yup, predicted that one...

so two days after that last post, on Wednesday, Danica took her first steps. 10 days before her 1st birthday.

We were at my parent's place, picking up the utility trailer to use on the weekend to haul some junk away, and Tony and my dad were outside hitching it up. Mom and I were in the kitchen, I was sitting on the floor and Danica was walking around holding onto the cupboards. She had made it nearly to where the stove was, when she turned around and stood without holding anything, and gave me a big smile. I thought to myself, "Man, she's really stable at standing for longer periods of time now!" and before I could even finish the though, she took about 4 or 5 steps straight towards me across the kitchen! It sure surprised me, but I was sooo excited. She looked very happy and proud of herself, until I started shrieking for Tony to come quick, which scared her and she ended up crying, lol.

She's done a few more steps on her own every day since then, and I'm sure it won't be long until all hesitation and insecurity over her new skill is gone.

time flies

I know I've been neglecting this blog, life is just so busy and every time I come here, I don't know what to say.

Danica's doing great, she's almost 1 already!! She's walking around, still holding on to fingers, but I'm sure her first steps will come soon. She zips around on her knees pretty fast, can climb the stairs, and loves to sing, dance, and babble. No words yet - i thought she was saying "mom-mom" to me in the right contexts a couple of weeks ago (she'd never really said those babble-words before), but then she started saying it to the dog too, sigh.

We're planning her bday party right now, looks like it will be a backyard bbq (yay for June bdays), as long as the weather's nice. She loves watermelon, so that will be part of the party for sure!

new skills

Well, Danica has been all about the standing with help and walking with help for the past couple weeks, and today she pulled herself to a stand with no help at all! She has also mastered forward motion in the past couple days, by way of a commando-style belly crawl.

No new teeth, but more hair, and lots of funny traits, she loves to make people laugh.... wiggle wiggle is one of her favorite games, she'll look at you and wiggle her head side to side, and then expect you to do so back to her, which is rewarded by a huge smile and more wiggles. And her fake laugh and fake cough are pretty entertaining too.

All the recent pics are on my camera, and my computer is acting up, so I can't upload any new pics, but she is one sweet baby!

too cute

Danica shared with me for the first time yesterday.

We've been working on teaching her to "give that to mommy/daddy" - things like her spoon, when she's done trying to feed herself what's on it, so we can put more food on it for her to try again (she actually has pretty good aim!), and things that she shouldn't have in her hands...

So i was in the kitchen making her lunch, she was eating her puffed wheat (she's getting pretty good at that finger dexterity thing too), and she picked one up and got my attention and held it out to me, so I went over and put my hand out and she dropped it in my hand and gave me a big smile.

It was a pretty special moment for me.

my poor baby

This past weekend we went to Calgary - Anthony and his friend took in monster trucks while Danica and I shopped with my friend Amanda and her 6 month old son, one of Danica's little friends. Danica was not feeling so well on Saturday during shopping, she was a bit whiney and very cuddly (thankfully I had the baby bjorn with me, so I just carried her in that most of the day).

Anyways, when we returned to my sister's where we were staying, Danica had quite the fever, I was actually pretty worried about her... but it came down to a more moderate fever temp quite quickly which was good, I was not looking forward to trying to take her to a clinic (or perhaps emergency, it was just borderline) in a different city/province.

Since then, she's had that fever off and on (more days on than off), and has developed quite a cough and a really snotty nose. She sneezes a lot, which usually results in some pretty impressive snot strands (I've started carrying around a snot rag for her...but she likes to wipe her face on my shirt too...ew!)

We took her in to the clinic back home, and she got some Amoxicillin (yay for banana flavored goop), and were advised to try advil, these seem to be doing the trick and she's back to her old playful self, save for longer nap times (which I don't mind), more waking/eating at night (which I guess is ok), and the occasional whiny/fussy moments. At least even when her fever was highest, she still had an appetite (at least for milk and cereal, forget trying to feed her veggies right now!)

But it's hard to see your baby sick...I don't even usually call her "my baby" but that's definitely been what I've called her all week. Other than a couple little colds that didn't really affect her, this is her first time being sick. We did get some cute pics of her cuddling with her dad, though...she was a lot more snuggly than usual which was pretty special. Still have to try to get a picture of her snot strings!

so much new stuff

(i guess that's what happens when i only blog once a month...)

She has 2 teeth now, the front bottom ones. And she is now officially mobile - she lays on her tummy and pushes herself backwards with her hands. She has been up on her knees a couple times but not for long.

She is also getting quite the sense of humor, and tries to get our attention by leaning over and tipping her head sideways to the floor to play "peek". She LOVES the baby in the mirror, and is quite social with other (real) babies too. Her favorite thing to say is "dadadadada" (tho she doesn't know what it means yet), and she says it a LOT.

Oh, and she plays with her animal toy - the one with levers/buttons for each animal, to make them pop out of their little home (can you picture it?) but she can only do the chicken one, and she does it over and over and over "Cluck-cluck --- baCAAAAWWWW"

Hmmm...what else? we made valentines treats for a bunch of her little friends and delivered them yesterday, she helped out by sleeping well during her naptimes this week so I could bake & decorate on her behalf.

She had her first non-family member babysitter when we went out for v-day supper, she did very well, they played for a couple hours and she had fun. She's back to her normal happy self despite a pretty stuffed up nose this week...

I'm sure there's more but I hear her awake from her nap now so I'd best go.

Well as of this past weekend, Danica's first tooth has cut through. Just look at those little red cheeks. It was ok, though, about 3 days of fussiness and the likes, less interested in food and her usual activities. Tiring for me, but overall not as bad as I thought teething would be, so far.

Oh, and she's getting more hair! Yay!

Her first christmas was good, she got quite spoiled but of course was only interested in trying to eat the wrapping paper. She's wearing her Christmas dress that Baba (my mom) made her in this picture.

I think i worry too much, but Danica pretty much can't fall asleep without her soother. Now this is typically the only time of day when she has her soother, but it's an absolute requirement for her to fall asleep (unless we're driving and it's her naptime). At night for sure, it falls out when she's asleep and she stays asleep fine, usually during her naps she sucks it almost the whole time. I know she's only 5 mos old, but I'm already thinking about when would be the best time to wean her from it (or possibly cold turkey, we'll see). I know that one of the main concerns with extended pacifier use is the teeth/mouth thing, and the other is the language development issue... now the latter shouldn't be a concern here as she rarely has it during the day when she's awake (usually just in church when her talking/babbling would be a bit too distracting for those around us), but I'm not sure about the first issue regarding teeth/mouth development...any input?