Milestones

One thing that is fun about having babies is watching them hit their developmental milestones. Grace is almost six months old and it has been amazing to watch her grow and change. She started out being a very demanding baby, what some doctors would have considered colicky, but now she is a very happy little girl... Mind you she is still a baby! Last week we had a new first... Baby's first food, rice cereal! I wasn't sure how she was going to like it, but she LOVED it! One night last week, I went out shopping while hubby watched the kids and as always, I had my cell phone charged and ready. I was in the book store when the phone rang. When I answered it, I was greeted with the sound of my baby girl screaming her lungs out. My initial response was, do I need to come home. Poor Stephen, he had tried everything to get her to stop so I asked him if he had tried the cereal yet. "Good idea hun, I'll try that, you just continue doing what you are doing, I'll let you know if I need you to come home." Once I finished paying for my book (which ended up being 50% off, how great is that?) I whipped out the phone and speed dialed home. I was quite relieved to hear the quiet at the other end! Stephen said that as soon as she saw the cereal she got a big smile on her face. Another disaster averted, and some Christmas shopping done! Lucky for me the malls are open later this time of year. I am one of those last minute shoppers, moreso this year than any other. When I finally got home, it was shortly after 10 and I was worried that Grace was going to be going crazy with hunger... turns out it was just Mommy withdrawl! When I came down the stairs, she was sitting in her bumbo chair playing with a toy. As soon as she saw me, she gave me the biggest smile and started waving her arms around in the air. I picked her up and as soon as she was close enough, she put her arms around my neck and snuggled in really close. That is the best coming home greeting ever! I think that night I ended up having to bring her into bed with me, she just didn't want to sleep alone. Not the first night, nor the last that will happen.
Zander is doing so well! We were so worried about his speech development that we went for speech therapy. In a way it was so unnecessary, but it put us at ease so it was worth it. Anyway, he is saying new things all the time and he is learning so much! He is able to count to 20 with very little prompting. He usually doesn't say 15, 16, 17 but he does pretty well. He can also identify and say most of the alphabet, and he's pretty good with his shapes and colours. All that time reading and rereading the books Tracing Shapes, Baby Penguin Learns Shapes, the Alphabet book, and Baby Toucan Learns to count have paid off big time! I am hoping to start teaching him some simple math and very basic reading in the new year. I'd love to have him reading and doing some math before he even gets to school. Now, just to clarify, we don't spend a lot of time doing "school" stuff. Mostly it's just fun stuff that we read or play together so it's not like it's pressure or forcing him to do stuff that he's not interested in doing. It's just so fun to see them learning! Anyway, with Christmas only a few days away, all he's been learning lately is not to touch the Christmas tree, that he can't have cookies for breakfast and that most of the time, Mommy's drink is hot so he better not touch. Hope everyone out there is ready for Christmas and has a very Merry one!!!