MDO

Here was a picture of us on AK's "first day of school." Pardon the sleepy mother...I had some weird dreams the night before, including Anna being kidnapped from a shopping cart....school anxiety. She was in a great mood and didn't cry at drop-off or the whole time; she ate and she napped; the older kids loved having a baby around; she was happy and when I got there she was chasing a ball around. She received a great "daily report" card, including that she was a "good listener." :) :)

I had a nice afternoon at home. The next few weeks, though, are all business....practice sessions and lunch meetings. I look forward to the last Wednesday of September where I will actually rest. In the meantime, I hope she enjoys herself. She doesn't tell me too much about it.... ;)

Pat? the Bunny?

I did not grow up with Pat the Bunny.

I knew little, OK nothing, about the book except that I thought it had a dumb title. Really, who would name a bunny Pat? Peter (like mine) or the Velveteen Rabbit, sure....soft and cuddly names of important past rabbits. But Pat?

Now, I know you're reading thinking, "C'mon Lisa, it's not Pat, comma the bunny, it's pat, as in the verb, the bunny!

AK gets her common-sensical intelligence from her father. That is obvious.

Alas, I digress....so, we have a parenting book that lists our friend Pat in the top 25 of books. So before our vacation last month, I caved and bought the book. It was sealed and I couldn't even read it in the store to know what was so great about this Pat creature!

Well, that bunny and his verbs deserve the Newberry Medal or whatever award great books get. (Or maybe it already got it 100 years ago) The other day I gave her something to smell and I actually heard her "sniff." Today, she sort of uttered her first words: buh-buh for "bye-bye".... it's still more of a consonant sound vs. a phonated sound, but nevertheless, I'm counting them!

Paul, Judy, and Pat: you rock!

Oh, and no bunny hops higher than AK....she mounted the fireplace today. When she figures out how to get on the music cabinet, I'm going to get some superglue for her paws. :)

Latest Tricks

I am on the other side of the Spoon Rebellion. I just did some reading on this and found it is completely normal and yet another exercise in independence. (Yeah, I got the latter. Duh.) AK refuses the spoon. J is pretty good at getting in a bite here and there, but not me. I've given her spoons to play with, let her try to use the spoon in the bowl, started out with spoon food vs. finger food, and tried the distraction technique (here's a finger food, quick! the mouth is open-shove in the spoon). Wow. At least she's not throwing the spoon or spitting out the food. I have those to look forward to, I'm sure!

As of today, AK is also standing on her own for a split second. She climbs up to something, lets go completely, and plops down. Really cute. She's been working very hard on her balance. You should see her up the stairs too....she's gotten very fast in the last days!

Wednesday is a big day for her. We're going to our first day of a Mother's Day Out program. She's one of 6 kids with one other "baby." I'm only worried about the food thing and leaving her. At church today the only thing that calmed her was the swing motion...Oh boy. Stay tuned.

Heart Attack

We're pretty good at keeping the gate up, but today I slacked a little. All of a sudden that eerie "sound of silence" had me round the corner to catch AK FIVE steps from the top of the stairs. I raced up with a gasp as she turned her head around to smile and let out this proud little laugh (heh, heh, heh). As if to say, "Mama, look I can do it by myself." So what else is new with my little independent baby!

I'm stepping up the vigilance on this gate thing.

More Professions

Continued from an earlier post, more of AK's future professions:

OPTICIAN: She is a master at removing glasses.

SHREDDER: Got old tax returns? Credit card receipts? Bring them to AK--she'll shred them in no time. (And eat 'em, too!)

ENTOMOLOGIST: She has a fascination with the removal and ingestion of spider webs.

Visit with Mama's Mama

AK's Grandma Johnson came to visit for a few days. It was a busy, busy time! She hardly took naps and has begun teething! (You'll note her hand in her mouth in several pics) She was so good this week: We took in brunch at the Fort on Sunday after church; the Indiana State Fair on Monday; and a girl's day out on Tuesday. Here are some of the pics:

AK's first train ride from Fishers to the Fairgrounds. We brought along the book "I Love Trains."

Waiting for the train.

On the train in Grandma's lap, of course!

At the (lame) version of a circus at the Fair...very hot!

Highlight of the fair--petting the goats! She loved it!!

Girl's Day Out

Food and Professions

My proudest moments this week involved the production of several types of homemade baby food:

peas, green beans, apple-blueberry, blueberry, mango, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and *drum roll please* homemade stew! To see AK eat the latter with gusto just did my heart so good. :)

Today I let AK throw the peanut butter jar off the table several times. Boy, that was a priceless video moment our resident videographer did not capture...She hasn't belly-laughed with such excitement in a long time! I don't know who had more fun--she throwing or me laughing at her laughing. It was great. (9 months is the "throw, bang and drop" age)

And the long-awaited post on AK's future professions, in no particular order, and to be updated often, no doubt:

DERMATOLOGIST: Having a mother blessed with many skin moles, she feels the need to scratch and scrape at each one.

UROLOGIST: The "tinkling" sound will lure her in from two rooms away.

SANITATION WORKER: Learning to walk, J toddled around behind a trash can on wheels. Following in her father's footsteps, she loves to pull at a good, full trash bag. What baby doesn't, right?

PODIATRIST: She's now tickling our toes.

DENTIST: She loves to stick her hands in our mouth and feel our teeth or grab at our tongues and feel us bite her fingers.

SUMO WRESTLER: She's got some serious eating habits.