Seven months later...

an update!!

I was finally motivated enough to come back and post, because I want to remember for kid #2 when we weaned, which has FINALLY happened!! I have been ready for months, but riley never reached that point. She did finally reach the point of tolerating it, though, so it is done. It has been more than a week since the last time we nursed. She still asks for it about every other day, and now is attached to my leg every second we are together, and it has led to some sleep issues (mostly from her constant need for me to be near her, leading to me sometimes even sleeping in her room just so she'll go back to bed), but I think she will be okay. I wish I could have waited for her to self-wean, but I was just so done... toward the end I did not like nursing anymore. at all. I loved it when she was a baby, and am happy that I remember that despite how much I did not love it toward the end :) So I know that I will nurse again someday, which is a possibility now that I have actually gotten my period back...

In other updates, I graduated from school, and now have my ph.d... only a year late :) And we moved to Philadelphia. So I was busy and have an excuse for not keeping track of stuff the past 6 months! Maybe now that things have calmed down I will be able to start posting again. I feel bad that I haven't posted much about riley starting to talk, and all of the other grown-up things she does now. She is SO much better at communicating, but still gets frustrated because we don't understand most of what she says. She has become a great eater and finally drinks milk (since weaning, I guess!). She loves to sing and dance, and actually knows about half of the words to a few songs (twinkle twinkle, Elmo's song- which is mostly la-la-la-la haha). She is starting to interact with other toddlers, which is very fun. She seems to understand a lot now, and you can tell she is thinking a lot when she does things. She seems to experiment a lot, and likes to figure out cause/effect relationships. She loves playing with water and pouring, soaking/squeezing sponges, etc and will spend an hour in the bathtub if we let her. She is surprisingly good with crayons and markers and seems to be trying to do more than just scribble. She loves the playground and can go down the slides by herself, which is scary for me! If there is a railing to hold, she can walk up stairs instead of climbing. She can follow pretty complex, multi-step requests. She still loves books (and has some memorized) and now likes puzzles too. I'm sure there is so much more that I am not thinking of, because she doesn't even seem like a baby at all- she is like a little girl now.

I don't even have recent pictures on my computer to post! I'll do it again soon, in case anyone still checks this :)

One Year Old!!!!

I don't have time to post much- but we no longer have a baby, we have a one-year old toddler. It is sad but also so exciting! She walks almost exclusively now - no more crawling! - and has 5-7 teeth depending on how you count them. She is starting to try and say words and I'm sure she'll have a few down soon. She signs a bunch and picks things up quickly, and imitates everything- even things you only do once. She still loves to dance and started a music class, and I think she's got pretty good rhythm already. She is 20 lb 3 oz, 29.5 inches long, and has more personality than I ever imagined possible. She is already becoming a girly-girl, I don't know where she gets it! And as sad as we are that she is growing up so fast, we are loving every day of it. More to come... but here's a pic for now from her party.

11 month updates!

I can't believe that we are at 11 months already... and almost 11 1/2 at that. I've come on a few times to post quick, exciting updates, but for some reason my browser was weird and I couldn't figure out how to sign in and write a post. I was more persistent today and figured it out! Anyway...

More than 11 months have passed since our baby was born!!! The weather is starting to get nicer, and all of my bulbs have come up, which reminds me of taking pictures in front of my tulips last year on the day that I went into labor (my due date). I am so excited for it to be warm again, and to be able to spend more time outside. We've already started taking advantage of the few 60+ degree days and it feels so great to be out in the fresh air!

I looked at my last post, and there was quite a bit of rambling on and on, so I'm going to try to keep from doing that this time.

Sleep: Still going well- We have regular routines for naps and bedtime that work every time (knock on wood!). She goes down awake for both, and falls asleep on her own with no crying. Usually naps include a little bit of playtime, which is very cute to spy on.

