Watch Her Grow...

This Week's Foci: Touch and Movement

 Interactions with Materials

• She enjoyed touching different textures this week- touch and feel books (especially the bumpy frog), the walls (she usually used her nails- producing a not-so-pleasant sound), and my yoga mat.
• Based upon this growing interest, I worked on placing some different textures on her shelves- Velcro was a favorite.
• Favorite materials: Any object that served as a "walking wagon," an USB cable that was lying around, and rattles (these have never fallen from the favorites list)

Interactions with Others

• She understands the concept of waving and is trying it out on people we meet and the animals we saw in the zoo. She even emits a word that is very close to "hi" when waving.
• She has proven herself to be quite generous.  After reading that babies are more likely to eat their food when they see others around them enjoying the same meal, I excitedly modeled eating to her. She, then, excitedly started handing me all of her food to eat and, in delight, knocking it to the floor. So, the cats and I had quite a bit of extra oatmeal and wheat germ this week- and we weren't even the ones who were constipated. 

Interactions with Space

• She started practicing clapping her hands this week.  She occasionally gets it spot on, but she also spends quite a bit of time wringing her hands together.
• She has started to circle around this week. While sitting down, typically while exploring an object, she will get very excited and use her feet to spin herself in a circle.  
• She also continued to practice her unassisted standing- it's amazing to watch, and she's getting quite good!

First time on a slide!

Interactions with Life

•  It's amazing to see that how quickly she is catching on to new, little additions to our schedule.  In the past three weeks, I have introduced tooth-brushing in the evenings and a vitamin D drop in the mornings.  Now when she sees the toothbrush, she excitedly (but still slightly cautiously and curiously) sticks out her tongue, and then promptly grabs the toothbrush from me after a single swipe at her teeth. Finally something I'm asking her to put in her mouth!  As for the vitamin D, she tilts her head back and opens wide and then quickly winches when it hits her tongue.  
• She did successfully eat bits of chicken last night, the first time we have had real success with meat. (Much to Daddy's delight.)

To see the rational and purpose for the Watch Her Grow series, please check out this post!