Half a Year Old

     Well the big news is, "We have teeth!"  They've been coming in for the past week or two, and they are, as you might expect, cute as the dickens.  She definitely likes Sophie, her giraffe teething toy (from France, don'cha know), but is quite cavalier about whether she's chewing Sophie's face, her knees, her hoofs, or whatever those little things are on the top of a giraffe's head -- antlers?


     She's also been enjoying any number of other teething options:  frozen teething rings, a vibrating John Deer ear-of-corn shaped toy, her Nuk, or any random thing she can reach and grab, which seems to be her new favorite hobby -- reaching and grabbing, that is.

     We've also been hanging out outside quite a bit as the weather's been getting so unseasonably warm.  Esme likes the 'footrest' on her stroller, as you can see both from our perspective and hers.  She's been helping Dad out in the garden for the past several days, as you'll see more clearly in another post.

Huge thanks to Steve and Mary, who supplied us with not one, but three  kid carriers.  Here you can see Wade & Esme's current favorite.

     Esme will even occasionally use her fingers for teething, or is it just that she's shy about showing off those brand new teeth?  We may never know.
     Up next?  Our six month doctor's visit is Friday afternoon.  So we'll have more to share over the weekend or next week, depending on when we can rip our eyes off her long enough to use the computer.  I mean, really, who could resist this face?
   

The Realms of My Experience

Springtime in Michigan, baby!

     We have reached the point in baby-hood that I have least personal or professional experience.  I only worked in infant & toddler rooms for two weeks (while I was in Vermont in 1998-1999), and doing that, even for such a short period of time, was a conscious decision to make sure I had some level of experience with those age groups -- I've feel like I've been prepping to be a parent for over 15 years now.  (I did also take care of my younger sisters during these ages as well, but that was before our moms were together, so it was more akin to baby-sitting than ongoing daily interaction.)
     As my blog introduction says, I was a nanny for a newborn for the first three months or so, which both launched my interest in working with youth as a career path, and started me towards being able to proudly say I've worked professionally with every age of kid from birth to 21.  My greatest level of experience, of course, is with school-aged kids, especially K-12, as I subbed for several school years in addition to my seven years as an upper elementary teacher.

One moment, flat on her belly, then knees under her!

     Part of me thinks that I am least prepared for Esme's current age, but another part realizes that this means I can experience Esme's growth and development for the next few years with a wonder and joy that is free from expectations about what is normal -- though I suppose I don't really believe that any child is normal, per se.  All children develop at their own pace, and Esme is no exception, but not having expectations about when she's going to crawl, when she's going to walk or talk, when she's going to hit all those developmental milestones based on my experience of other children means I can take each new moment and stage as a gift rather than comparing her to any preconceived notions.

Finding the right motivation to sit up

     Speaking of crawling, she continues to work on getting her legs under her, which can be made easier by pillows, as you can see.  She consistently flips herself over to her belly, and lasts longer in 'tummy time' than she has in the past, but she still gets frustrated and doesn't seem to be able to consistently flip herself onto her back.  She is also getting better at sitting up.  From an inclined position, she can sit herself up, especially to grab at her favorite toy -- a butterfly with crinkly wings -- and if we sit her up on the floor, she can hold herself there for a few minutes.  Or she can lose her balance immediately, so leaving her while she's sitting is not an option, even to cross the room to grab my coffee cup.
     Perhaps the most exciting of all to me is the opportunity to see the world through her eyes.  She almost always has a twinkle in them as she explores her world, sees members of her family, or just this week, starts reaching for everything.  She seems to especially enjoy grabbing onto leaves, as both Tina and I have discovered this week while standing a little too close to plants while having conversations with other people.

     I'll leave you this week with a picture of those eyes taking in the world.  We were volunteering with Growing Hope again at Seed2Plate in the Ypsilanti Middle School, helping to teach healthy eating and lifestyle choices.  (And she liked the smoothie that they made that day!)

Esme in Action

     Esme has been hard at work learning some new skills.  Eating has become one of her favorite things to do, and by eating, I'm not talking about bottles anymore.  At our four month check-up, the doctor told us that she was at an age that she could start solid foods, but that we shouldn't push that unless Esme was clearly showing an interest -- which she had been doing for several weeks at that point.  So we started with 'single foods' -- baby foods that have only one ingredient -- as I mentioned a few posts back, but we have moved up to multi-ingredient foods by now.

     One of her favorites is banana / peach / raspberry mixed with rice cereal.  She can eat two or three heaping teaspoons of that in just a few minutes.  (Don't worry, the heaping teaspoons aren't going into her mouth -- we offer her much smaller bites.)  It astounds me that the total mess that used to accompany feeding time has narrowed down to a localized mess centered around her mouth.  (Okay, it still spreads a little beyond that, especially if we're not vigilant about keeping her hands out of the process, but whereas it was hard to tell at the beginning whether food was going down her throat or just being spread around her face, bib, and tray, it is now clear that almost all of the food is actually being swallowed!)  I made one attempt at capturing the feeding process on video, and instead of making you sit through the whole ten minute video, I tried to edit it down to one minute with two clips.  I hope I was successful...

     Some other big news is that Esme is flipping herself over regularly now, and she's starting to work on the concept of locomotion.  At this point it's still mostly semi-random flailing, but there's definitely some effort to get somewhere, with the accompanying distress when she realizes it's not happening quite how she envisioned it.  (There was another video that showed her having greater success, but that was in the middle of a diaper change, so you'll have to settle for this one, in which she is fully clothed, but doesn't get her knees under herself.)

     That's the Esme news for now, though there is so much more going on.  I wish I had time to share it all with you, but I suppose if you want to see much more, you'll find some time to come visit us here in Ann Arbor.  For now, I'll leave you with a smile.