Eating: We have not done any purees for a while now, and usually don't even do yogurt or anything we have to feed- sometimes we fill spoons for her to do herself, but eating is predominately whatever we are having for dinner, sometimes cut up small and sometimes in chunks for her to bite or break apart on her own. She doesn't seem to eat much, but I guess she's little and doesn't need to eat much. We've started giving her small amounts of whole milk in a sippy with meals, and she seems to like it, but doesn't drink much. I think she needs to start drinking more soon, though, because I don't know how much milk I've got left! I just pumped while working, and only got 4 oz (compared to the 8-10 I used to get, and that she drinks at daycare). She still nurses about 5 times a day, but seems to be losing interest a little bit- she woke up the other morning and didn't want to nurse, but ate a nice big breakfast. I'm not too upset by the idea of weaning sooner rather than later!

Playing: She is still hilarious. She fake laughs all the time, and it is so cute and funny. She still pretends to put things in her mouth and that she is going to touch something she isn't supposed to, just to get a reaction from us. She loves going back and forth through her tunnel, and climbing under and behind things. She enjoys and is really good at going up and down our stairs, so we let her do it a lot (with hands inches away to catch her just in case!). She LOVES to dance, and has some new moves that are pretty funny but also seem a little inappropriate (think 'booty-dancing'). She seems to like all types of music. Books are still a very popular activity, and she likes to "read" them to grandparents over skype. She still enjoys bathtime (and swimming!), and I'm looking forward to playing with water outside this summer. I could go on and on about all of the things she does and enjoys!

Walking: Since the last post there have been lots of single steps, and several series of steps. I think the most she has taken at a time is 6. It's funny, all of a sudden out of nowhere she will stand up from the ground (not holding anything), pause for a few seconds, and then cautiously take a few steps before deciding to play it safe and crawl again. She hasn't fallen or anything that would make her scared, but she is just a very cautious little girl, I guess! She will also stand up and dance and sit back down, so I don't think she has any concerns about her balance. I predict she will start walking more very soon, but right now she's still taking her time.

Talking: no "real" words yet, besides 'mamama' and 'dadada' which I don't think she is using as actual words. There are a couple of sounds that she seems to use consistently for things, but I'm not sure I would consider them words yet. She does sign for 'bath time', which is very cute, and when eating she will sign 'all done' and just started 'more'. She is so good at pointing and communicating in other ways, I'm wondering if we should make things a little harder for her so she'll be forced to talk and/or sign :) J/k.

New trick: tried to upload a video, but it wasn't working...I'll try again sometime because it is amusing.

Sorry for all of the rambling (again)! To make up for it, some poor-quality, non-cropped cell phone pictures :)

Sorting- is it just my imagination? You decide!

Swim class! She's a cutie in the pool...

Pretending to touch the things she's not supposed to touch...

Some dancing in her room...

Bye bye! (and Hi, Kisses, and I love you- she seems to think blowing kisses is the sign for Aloha)

Hello again!

I can't believe that it's been more than three weeks since I posted- and that February is already almost over!! I get sad sometimes thinking about how fast time is going by, but it is so exciting to see our baby growing and changing so much on a daily basis.

We have had a couple of teeny-tiny steps, but no walking yet. I am not in a rush to see her walk, but I want it to happen soon when I am around so I can get over my fear of missing it! This past couple of weeks that fear was nonexistent, however, since there wasn't a single minute that we could put her down.

After having a cold for three straight weeks and a cough for more than a week, we finally went to the doctor. Her ears and lungs were completely clear, but the doctor was still worried the cold could spread to one or both, so we started antibiotics. Within a couple of days, the cold had disappeared! We finished out the prescription like the instructions said, and then within two days baby was sick again- but not just cold-sick... she was the sickest we had ever seen her. Incredibly lethargic, inconsolable at times, and just plain sad. It was horrible to see- we considered taking her in to the emergency room when her fever spiked to 103.5 (and didn't even beep- we stopped it because she threw up), but our doctor said to try tylenol and a lukewarm bath to bring her temp down, and that worked. She slept through the night, but still seemed to be very sick and not herself, so we went to the doctor. Turns out her ears went from "perfect" and completely clear, to both being infected :( Now she is on a stronger antibiotic, and she already seems to be 100xs better, although she is more tired and a lot weaker than usual. She did play and even dance a little last night, and this morning I got her to eat a little bit of breakfast, so I'm hoping that means she's getting back to her normal self.

