Rock-a-bye

Sierra loves playing Rock-a-bye Baby. We hold her cradled in our arms and rock back and forth while we sing the song to her and we swoop her down at the parts where the cradle "falls". Now whenever she picks up her dolls or stuffed animals, she always rocks back and forth and she looks around for someone to sing the words, which of course thrills her to death if anyone does.

Vocab update

Nana
Strawberry (stree-bee)
Baa Baa (as in, what a sheep says)
Thank you (Tak)
Breakfast (Bok)
Down, please (dap) .... she used to say "dow" for down, and now she says "dap"--we think it's because we always say "down, please" when we are showing her how to tell us she wants down.
Toothbrush (taba)

Teething woes

Well, Sierra has been busting out the 1-year molars like a pro, but there's a big factor that I had not counted on with her teething. I had not expected myself to be teething at the same time! I guess my wisdom teeth considered this a perfectly good time to make their appearance, and so this morning I have to go in to have them removed. Basically I have to say that Sierra has been making her way through this process with much more grace and cheerfulness than I have! I hope she doesn't freak out, though, when I come back later today completely drugged out and looking like a chipmunk.

Vocab update

New words since the last vocab update:

sheep
baa (as in, what a sheep says)
roar (as in, what a lion says)
shirt
chips
piano

Royal Flush

Sierra discovered how to flush the toilet this morning. Talk about entertainment! We're going to have to start a new budget for our water bill, or put big locks on the bathroom doors, one of the two.

Kitchen helper

Sierra loves to help in the kitchen now. Her favorite task is emptying the dishwasher. She holds the different items and we walk over to where they go and I put them up in the cupboard. Of course, some of the things go in drawers or lower cupboards and then she can put them in herself. At first she did not like giving up things once she had ahold of them, but she is getting the hang of it now, so when we get to our destination, she hands what she has to me to put it away. Now the hard part is when the job is over. She does not like it when there is nothing left in the dishwasher to put away, and she also has a hard time understanding that sometimes as soon as we finish unloading the clean dishes, we start loading dirty dishes into the dishwasher. That does not go over big.

Yesterday we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house making almond butter in their machine. Sierra really liked helping to pour the nuts into the spout at the top.

New walking record

Today Sierra walked all the way from the living room/studio steps over to the couch--a good 15 feet at least. Although she took her first steps over a week ago she hasn't been all that interested in actually walking as a way of getting around. But suddenly last night and today it's like it finally sunk in! She's not that speedy yet, but she definitely spent a lot more time on her feet than she did on her knees today.

Silence is deadly

When Jonathan was preparing Sierra's dinner, he heard from babyville that sure sound that means SOMETHING IS UP..... silence! Indeed, when he looked in the breakfast nook where she had headed to entertain herself until dinner, she had pulled open the pantry cupboard, found the Cheerios box, and had proceeded to dump a whole pile onto the floor and was helping herself.

I had a "moment of silence" the other day as well, which I think I forgot to write about. I often sit in the living room knitting while Sierra plays with her toys. There is a mini-hall around the corner from the living room that you can see through a wall cutout, but of course, when Sierra goes up out of the sunken living room and into that area, I can't see her because she's below the window. So I'm knitting away and I hear "the silence" so I go up to see what is going on, and Sierra has gone in the bathroom and pulled every last inch of toilet paper off the roll and into a heap on the floor. I'm sure every kid in history since the invention of TP does this at least once, maybe more, so I guess we have one down, and who knows how many more to go.

Vocab update

Sierra's words to date:

Dada
Mama
Grandma (Ga Ma)
Grandpa (Ga pa pa)
Book
Dolly
Shoes
Stop
Go
Down
This
Close

Higher ground

Yesterday Sierra managed to crawl up onto the little chair that goes with her drawing table (her legs are not quite long enough to get up onto the regular furniture.... yet!) She was so proud of herself and sat there swinging and kicking her feet and just beaming! She was able to get down off of it successfully by herself too. The chair was in the middle of the room when she first did it, but she quickly realized that her new skill would be a useful tool to reach the tops of bookcases, and other (up until yesterday) "safe" zones to put pottery and other non-baby-type stuff. It's a whole new world!

A day in the life of Sierra

Sierra's basic schedule from around September 2005 to present:

7-8
Wake up
Milk from Mommy
Get dressed
8:30ish
Breakfast
9-10
Go down for morning nap (Mommy practices the piano)
12-1
Wake up from morning nap
*Milk from Mommy (*she actually gave up this feeding a month or so ago)
1:30 or so
Lunch
2:30-4ish
Afternoon nap
5-6
Dinner
7
Milk from Mommy
Bedtime

Sierra is on the verge of giving up the two remaining breastfeedings, and probably one of her two naps as well. Ironically, she's more likely to give up the nighttime feeding before the morning one, and she's more likely to give up her afternoon nap rather than the morning one. It's the opposite of what I would have expected, but she pretty much just does her own thing!