We took Remi to the Dallas World Aquarium yesterday and she loved it. The sharks, crocs, penguins, monkeys were all very cool but Remi enjoyed seeing the elementary school kid exhibit the most. Initially bus loads of kids swarmed the building and Remi just couldn’t keep up with them. They calmed down just enough to let our little baby to really begin to notice the animals. I was a little worried that she would see the glass of each aquarium and just assume they were TV. It was obvious she understood this wasn’t just TV…and not just because she couldn’t play with the remote.
Remi will be 11 months old on March 6. She has been climbing stairs for a month but can now do both flights in roughly half a minute. As she nears the top of the stairs she grunts, “Meow!” which is, of course, Remi-speak for Cat. Remi’s rendition of the sound “meow” is truncated into a single syllable…so, “Mow”.
We are dog-sitting for a few days and that has been a blast for Remi. Initially the dog was classified as a “Meow” but in less than one day Anna had Remi calling him “Bow wow”. We notice mimicry popping up all over. When I change her diaper I rub an alcohol-based sanitizer into my hands. Remi copies the hand movements. If she gets a hold of a towel she will initiate a game of “Peek-a-boo” by covering her head and ever-so-slowly exposing her face -all while laughing hysterically. She is impossibly cute.
She loves art and especially text. She has 3 pieces of art hanging in her room which she must admire for several minutes before leaving. We have to move from picture-to-picture so Remi can point, touch and smile at each one. If I wear a t-shirt with printed text she will awkwardly trace the outlines of each letter. She traces a lot with her magic index finger. Following patterns in fabric or the corners of a room. She is a very aware little person.
These are some pics we took as she climbed the stairs today. She was ready for a nap so she got a little moody toward the end. The climb goes a long way toward helping her nap easily.
Yeah, I realize Christmas was 2 months ago. Look, the website broke & work got busy. Here is a collection of pics from around Christmas time. Grandma, Mac, Robin, Seda & Daegan even came down to Dallas.
Remi watched as Anna walked out the door for work. She stared at the door for several seconds waiting for Anna to return. When Anna didn’t appear the tears started. The sound accompanying the tears wasn’t the usual baby babble. She was saying, “Mama, Mama, Mama” over and over.
She was all into “Da” sounds a couple weeks ago and we thought she was going to say “Dada” at any point. No such luck. She likes Mama more.
Even though she will say, “mamamamama” with no connection to Anna the above scenario has repeated itself enough that I think it’s pretty clear she knows Mama = Anna.
She turned 7 months old yesterday too!
Update: it’s been a week & no more “mamamama”. Maybe it was only a sound she discovered for a few days. Either way, I’d say this was not an official first word.
When we take Remi out people are constantly surprised when they discover she is only 6 months old. Is she really big for her age? Compared to other babies we see she seems about normal…I do think her legs are pretty long though.
She is sitting up on her own, eating sold food (when we have time), playing peek-a-boo, and fascinated by the cats. Oh, and she has her first two teeth!
Still no crawling. She “swims” in place a lot but hasn’t quite figured out how to put that into forward momentum. She has become a master of pulling things she wants toward her.
We purchased something called a Bumbo for Remi. It a piece of heavy rubber foam formed in a shape that forces the baby to sit upright. Once we squeeze her massive thighs through the holes she fits quite well. She gets a kick being able to experience the room like a big person. Getting her out requires an industrial shoe horn but we like it…and so does Remi.