Besides being sick, our baby girl has been doing fantastic! She has the greatest personality- she is a little jokester and loves trying to make us laugh. Her new thing she does is to try and get a reaction from us and then show she was just kidding around- like pretending she has picked something up from the floor and put it in her mouth, or grabbing wires (phone chargers, computer cords, etc.) and pretending to put them in her mouth. It is hilarious- she looks at you with a mischievous smile, and then puts her hand to her mouth really quickly, watching the whole time with eyes that look like she's holding in hysterical laughter. As soon as you say something, she shows you that whatever it was is still in her hand and not in her laugh and gives a great big smile, like 'I fooled you!' It is a lot of fun.
She still loves to play peek-a-boo, both by hiding her own face and by hiding ours, or by hiding behind things. She likes to "beep" our noses- we make a beep sound when she touches our nose- and she has now figured out that we'll do it if she touches the dog's nose too, which she loves. She also loves to gently pet our valentine's day roses, and crinkle the leaves that have fallen off. Every time we go into her room or leave it, she wants to go around and wave at everything- the pictures on the wall, the dolls hanging from springs, the moon nightlight, her stuffed animals, etc... Every time we go into Mr. Beaver's office or leave it, she blows her daddy kisses- which she will also do to the dog, and even to her Nana and Grandpa on skype (we haven't gotten her to do it for Grandma yet). She likes chasing us and running from us, especially now that we got her a big tunnel to crawl through and hide in. She enjoys taking things out of boxes/bags/etc. and putting them back in, which I'm hoping means that she will clean up after herself when she gets older :)

Her absolute favorite things these days are her books. When she is sleepy, she will lay in our laps while we read to her, and she points to the pictures as we go, but most of the time she prefers to 'read' by herself, or with one of us close by just to label the pictures as she points. She spends so much time each day just sitting with a book and flipping through the pages. I am amazed that she already has such a strong interest!

I hear her waking up from her nap, but I can't end without mentioning another huge development- most nights, our baby will sleep through the night!! In the past couple of weeks she has only woken up twice to eat (and that was still after sleeping 8 hours straight), and twice because of having a dirty diaper from the antibiotics. She has a pretty regular bedtime of 8:30, and then wakes up between 6:30-7:30. Also, for naps and bedtime, she goes to sleep on her own! We put her in her crib and say night-night, and she will play and look at books for a few minutes, then lay down with her blanket in her fist until she is asleep. I am so proud of her! At the same time, I feel a little sad that she is getting to be such a big girl already!

half-step toward walking...

our baby girl took a half step!! I don't think it counts as walking or anything, but it was very exciting and scary. She stands hands-free all the time now, and can stand up from the ground without holding/pulling up on anything. Two days ago she took the first step not holding on to anything, but barely put any weight on the moved foot before collapsing down to her knees and crawling instead. I am scared she is so close to walking, but also scared I am going to miss her first steps! She has gotten a lot braver lately, and I get terrified and grab her every time she looks like she is going to try and walk when there is a table edge or something nearby. I know she will be walking soon...I'm guessing maybe even within the next few weeks.

Another physical milestone- she can make it up stairs. I thought we were doing well with our top-of-stairs gate, but that doesn't do much to keep her from climbing up! Looks like we need a bottom gate asap. She made it up four stairs within about 30 seconds! I waited to see how she'd do when she started trying, but then grabbed her before she could fall. Then I went and got Mr. Beaver and had her do it again to show him and get a video :) Hopefully that wasn't encouragement of the behavior...

(gave the video a whole day to load and it didn't work. I'll try to post it later I guess!)

