Jillian is really growing up fast. Amber keeps turning to me with a sad look in her eye and saying things like “She’s turning into a real person”. And she’s right. Jillian is going from tiny baby to toddler. She is at that stage where her personality really develops and she starts to show off all the things she’s been practicing. Just in the last few weeks she has started:
- Using baby signs. She is using “please”, “food”, “more” and “milk”. I’m really excited about this. It made life with Wesley so much easier, so much more rewarding, and lots more fun when we could really communicate with him. It takes so much of the guessing and stress (for both parent and baby) out of the equation.
- Eating everything in site. I would say that right now string cheese is her favorite. She uses her “food” and “please” signs copiously if she runs out, especially if she can see more on the table out of her reach.
- To drink milk from a cup. No more breast for J. She now lets out a scream when Amber tries to breastfeed her. Janette says she probably wants to be just like her big brother. She’s probably right.
- Go all night without eating. This is related to the no breastfeeding thing. She still wakes up, but usually only once and then we just rock her back to sleep (this makes it sound easier than it actually is).
- Cruising all over the place. She isn’t walking, but she is cruising and standing for long periods. Sometimes she plays a game with herself where she pulls herself up, lets go and then sees how long she can stand up. I’d say the record is close to 20 or 30 seconds.
- Saying “uh-oh”. This goes hand-in-hand with discovering how much fun it is to throw stuff off your tray and have mom or dad pick it up. It is even more fun the 100th time.
- Climbing the stairs. She can fly up the stairs. The downstairs gate is now closed all the time. She can go down the stairs too, but like Wesley refuses to go anyway but frontways. So she kind of thumps down one step at a time. Not very safe. I keep demonstrating the sliding down feet first on your belly way of getting down things, but so far she isn’t catching on.
Tags: Baby Signs, Jillian
I love the Seattle Public Library (SPL). I’m not sure if Seattle just spends more money than Austin, but the library is so much better considering the cities have similar populations that I still use SPL more than Austin. Being a few thousand miles away I mostly make use of SPL’s online databases. Through a little magic I’ve been able to retain my SPL card to keep access to things like Safari Tech Books Online. Recently I came across a couple of new (or at least new to me) online resources that I connect to through SPL.
Tumblebooks.com is a great site for kids of preschool to elementary school age. They take books and give them simple flash animation and narration. Wesley loves these things. The animated books remind me a lot of these movies we had as kids. They were, I think, Little Critters movies. The animation was very simple with movement suggested by backgrounds shaking and the characters slid across the screen rather than actually walking. It is enough to maintain your interest, but doesn’t really distract from the story. And significantly cheaper than actually animating it like a cartoon which I suspect is the real reason behind it.
For some reason, and I’m guessing it is a fluke, you don’t actually need a SPL card to reach this site which is normally about $400 a year. Simply follow this link from the SPL site and enjoy. They have other items, but the books I’m talking about are under the “Story Books” button. If you have small kids or work with small kids give it a try. There are some great stories on there. I’ll write more about one of them later.
Epicurious has released a neat little interactive map that shows you what is in season for each month of the year for each state. A handy little tool when we get produce that looks good, but tastes like cardboard filling our supermarkets yearround. It is especially helpful when you say, I don’t know, move across the country to Texas and you don’t have a clue when anything is actually ripe. It isn’t perfect, for instance it never lists Strawberries in Washington despite the fact that I have many friends who picked these summer after summer, but it is worth a look.
Tags: Epicurious, Food, texas
It may sound silly, but the song “Hush Little Baby” has always made me a little uncomfortable. The lyrics have always seemed so commercial (even as a kid I thought so). I hated singing this to my kids too. It is all I’m going to BUY you this and then I’ll BUY you this and then I’ll BUY you that. As in “Hush little baby, don’t say a word, Mama/Papa is going to buy you a mockingbird”.
But then a while back I was reading a book to Wesley and I found the answer to my problem. The book If You Were My Bunny by Kate McMullan takes a bunch of lullabies and gives them new animal appropriate lyrics. It is a very sweet book. In this book the Mama bunny doesn’t BUY her baby anything she BRINGs the baby a carrot top and clover quilt among other things. It may seem like a small, silly little thing, but it makes me feel a lot better.
I now sing the song to Wesley and Jillian like this:
Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,
Papa’s gonna bring you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird don’t sing,
Papa’s gonna bring you a diamond ring.
And if that diamond ring turn brass,
Papa’s gonna bring you a looking glass.
And if that looking glass gets broke,
Papa’s gonna bring you a billy goat.
And if that billy goat don’t pull,
Papa’s gonna bring you a cart and bull.
And if that cart and bull turn over,
Papa’s gonna bring you a dog named Rover.
And if that dog named Rover won’t bark.
Papa’s gonna to bring you and horse and cart.
And if that horse and cart fall down,
Well you’ll still be the sweetest little baby in town.
Tags: Hush Little Baby