Miss Independent

Carson's desire to be her own person and do things herself has been showing up here and there for awhile now: 
-There was the month or so she changed her mind about solid foods and decided they probably weren't for her. 
-And there's the way she shoves your hand away if you try to help her with something she'd rather figure out on her own...or lately if you try to take something she's not finished with yet.
-And now that she's eating again (in a much pickier fashion), she'd like to hold the spoon herself for every bite, regardless of the percentage of food that actually makes it into her mouth.

And now, there's walking.  Just a few days before she turned 9 months old, Carson took her first steps. We weren't even trying to get her to walk at the time. Brandon and I were just sitting on the floor in the den near the coffee table. C was standing between us, with me supporting her. I let go of her so she could stand on her own, which she loves to do. And suddenly, she was at the coffee table--3 steps in a row like it was nothing! Brandon and I looked at each other, trying to figure out if what we thought just happened really did--and then we cheered and hugged and basically scared the poor child half to death. She didn't walk again for about an hour, after recovering from the shock of our excitement.

She has been walking a little bit more each day since then and doesn't usually wait for us to prompt her.  In fact, she doesn't want any help at all.  Period.  If you reach out a hand to support her, she shoves it away impatiently.  Sometimes our only warning she's about to take off is this proud and daring look on her face, a big grin, and she shrugs her shoulders up and takes off! So fun to watch!  Last Thursday was the first day she walked more than she crawled, less than 3 weeks after those first few steps.  And now it's her preferred mode of transportation.

And now I (and by "I", I mean "Brandon" for most of these) have a new "to do" list:
1. anchor big furniture to walls

2. get a gate for den to keep dogs out

3. reconsider owning a wolf (a daily task at this point anyway)

4. do a much better job cleaning

5. figure out how to keep her from trying to move out at the age of 5

And here's a video of some of her walking adventures over these past few weeks:


A few side notes about this video:

Some of the clips were taken with cell phones, so please excuse the lack of focus.

Despite what it looks like, we don't just crumple up trash and leave it on our floors.  Carson loves to tear up magazines and other papers, and some days it's just not worth cleaning it up until after she goes to bed.

I got the super-long clip by setting up the video camera and just letting it run while we played one morning.  She has a 6th sense when she's being filmed, so I had to take advantage of her 'walking mood' when it hit her.  Therefore, please excuse our pajamas.

Yes, those are Brandon's socks she's toting around for some reason.

I'm not motioning to my imaginary friend--Moe is just outside the camera shot (I swear!) and I was working hard to keep him that way.

Congratulations, Carson!  We're so proud of you!

I Will Never Catch Up!

Carson has been doing so much new stuff lately, I'm not sure how I'll ever blog about it all.  It seems like there are long periods where not much new is going on with her, and then WHAM!  All of a sudden, she's this sponge, soaking up everything and putting it to use and I can barely keep up.  So mostly, I just sit back and watch her do these super-cool things.

It is amazing to me to feel like I am sitting there actually witnessing another human being discovering some of the fundamental truths we use daily for the rest of our lives.  Here's what I mean:

I get to watch her manipulate blocks or balls until she accidentally hits them together and realizes they make a sound.  Here, she's so proud of herself for holding both of them.

Then I gaze on, as she figures out how to hit them together repeatedly and make the same sound.  And finally, she starts picking up other objects and noticing how the sound changes as different objects are banged against one another.  She realizes that stuffed toys are boring in this activity and make no noise.  Then it occurs to her that objects with rattles inside make extra noise when they are whacked together.  For a few days, she went around hitting things like a maniac, testing everything she could pick up.

Another of my favorites was when she recently realized that everyone has the same body parts--ears (which she loves to look at on each side of your head), toes (her fave), tongue (my fave) 

She never gets tired of looking at these same body parts over and over again, solidifying their images and the concept of their presence on everyone in her little mind.

It is so engrossing and rewarding to me to watch her learn--I swear I am addicted to it.  Honestly, it's the main reason I teach:  that "light bulb" moment, when a student suddenly understands something important--not important to the curriculum (although that's cool too) but important to LIFE.  Maybe we're reading a book set in Vietnam, and they begin to understand ways the Vietnam War was similar to the war in Iraq.  Or they can make connections between the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement--or even better, between the Holocaust and what's going on now with Muslims and Hispanics in America.  Then we get to talk about how we as individuals can make a difference before prejudice takes over, like it did in Germany.  I just can't get enough of it.  The human brain is amazing.  And having a front-row seat to one child's journey through every major discovery they will make--it's like crack to me (I realize I won't actually be present for every single thing she learns, but don't get picky).

C has also been getting more verbal lately.  She has started making a few more sounds and trying to control and use them.  Whining is one of them, which Brandon and I adore.  But what's really fun is she's trying to say actual words, many of which begin and end with "d."  Her repertoire of sounds lacks some of the subtle nuances of English phoentics...or all of them.  Whatever.  Her first non-dada word is "that" (pronounced "dat"), and she says it pretty often.  She points at things and says, "dat," usually seeming to want to know the word for them. So we spend a lot of our days lately naming objects, places, ideas, and her preferred topic of conversation--animals.  She tries to say dog (which sounds like the real word, only it ends in d instead of g) and at the doctor's office for her 9-month check-up (oh my GOSH how will I ever catch up on blogging???), they had a big fish tank, and she kept trying to say fish (which came out as "shhhhhh").  Too fun.

She has figured out that she can not only look through her mailbox toy to see what's behind it, but she can also stick her hand through to grab things on the other side.  She thinks this is hilarious, even though these pictures don't look like it!

She has also started generalizing ideas more.
I put a headband on her head yesterday, and she immediately pointed up at her hats, realizing they go on her head too.
Or we were looking at a picture book tonight, and when we got to the page with the dog on it, she said, "Dod," then looked and stared at Moe, then back at the picture, then at him again.  I am dying to know at what point their brain becomes able to see a picture of one dog and realize it's the same animal as a completely different color/shape/size dog.  Fascinating!
 
She plays "chase" with Brandon every day now.  She'll crawl around on the den floor, and then stop and turn to look at him with a big grin (or sometimes intentionally go somewhere she's not supposed to, like the TV stand), waiting for him to come get her.  Then she'll squeal with delight as he chases after her.

And while I'm just spitting out random information, here are her 9-mont stats:
Weight: 18.1 pounds
Length: 27 inches
Both are around the 30th percentile for her age.
 
There is so much more to post about:  the songs she "sings," learning about belly buttons from Lila, the fort, and one of her biggest recent achievements deserves a post of its own, so I'm working on it and will get it up asap.  But for now, I'm going to post this.  Because I'm sure by the morning, there will just be something else new to add to the list!

Important Things I've Learned as a Mother So Far #4

*For #1-3 in this list, click here.*

4. A child will most likely throw up before/instead of choking to death.  Actually, our friends' baby Judah was kind enough to teach us this lesson while he and his parents were over for dinner this week. Good to know! 


We love getting together with Kace and Dave and watching how the babies' interactions change over time.  Plus, we make each other feel better by having the same questions and making the same mistakes as we parent.  :)


Here are Carson & Judah only a few days old

And here, about 2 months old

In this one, they are 4 and a half months old.

And this is the other night!

*For another post on Judah, click here.*