Age: 9 1/2 months... actually more- only a week away from 10 months

Stats/Size: She registers on our scale now, weighing 19.4 lbs. When I weigh myself holding her and then subtract my weight without her she is 19.6, so about 19 1/2 lbs now.

Sleep: Great if she gets her second nap... she even went 8+ hours two nights in a row! Sometimes she still wakes up every 4-5 hours to eat, but as long as she gets both naps during the day she goes right back to sleep. Last night she didn't, and was up for a while in the middle of the night...I'm exhausted! She is still fighting sleep unless we wait for her to be completely exhausted.

Eat: Excellent! A new favorite food: quinoa. She is already getting decent at putting a spoon of food in her mouth if I put the food on it.

Getting Around: Cruising fast. I know it won't be long before she walks... She has mastered walking while just holding one of my fingers with one of her hands. Now she has started running while holding both my hands...

New People: none lately, soon she will make some new friends at baby activities we are joining

Best moment this week: hmm. the half-step I guess? we were both there to see it which was nice.

Worst moment this week: one night after missing her second nap baby woke up and wanted to play for a couple of hours before going back to sleep... that was not fun.

What I miss: being able to hold my baby for long periods of time without my arms getting sore :)

What I am looking forward to: starting kindermusik and swim classes! And of course warm weather!!! I really, really hate the cold.

PS: This is why I don't post pictures... can't keep her still for a second! Poor thing didn't realize she was in deep, freezing snow when she decided to start crawling around. oops!

9-month well visit update

A week+ overdue, oh well :)

So I was a little off on baby's weight... turns out she is only 18.5 lbs. Her growth has definitely slowed down. Her length is 27.25 in, bringing her down to the 38th percentile (she was still somewhere between 50-75% for weight). Maybe this means she will stop outgrowing her clothes so quickly! Everything at her check-up was great. They were even very happy with her progress with solid foods, and said if she is able to eat finger foods don't even worry about cereal and purees! The doctor we saw said to feed her whatever we are eating, just make sure it is "cheerio-sized" and squish things like peas so that they aren't choking hazards. This hasn't been going so well, because for some reason she doesn't like little bits of food- only big chunks (besides blueberries, which are her favorite food). She does so well with the big chunks, I'm not worrying about it too much.

I've still got a couple of weeks' worth of some amazing baby food (planned to make my own, but got a huge bag of the stuff from a family friend). It's so good, I would be happy to eat it so it wouldn't go to waste, but baby likes it too so I'll let her have it. It's nice to know that it's fine to give her whatever we are eating, though, and makes meal-time that much easier. I was worried about dairy, salt-content, fat, etc. but apparently it's all okay, because a serving size for her is only about 1tbsp, and she still gets most nutrients from nursing. The only rules are no shellfish nuts, egg whites, or straight milk. Easy enough.

In case anyone is curious about the food I mentioned, it's Sprout organic baby food.

She loves the fruit flavors...new flavor for today is the pasta with lentil bolognese.

Not much has happened since my last survey update, but I'll do it again anyway:

Age: 9 months, 1+week.

Stats/Size: 18.5 lbs, and is now wearing both 9month and 12 month clothes, probably about half of each. I don't know how she outgrows clothes when her length only changed by a half inch in 3 months!

Sleep: Eh... she seems to be trying to cut out her second nap. I'm not ready for that! No matter how hard we try, most days she just refuses to fall asleep for it, and after an hour and a half of trying, it is too late anyway if we want her to go to bed at a reasonable hour. When she doesn't get a nap, she goes to bed around 8-8:30. She then wakes up to eat sometime between 12-2, and again around 6. Not fun, but she does go back to sleep until about 8:30, 9am, which is nice on the weekends. But I would prefer one night feeding and two daytime naps.

