October 22, 2010

Speedy October

This month has passed quickly.  Amelia turned 9 months old.  She had her 9-month well-baby check up and all looks good.  Developmentally, she is well ahead of the curve.  At 9 months, she's already taking a few steps here and there, she has good hand eye dexterity (i.e., she can pick up little pieces of food and (most of the time) successfully  put them into her mouth).  She recognizes a number of words, including "clapping," "waving," "arms up," "feet," and "no."  Since she's VERY busy, "no" seems to be quite popular.  Like when she's crawling speedily away from us and making a b-line to play in the toilet or the trash can. 

Amelia is also hanging in there on the height and weight.  She was 5-10th percentile on weight and the same on height.  Although this seems small, you have to give her some credit for the fact that she started out not even being on the charts.  Also, Bill and I are not exactly big people.  Overall, the doctor was pleased with her progress.

This week, Amelia said her first "word."  I am pleased to say that it is was "Mama."  Sometimes she says it very clearly.  Other times she slurs it a little, but she is definitely getting the idea.  I'm not sure that she really associates the word with me yet, but I'm flattered all the same.  Below is a short video of her saying "Mama."

This has been a very busy, and somewhat rough week.  I had to go to Oklahoma on Wednesday.  While my meeting went very well, the travel days are always difficult because I miss my time with Amelia.  This trip, I also picked up some kind of cold/flu on the plane and have had a nasty sore throat and have also been feeling generally yucky (fever, chills).  Also, 2BK has been making me a little tired and nauseous, so that didn't help on top of the cold.  The bottom line is that I was probably not as patient with Amelia as I normally would have been these last couple of days, and so I hope she will forgive me and I will try to make it up to her this weekend.

Tonight is a big night.  We are going to start "sleep training" with Amelia.  While she used to be a very good sleeper, during the past month she has steadily regressed to waking 5 or 6 times a night -- each time expecting someone to come rock her back to sleep or for us to take her into bed with us.  Last night I spent a lot of my night in the rocking chair, and so we've decided to suck it up and do the sleep training.  It's supposed to have them sleeping through the night in a week.  We'll see how that goes . . . . I'll report on our success (or lack thereof) next week.

Amelia's First Words