News from the Forest

After posting the last entry I realized that it’s been a while since we posted a progress report on the great Moo. 

 

It’s amazing what happens in a few months at this age.

 

Moomers is a bona fide crawler now.  In fact, she has moved on to pulling up on and utilizing any stationary object (be it furniture or person) and using that steady herself as she ‘cruises’ around the room.  We have found that if she is not thinking about it (for example, when she has a toy in each hand) she can stand and balance.  However, the moment she realizes it she will quickly sit down.  As I write this, Moomers has become more daring with her cruising, increasing the distances between the furniture she grabs for support.  If in a good mood, she will grasp your fingers and let you ‘walk’ her around the room.  (Oh dear.  Do we hear the pitter patter of little independent feet in the not too distant future?)

Moomers has 5 teeth now and loves to use them.  Our furniture legs (and the bruises on Monkey’s arms) can attest to that fact.  We’ve saved our furniture by substituting teething biscuits.  We have not found a substitute for Monkey’s arms. 

The Moomers diet now consists of rice and oat cereal, rice cakes, congee, chopped pasta, peas, green beans, carrots, oranges, apples, bananas, peaches, bits of grape, yogurt, chicken, Cheerios, rice puffs, bread, and cheese.  Moomers loves cheese.  She has even learned to say “CH” “CH” when she sees us take the shredded cheese bag out of the fridge.  Moomers is a very independent eater.  She likes anything that she can feed herself.  She is also very interested in whatever we are eating.  So as long as it is not dangerous, we give her little tastes of what we are eating too. 

Moomers recognizes the sound of the front door unlocking and opening.  She eagerly looks down the hall for the Dragon.  When she sees him she bounces, crows, and gives a very happy yell.  When Dragon comes home he and Moomers watch a ‘learning video’ together.   Moomers has learned to clap, stomp her feet, point, wave, shake an object, and pat or tap a surface.  She loves to read books and will scramble to sit on your lap if you pick up anything that resembles reading material.  Her favorite book is about airplanes. 

 

All in all, it’s hard work keeping up with the Moo, but we love her very much. 

I know, I know it’s a little late, it’s the end of January!!!  We’ve been very busy with work and fighting off a few illnesses since we returned from the holiday.

 

We spent the Christmas in Colorado.  As luck would have it, we were able to spend the time with both Monkey and Dragon’s family since Dragon’s brother lives in Colorado as well.  We spent lots of time in the company of our loved ones, catching up and making new memories.

 

Moomers had lots of time and lots of fun exploring the new environments.  She practiced her hand-clapping, foot-stomping, and waving on command.  She also learned a new skill of pointing (not at anything in particular) and showed that she could climb up a step if she wanted to.  Moomers received so much attention from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and her cousins.  Poor Moomers, when we came home she only had the Monkey to keep her company through the day. 

 

Moomers also had the fortune of being able to partake of the delicious holiday foods.  She thoroughly enjoyed the mashed potato, sweet potato, rolls, breads, carrots, bananas, apple sauce, congee, and her normal rice and oatmeal cereals.  Grandma C also introduced her to a favorite: Cheerios and graham crackers.  

 

Unfortunately, the flights were a little rougher than last time.  To extend our vacation, we took evening flights which interrupted dinner and nap time.  The general grumpiness of late-night holiday travelers also made Moomers a little unsettled, especially when her smiles and coos generated a frosty or no response from those around her. 

 

To add to the brewing storm, Moomer’s curiosity and desire to be mobile clashed mightily against the need to sit quietly in our seats like civilized, cooperative, nondescript travelers.  Monkey also had to keep wrestling with Moomers to keep her from licking the bulkhead or alternately the tray table. 

 

The extra security measures on our flight back made us a little late for boarding.  To make things even better, on our arrival home we were informed that our gate checked car seat and stroller were left behind in Denver.   That was quiet the let down from a very happy holiday.  Fortunately, the airline had a loaner car seat so we could get home and they delivered our car seat and stroller at 2 AM a few days later (yes 2 AM not PM). 

But, all is well that ends well!  We miss our families dearly and look forward to seeing them again soon!

We had the first snow of the year last week.  We took Moomers out to see it.  She first had a very concerned look, but after a while she got used to it. 

 

This week Moomers top teeth sprouted making the grand total 4 little teeth.  Moomers is pretty fascinated with this new turn of events.  She likes to click her teeth together.  We're not sure how to prevent it... we just hope that  she'll quickly lose interest in grinding her teeth together. 

 

Alas! Monkey needs to work on her paparrazi skills to get a good picture of these long-awaited beauties. 

 

Granted, Monkey may not be up to the task. 

 

Everytime I see Moomers in her hat I smile.