Eat: Great, she's been eating at least two meals of solids a day- breakfast and dinner at the dining room table while I eat too. I love eating together! Still nursing 5 times (4 daytime, 1 night or 3 daytime 2 night)

Getting Around: Cruising fast. She know walks with her little push-walker thing or anything else she can get to move. The other day it really looked like she was about to take a step toward me from the couch... scary.

New People: Some friends of friends last night, who had 3 year old and 4 month old daughters. She loved the 3 year old, they played a ton. New babies are starting at daycare too, as her friends move up to the 1-2 year old room.

Best moment this week: no single moment, but we have been getting tons of laughs, hugs and kisses- I LOVE them.

Worst moment this week: hmmm maybe just the time wasted trying to put her down for her afternoon nap.

What I miss: Not much... sometimes when I am rocking with my sleeping baby I get sad that she is already so big, and miss when she was tiny, but she is so much more fun now- I think it is more just sad how fast the time has gone already.

What I am looking forward to: warm weather!!! I know it's still a while, but I am sick of being stuck indoors and miss playing in the yard and going to the park.

One more picture... I think out of about 130 pictures I deleted 125 haha... hopefully I'll figure this new camera out soon so I can start posting more pics. Right now I'm still working on how to focus on my baby instead of her clothes and toys!

Babyproofing

We have not been all that serious about baby proofing so far, but we have done a few things so I thought I'd write up what we've done and what we still need to do... maybe it'll help keep me accountable.

I kinda feel like some bumps and falls are okay- they will teach baby beaver to be careful and to figure out how things work. For example, our coffee table has a small wooden shelf and glass top, and it rolls. We planned to take the wheels off but didn't get around to it right away, and within days of being able to stand our daughter figured out how to pull up on the table with no problem. It only took her a couple of attempts before she figured out how to apply her weight so that the table would not roll out from beneath her. We intervened so that she wouldn't get hurt, but could not believe she learned so quickly! My mother-in-law is very worried about the table rolling and tried to convince us that we need to do something about it, but once we realized that taking the wheels off isn't even an option, we decided to leave it be. Baby has been pulling up on it for 2 1/2 months now, and there haven't been any injuries so far! Also, she has figured out how to get up using the lower level, and then reach up and behind herself to grab the glass top and then stand in a way that she doesn't even bump her head. It doesn't sound all that impressive, but I was amazed watching her figure it out!

The point of this long example is that we have decided that some things are not all that dangerous and can provide learning opportunities for cautious behavior, so I think our baby-proofing has been pretty minimal.

Here's what we've done so far:

-outlet covers. easiest and cheapest baby-proofing step, no reason not to do it.

-get rid of power strips and try to hide power/electric cords or make them as unnoticeable as possible

-reorganize pantry so that doors can be kept closed (didn't think this was that important until baby almost pulled a heavy can of tomatoes off the shelf)

-gate kitchen so that dog food can be on whatever side baby is not on, and to help confine her while I am cooking or doing dishes (luckily our dog has absolutely no issue with food aggression/jealousy for people, even babies- but the food is the perfect choking size and for some reason is the most appealing thing ever to baby. Plus, can't be too careful even with a very well behaved dog)

-block off bookshelf in office: we really, really need to anchor it to the wall, but even once that is done it is nice that she can't pull everything off (which would be within the first minute of being on the ground)

-top-of-stairs gate: probably the most important thing we have done, although I still don't feel as safe as I would like about the stairs.

Wow, when I decided to write about this I thought we had done a lot more!

Here's what we still need to do:

-gate off basement door, since we leave it open way too often (more stairs)

-tether the office bookshelf to the wall

-move all cleaning chemicals from bathroom and kitchen to basement

-cabinet locks for kitchen cabinets that have shelves holding heavy things that could be pulled down... not going to worry about most of them

Things I am still deciding on:

-corner covers for tv stand- she tends to let go when standing near this a lot, and I worry about her hitting her head on the corner. But I don't know if it is really necessary or how long she will be unstable standing hands-free...

