Bigger and better adventures

We were planning to fly to South Africa to visit Talia’s Grandpa in hospital, and these are the photos taken for her passport application.

Talia finally had a hearing check at the audiologists today, following on from the one where she was too clogged up with a cold to be able to test properly.  It showed that although her eustachian tubes are “sluggish”, her hearing is within normal ranges.  They’ve recommended we go back in summer to confirm that the sluggish tubes are not a permanent problem.

Hoorah, one less thing on the list of potential problems! Although I’m sure selective deafness is only a matter of time…

A wonderful thing happened this weekend.

I’ve been clapping to Talia for months, probably about 5 or 6 months, since she started sitting up. Apart from general applause and renditions of Pat-a-cake, I would clap three times and say “clap, clap, clap” as I did it, over and over again. She would smile at me with the sweet but slightly worried expression that says “mother, I love you but you look like a crazy lady hitting your own hands together like that.”

Then suddenly, yesterday while visiting my parents, my father clapped for her and she clapped back again! Then we all joined in - three generations of family clapping. It was very cute, and a lovely moment for us to share.

Then this morning came one of those wonderful “my child is a genius” moments.

Talia was in our bedroom, full of early morning energy, and, without moving my hands myself, I said “clap, clap, clap” and she started clapping!! She knows the word clap!! And it wasn’t a fluke, I’ve been saying it on and off all day to the same reaction (because I’m so excited I just can’t get enough of it!!!)

Woooooooooo hoooooooooooooo!

Talia has been doing very well eating only finger food, but at some point she will need to graduate to cutlery.  I decided it’s time I relaxed enough to let her practice using a spoon and not stress if it goes everywhere. She’s been putting a toothbrush into her mouth for the last week or two, and I figured a spoon shouldn’t be any more difficult.

So on Friday I let her loose with 2 spoons and a limited amount of yogurt in one of those suction-cup bowls. And it went really well! I was helping her load up the spoons, but she was putting them in her mouth herself (she really doesn’t like me trying to do it) and a surprising amount of yogurt actually went in and stayed in.

The next morning I tried the same thing and she threw the spoons on the floor - yogurt-o-rama!  Fortunately our sealed cork floors are very forgiving and easy to clean. Then in the evening we visited my parents, and I shared some dessert with Talia by passing small spoonfuls of icecream and lemon pudding, and she did a much better job.  (If you’re reading this Mum, please email me the recipe, it was delicious!)  

So I think we’ll be doing spoon training every day or two until she gets the hang of it, although I think the challenge will be more the food than the spoon!

First, the good news: we’ve broken the 8kg barrier! Talia weighed in at 8.165kg this morning. She is 14.5 months (11.5 months corrected). It has taken her 3 months to put on this most recent kilogram, which is exactly how long it took her to put on her first kilogram after leaving hospital. Fortunately, although not without it’s challenges, these past three months have not been anywhere near as stressful as those first three months.

It has been ages since I posted about what Talia is eating, and I’m sure to forget if I don’t write it down. Since the Great Spoon Strike began in April, I’ve had to come up with a wide range of finger food to cater to Little Miss Picky’s culinary whims. Food can now be categorised as follows:

Almost always acceptable as food and eaten regularly: avocado, beef sausage, dates, cooked veges (peas, mushroom, carrot, potato, sweet potato, celery), yogurt coated sultanas, fish (usually served crumbed)

Might be eaten, might not, depends on the day and there’s no way of telling in advance:
Part A (slightly more likely) omelette, pikelets, cheerios, sultanas, rice, meatball, matzah ball, muffin, pasta, red & white beans, corn, capsicum, grapes, chicken, biscuit
Part B (slightly less likely) cheese, banana, pumpkin, dried apricot, apple, rice cracker

Was a hit but we don’t dish it up every day: sushi, cake, prawn, cheesecake, hot chips, smoked salmon

Used to be popular but not at the moment: wholemeal toast (spread with avocado or peanut butter), fruit toast (spread with butter), cruskits (without or without avocado)

Oh seriously, there is no way I am going to eat that: mandarin, strawberry, anything on a spoon (eg weetbix, yogurt)

Things we haven’t fed her yet: chocolate, ice cream, jelly, tomato, salad greens

Now that Talia has teeth next to each other (4 at the top and 2 at the bottom),  I realised I ought to make more of an effort with brushing them, something I had always intended to do but hadn’t quite made part of our daily routine. I had been taking her into the bathroom so she could watch me brush my teeth before I ran one of those little slips-over-your-finger brushes over her gums.  Then this week I actually bought a proper baby toothbrush, gave it to Talia to hold while I gave a demonstration… and she got the message!  She put the brush into her mouth and waggled it around in a convincing imitation.  For a baby who vary rarely mimics anything we do (like waving or sticking tongue out) it was particularly good.  I called Daddyfeatures in to take a commemorative photo.  And here we are:

This evening I am pleased to report independently verified (ie Daddyfeatures saw her do it too) cruising along the footstools.

The cat is looking increasingly worried at these new developments in mobility!

As I said in an earlier post, the longer you leave between blogs, the more things you have to talk about. Talia has been making fantastic progress in the past few weeks.

• Since crawling (her technique is beautiful), she has worked out how to pull herself up on the footstool we use as a table for one of her favourite toys, and is also trying to pull herself up on a few other things (like her mother, for example!)
• In just the past few days she has also started to be able to sit herself down from a standing position in a slightly more controlled fashion than in the past, when she just put her bum backwards and let gravity take its course.
• She has started to put blocks and balls IN to a box, not just take them out.
• She will put blocks and balls through posting holes in a home-made shape sorter (with a bit of encouragement)
• She can post balls and push buttons to make the music start on her favourite toy.
• Much to my delight, she has started giving the hand sign for milk. She uses it to mean “I want” or “give me” and it doesn’t always refer to milk, but it’s a major step forward and one I am very pleased about.
• She will give me an object if I ask for it and point to my open hand. (I have to stop myself signing for milk at the same time!!)
• She’s banging two objects together more frequently, which is (hopefully) a precurser to clapping.
• Her babbling is coming along nicely, with lots of nan-nan, although sadly (for me) no mum-mum since the first week she did it.
• Tooth number 6 is now through, so she has four along the top jaw and the 2 middle ones in the bottom jaw.

We are now trying to encourage her to cruise along 2 adjacent footstools. At present her hands move along but her feet stay planted. We also encourage her to walk while we hold her hands, which leads to some fabulous “ministry of silly walks” exercises.

The doting parents just got even dottier…