The Intentful Life: Growing up fast!

Last night Joe and I were lamenting over how quickly Linnea is growing up. In the last week she has changed from being a baby-baby to a baby-toddler. For example, L has become extremely aware and interactive with her environment and her surroundings. When we play music she first turns to watch the speakers and then she begins "dancing" to the beat (i.e. wiggling her arms and legs to the pace of the song). She intently observes new things-we took her to a baseball game on the fourth and she stared at the players on the field. She flirts with strangers-she was the darling at the game, smiling and talking to EVERYONE. Over the weekend she began stringing vowels and constants together-A BA BA BA A, DADADADA BADAB A. Her object permanence is developing quite well as she will try to move my hands when we play peek-a-boo, and she will move objects to find the intended object. We love this new L and we find great joy in sharing all of her new experiences with her. We just didn't quite believe how fast they really do grow up. As Joe said last night, "this won't be the only time we are amazed at how grown up she has become."

Linnea is no longer fighting tummy time. She happily goes on her belly and pushes up with her arms and kicks her feet. I think she is realizing this is the way to crawl, and crawling will get her to Oscar. She LOVES Oscar, if he sits anywhere near her she moves herself from a sitting position to a crawling position and attempts to get him. Oscar is a really good sport about it.

On the food front, this weekend also proved successful in eating solid foods. We were getting discouraged as avocados added to L's long list of food dislikes. However, we tried no sugar added, organic apple sauce and she LOVED it! She loved it so much that she took the spoon from me and began feeding herself. I have to help her dip it into the bowl but she is rather good at getting it to her mouth. She has moved past the sippy cup and on to drinking out of a cup. She is sort of wobbly in putting the cup back down so we have help her or expect a big spill. She also is obsessed with drinking out of my water bottle. She has figured out how to bite the nozzle and sip. If I leave it anywhere within her reach she goes at it.

On Saturday, it was Joe's least favorite weather (warm, humid, drizzle) but some of my favorite. So Joe opted to stay inside and clean the house and I happily walked Linnea over to the park. We did the swings of course but she also discovered that she really likes driving the playground boat and spinning the dino. blocks. What a big girl!