-drawer locks in the nursery. She has already started pulling the drawers open and is really great about not pinching her fingers (although I'm sure it will happen and I don't have a huge problem with it-learning experience). I am worried about her pulling all of the drawers open and making the unit unsteady- I'm not sure if it is possible but maybe it could tip forward and fall on her. Also, I worry about her climbing the open drawers like stairs.

I'm sure I'm missing some important things, but these are my lists so far. I've found baby proofing is waaay more work on a daily basis.

-There are new shreds of the dog toys on our living room floor constantly, so every time we play in that room I have to clean them all up, and hide the toys because for some reason they are way more exciting and yummy than baby's toys. This becomes difficult to keep up with when the dog immediately finds her toys and brings them to baby to play. Again, we are super lucky that the dog has absolutely no jealousy/aggression issues with baby/people and her toys, but it grosses me out when they go right into her mouth. Baby has already learned "no, those are Lili's toys", but doesn't always listen.

-Anything on any surface within reach (almost all of them now) is fair game to our daughter- and she loves ripping paper. This has helped me with keeping my work confined to my desk, but books, magazines, mail, etc. are often out and we have to run to get them before they are chewed on and pulled apart.

-cleaning in general is a greater priority. When everything, including the rug and floor, are kissed and tasted constantly, you start to pay more attention to how long ago it was that you mopped.

We still need to watch her every.single.second. because it seems like no matter how few seconds it was since we vacuumed, there is some new chunk of dog toy in her hand, or some power cord calling her name. Luckily it's a lot of fun to watch her play, it just makes it hard to get anything else accomplished.

All this being said, we try our hardest not to intervene and hover when baby is exploring. We keep a very close eye and grab tiny things about to be put in her mouth, but otherwise I think our daughter feels like she has complete freedom to grab/taste/touch/climb/push/pull/scratch/bang/etc. anything and everything, and it really seems like she is constantly learning and discovering new things. I can't believe that she is still getting to be so much more fun every day!

9 Months!!

My baby has been here for the same length of time as I was pregnant with her... actually, I guess even longer, since the first two weeks you aren't really pregnant. Anyway- that seems really long to me. She seems really old already!! I thought I had at least a year before she became a toddler instead of a baby, but she already seems to have outgrown the "baby" title. Everything she does is so intentional. Every look she makes has so much meaning. Sometimes, even her babbling seems to be genuine attempts at communicating! She seems like she barely even needs me anymore- she always wants to be on the ground doing her own thing, she prefers to feed herself, although she will let us feed her now, she even seems to be able to communicate which books she wants read to her (and which she doesn't). It is crazy how grown-up she already seems. I actually get really happy when she is sleepy or fussy for whatever reason, and comes to me to cuddle and be held. I am hoping the next three months go by really, really slowly and I can keep the few baby tendencies she still has for just a little longer...

Age: 9 months!

Stats/Size: Still wearing 6-9 month clothes, 9 month clothes, 6-12 month clothes, and even some 12-month pants and 9-12 month clothes. Will find out her official weight and length on Friday.

Sleep: Pretty good. She still can't go all night without getting hungry, but she usually goes a good 6-8 hours before waking to eat, and has been going right back to sleep after eating again. We've been having some trouble getting her to fall asleep at night, and have started putting her down awake. She is usually okay for about 5-10 min, and then starts crying. We go in, pick her up and rock her to sleep,then put her down again. Then she wakes up again. We wait for her to start crying- usually she just fusses and complains for a little while. Sometimes she falls asleep, sometimes she cries again and we repeat the procedure. I can't let her cry- it is just too sad- but I am able to let her fuss and complain. She fusses and complains when we hold her, so it's not really that different. So far she seems to be getting better at falling back to sleep on her own, and I'm hoping that she eventually learns to fall asleep on her own from the start. If not, I have to admit that I really don't mind rocking her to sleep, and usually don't want to put her down right away when she does drift off :)

Eat: doing SO much better now! She eats whatever we eat that I think is healthy enough to give her, and also has some rice cereal or oatmeal with fruits or veggies in it once or twice a day. I love dinner time when we all sit together and enjoy our food! Now I think I need to get her on some kind of eating schedule, and I think the doctor will tell me that she needs to have more (quantity-wise) solid foods during the day. She still nurses 4 times a day, once at night.

