peekaboo

A week ago Monday (January 25), Bridget said "peekaboo" at daycare and then said it at home for me. Ten months and saying peekaboo. Of course, she hasn't said it since then, but that's not the point. This child is amazing. (Said from the biased mother's point of view.)

One of my favorite things she's begun to do recently is give hugs and kisses. I just cannot describe how good it feels to get a hug from my daughter. She may not be babbling on and on in her crib in the mornings (although she does it on occasion again), but when I come in the room she pulls herself up to standing (if she isn't already) and when I pick her up she puts her little arms around me (as far as she can reach) and snuggles in for a hug. One of the best feelings in the world! I love it. The kiss is also endearing, but not quite so fun since it's the open-mouthed, I'm-gonna-slobber-all-over-you kind of kiss that my Aunt Carolyn hates. The kind of kiss that Auntie (daycare Auntie) can't quite tell if she's trying to kiss her cousin Lily or bite her (let's hope kiss...she's already gotten into the hair-pulling, hitting Lily stage, and I'd rather not have a "sibling rivalry" type of thing with her cousin).

I should be working on my comprehensive exams for my PhD right now, but that will just have to wait since I've got more to write about my daughter. She's very good at pulling herself up and walking along furniture, bending over while holding onto the ottoman to pick up toys, and crawling at lightening speed all over the house. A real crawl, not the army thing she used to do (don't know if I ever mentioned the real crawl here). She likes to walk holding onto two fingers, sometimes seeming as if she could do it without us and sometimes relying heavily on us to keep her upright, bending one knee and sticking the other leg straight out in front of her before she puts it back down (training to be a Russian dancer, apparently). She'll be running around the house before I know it. Really looking forward to it and kind of dreading it.

We've also given her her first two baths in the regular tub within the past week. She loves having that much water to splash around in. In fact, after the first bath, which I gave her by myself, I went out and bought a bathmat. While she was trying to crawl in the tub, I put one hand under her so she didn't fall flat on her face in the water. Then both legs shot out from under her. She thought that was great fun and started kicking both legs out from under her, sliding them along the bottom of the bathtub, and almost lunging forward onto her hands to make the water splash. It was hilarious and I wish I could have caught it on camera, but I couldn't leave her and then (after about five minutes) she started trying to stand and hold onto the sides of the tub. I got her out shortly after (mostly to save my arms and back, but she also started to show signs of being tired). One thing's for sure: she loves bathtime! Water in general, actually. Lake Michigan should be a lot of fun come September.

One last thing: bedtime. Up until now, we've been feeding Bridget her last bottle and she would usually fall asleep drinking it. But lately she hasn't fallen asleep right away, so we'd hold her until she fell asleep, sometimes with her fighting it. Until I found out that at daycare she goes down for her nap when they lay her in her pack-n-play and say "Night, night." And thought about the nightmare we might have getting her to bed soon. So the past two nights I put her in her crib a few minutes after her last bottle when she was still awake. She screamed and yelled for twenty minutes the first night, but last night she didn't move around and only fussed a little bit before falling asleep. Ahhh. Enter a new phase of mommyhood (let's hope)--easy bedtimes. Now I've just got to get started brushing her teeth...