to keep up with her.

New: Bridget finally got her two top teeth. They've been coming in for what seems like months now, and they finally broke through the gums a couple of days ago. She's still a drool-monster (add that to the snot from the cold and she's quite a mess most days), but at least she doesn't seem to be aching so much now. She's also learned to bite. It hurts! But she's not doing it frequently (yet), so let's hope that doesn't become a problem.

New (I think): Bridget's made some talking noises for a long time, and quite a while ago started saying "Dada" very clearly whenever Al called me on my cell or came home from work. But now she says "Momma" too, and I'm fairly certain she knows what both of the words mean. She definitely is understanding a lot of what we say--she understands when I say, "Come here, Bridget" and make motions to come, and she definitely knows "Where's Daddy?" and "Daddy's home!" The language-learning process is just beginning and it's fascinating me. It'll be fun to see how much and what she picks up!

New: She watches her dvds on television. I'm not sure I'm thrilled about this one--I'd rather not have her too interested in tv--but she got three dvds for Christmas and watches two of them with rapt attention whenever I put them in. One of them is a music dvd (the Laurie Berkner band, I think) and another is a Christian dvd called the Donut Man. She got Veggie Tales too, but I think she's a little young for that--she likes music and live people, especially kids, when she's watching television. They help at mealtime because mealtime has become a real problem (that's new, too). Suddenly she's not very interested in food and it's like pulling teeth to get her to eat the recommended three meals a day. Even if it's something that she's always loved (like bananas, yuck), she's suddenly not interested in eating. At least if her eyes are glued to the tv I'm not running in circles around her trying to find her mouth, pry it open, and shove the food in.

And, finally, new: I pulled out all of the twenty-four month clothing that our friend Laura gave us just the other day. At Bridget's nine-month appointment (Dec. 16), she weighed 25 pounds and was 29 and 1/2 inches tall. That's just under the weight for most twenty-four month clothing (which explains why her 18-month jeans are starting to get tight), but it's about three inches under for the height. I've got her in a mix of 18-month and 24-month clothing now. Honestly, I needed the extra pants that the 24-month wardrobe provided, because in addition to getting a little tight, she's been pooping through pants like crazy the past month. At daycare it would be up to three times a day, and at home she'll do it maybe once a day (although I do tend to leave her pants off until she poops in the mornings). And no, Luvs don't work either. My friend Jen suggested using plastic training pants over her diapers, and I think I might just go out and buy a few pairs before she gets back to daycare on Monday. If there's one thing I hate (possibly worse than dishes at this point), it's treating poop stains in three-quarters of the pairs of pants she's worn in a week. I'll be happy when she outgrows this stage!

Oh, and new: Last night, Bridget started to figure out how to undress herself. She got one arm out of her shirt and went around like that for the fifteen/twenty minutes it took us to put her in her pjs. And this morning, as soon as I put her shirt on, she started pulling the front of it trying to get it off. Great. If we're not careful, soon we'll have a little topless dancer on our hands. :)

Finally (really, this time), new: Pictures. I've loaded them up (finally) from November and December. Take a peek!

Even with all of these "news," I'm sure I've missed a lot. But with a new year, new semester (as student only; not teaching this semester), and new schedule, I'm hoping to post more often again. Thanks for catching up, and happy new year!