Getting Around: She crawls way too fast. Maybe I'll do a short post about baby-proofing so far... we haven't done enough. Cruising has been getting more adventurous. She goes from table to puzzle cube, couch to wall, etc. She lets go for seconds at a time to clap or hold something, and is great at grabbing back on or getting down on her own. It is crazy.

New People: Mr. Beaver's cousin and his fiance came for an unexpected visit, so she finally got to meet them! He was the best man at our wedding and is like a brother, so it's nice she finally got to meet this uncle.

Best moment this week: Hmm... hard to pick out a moment. It was fun to see the excitement on baby's face when she started walking with her walker, although I was pretty scared it was going to get away from her and she would fall flat on her face (it didn't). I guess seeing her dance for the first time the other night was pretty great :) I'll have to try and post the video below.

Worst moment this week: One night she woke twice to eat... that's all I can think of. It's been a pretty good week!

What I miss: sleeping in! Every now and then drinking alcohol... especially when my mother-in-law visits ;)

What I am looking forward to: My girls-weekend in less than a week!! They are awesome and coming here so I don't have to leave or travel with the baby alone. It is always a great time! Hopefully we don't get a blizzard this time. Oh, and related to this, seeing my friend for the first time since she has gotten pregnant! Soon our baby will have a new friend!

Weekly Wisdom: always have a video camera ready:

Happy New Year!!!

Finally an update :)

I can't believe that it is already a new year... this past one has been pretty great, but it flew by. I can't believe we have had our baby girl for almost 9 months already. I can't believe how grown up she is. I can't believe that she will be turning a year old so soon, and that any day now she will be walking and will start talking.

Every day Mr. Beaver and I marvel over how much personality she has, how happy she is, and how smart she seems to be. She copies almost everything she sees us do (which has been great for getting her to eat!), and she loves when people copy her or react to her actions. Her favorite things to do are waving, clapping/patty cake, and playing peek-a-boo with anything big enough to hide her face. She is so cute- she does it so fast sometimes when she is excited that we don't even have time to play along :) Sometimes she will find ways to play even if she doesn't have a blanket or something to hold up- she will hide behind something, like my shoulder if I'm holding her.

Other things she does all the time is clapping- she is able to make noise- and she shakes her head "no" because it usually gets some laughs. She has started standing on her own once she gets her balance, and she is really good at "cruising", or walking while holding on to stuff. She can walk forward and backward pretty quickly when just holding onto our fingers, and she gets so excited. She babbles a lot now, finally making "mama" sounds! She loves to watch us dance, and tries dancing along or drumming her hands on things to the music. Her favorite thing to play with is the dog (lili), especially her tags and her feet, and she loves to give her kisses, which makes it hard to keep lili from kissing her back. I could go on and on about her, but I think this is enough for now! We just can't get over how amazing she is, and how much she seems to learn and do every day.

Even though I am sad that 2010 is over and seemed to go by so fast, I know that this is going to be such an exciting year for our family! I will hopefully be graduating and getting a job, Mr. Beaver will be transferring full-time to a more challenging position within his company, as I mentioned before- our baby girl will be 1!!, and many other fun family happenings. I just hope that we can find a way to make time go a little slower :)

I don't usually do resolutions, but I do have a few goals for this year: improve my work habits so that I can finish my dissertation and move on with my career, get better about doing all of the things I'd always planned to do with our baby (sign language, play groups, etc.), learn to use the new camera I got for Christmas(!), and get more organized in all areas of my life. There are tons of other things I could list, like posting here more often!, but I think this list is pretty ambitious already.

I hope that everyone else had great holidays and a wonderful start to the new year!