Q3 came to a close a few days ago, and it’s hard to imagine that we’re 3/4 of the way through the first year already!
Yesterday we finished our swim lessons. I’m still amazed at how much these infants take to, and enjoy the water. I don’t think I learned to swim until I was at least 5 or 6, and I remember some trepidation at the first few times I went into the deep end. But infants this young don’t really have any fear, and sure they get annoyed when they get water up their noses, down the wrong pipe, or in their ears, but a quick timeout to recover and they’re right back in it. And the little buggers learn fast- when we count to 3, e will close her eyes and mouth in preparation for the dunk…
Mind you she still sticks out her tongue to taste the pool water, so maybe she still has a few more things to learn. In the end, she clearly enjoys it, and we don’t mind getting up on Saturday AM to do this. We’ll enrol her into the same class, even though we know the routine. The kids don’t go to “Duck” level until 18 mos.
Another change or development in e’s behaviour is when we put her down to play, then walk away, she puts up a verbal fuss/whine… as if to say, come back here, don’t leave me. We then give a quick verbal response that we’re still nearby, and to not fuss. The thing we want to avoid is to run back to her as she’ll quickly figure out that this is the way to get what she wants.
Raspberries are still going strong, as is the baby talk- baa baa baa, maaap, maaap, etc. She has much better control of her hands- clenching and unclenching both of her hands, clapping her hands, and grasping at items… and it seems she’s starting to prefer solids to her formula, and drinking water from a sippy cup or straw.
She’s interacting with her enviroment a lot more- whether it be staring outside at trees, watching and grasping at the cats, or listening to her story CD. It doesn’t take much to make her giggle- E and I both agree that she’s a lot of fun at this age!
A couple of weeks back, Peter, our friend who is living and working in Japan came for a visit! He was in town for a wild and too brief visit, but we managed to get together for a nice dinner. Here’s a photo of Uncle Peter and little e, and we asked him to take, what I believe is our first, family photo together. If you notice that I’m a bit red, no I did not get sunburned and I am fully sober…
