Learning Something New...Every Hour

At least that's what it seems like Staley is doing.  I can hardly keep up with all the new things she's doing.  Just in the past few days Staley has exploded with new skills.  Crawling is one of the new skills that she's working very hard at.  As of last night, with hard work and motivation (think cell phones, laptops, TV remotes), Staley can move herself forward about 3-4 feet.  It's not fast.  It's not pretty.  It's not efficient.  But it's forward movement nonetheless.  She gets up on her hands and knees, then on her hands and feet, and then she sort of rocks and lunges forward.  Repeat.

Talking may not require as much physical effort as crawling, but Staley is working hard on that too.  Her current consistent words are 'mama', 'mum' (for more), and 'up.'  We have also heard her say (in context) 'book', 'hi', 'bye', 'papa', and 'ki-e' (for kitty), although some of these have only been heard once or twice.  And she consistently signs 'more' and 'drink.'

And my favorite of her new skills is her continued understanding of words and the world around her.  She definitely knows mommy, daddy, kitty, and Cheerios.  When we ask her to clap, wave, shake it (rattle), bang, do 'so big', and splash, she generally does it.  (Zach is working with her on high fives.)  When we say "where's your bow?", she reaches up and grabs her bow off her head.   She turns off the light switch in her room, imitates putting a cup on her head like a hat, and covers her face for peek-a-boo.  She can even play a game where we hide a toy under one of 3 different colored bowls, rearrange the bowls, and she will lift the correct bowl to find the ball.  Pretty impressive, right?  As overly proud and doting parents, we are impressed on a daily basis with our incredible little girl!!
 

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken with Zach's family in August.  Kara (who also did our pictures with Staley back in May) once again did a fabulous job!  Or maybe we are such a photogenic family that it made her job easy.  : )

The whole fam

Zach's parents

(I love how Olivia is looking up at Staley and holding her foot.)

Uma and Papa with the grandkids

The cousins

Zach's sister and her family

Two proud parents and...

...one sweet, sweet baby girl!

Joining The In Crowd

Staley is now an official member of the 'in' crowd.  Staley has long been proficient at taking (or dumping) objects out of containers.  However, over the past two days, Staley has started putting objects in...and then taking them out...and then putting them in.  I think a certain yellow monkey spent about 10 minutes straight going into and out of his barrel this morning.  She may not be putting her toys into her toybox or her clothes into her hamper yet, but putting the yellow monkey into the barrel is enough to make me proud! 

Picture Time

The Power of Words

Today, Staley and I were working on crawling.  (Well, actually, I've mastered crawling, so I was helping Staley.)  Staley is often very content to sit and play, and she still prefers rolling as her primary means of independent mobility.  She is starting to get up onto her hands and knees, but has still not figured out how to move herself forward on her stomach or on her hands and knees.  So during our play time today, I was using the most powerful motivational tool that I know...my cell phone.  I would place the cell phone several feet away from Staley and then help her move forward on her stomach to reach it.  I would then let her play with it for a minute or two (so sorry if anyone got a random call from me), and then I'd take it and make her scoot forward to it again.  After we had done this about 3 or 4 times, I took the cell phone away and placed it several feet away from Staley once more.  Instead of moving forward with my help as she had done previously, Staley rolled onto her back, looked right at me, and signed 'more.'  I guess Staley has already figured out that you don't have to learn how to crawl if you can just tell someone what you want.  I must say, I was quite impressed with her understanding and use of her one sign.  Oh, the power of language!  Unfortunately for Staley, I still believe in the power of mobility as well, so I deliberately misinterpreted her 'more' to mean 'more crawling' and made her scoot forward to get the cell phone once more.

The Good, the Bad, and the Unfortunate

The Good:
Zach took Friday off work for a 2-day family trek down to St. Louis.  We enjoyed taking Staley to Grant's Farm and the zoo, and we got to spend some time with our friends and their new baby twins.  As always, Staley did great traveling.  She napped for most of the ride down and back, enjoyed the sights (zebras still appear to be her favorite zoo animal), and slept great in the hotel. 

Family time at Grant's Farm

Petting the goats (who then tried to eat Staley and Zach's clothes)

The fun tram ride at Grant's Farm

Hanging with new buds Mason and Madison

The Bad:

The carpenter for our house project came on Friday to finish up some of the trim work.  He finished his work for the day on Friday afternoon, locked up our house, and shut the door to the basement before he left.  Unfortunately, the cats were upstairs...and their litter boxes are in the basement.  So from Friday until Saturday evening when we got home, the cats did not have access to their litter boxes.  Apparently the next best thing to a litter box is our bed (for peeing) and the corner couch cushion (for pooping).

The Unfortunate:

So instead of getting home from a fun week-end away and relaxing for the evening, we instead cleaned up kitty poop off the couch, rented a steam vac to clean the violated couch cushion, threw out our mattress (along with the sheets and comforter), and went out to buy a new mattress (so we'd have somewhere to sleep for the night).  On the plus side, the mess was contained to those two specific spots...and at least we weren't gone for a week.

"More, Please"

This is Staley's new favorite phrase.  Can she say it?  Nope.  But can she sign it?  You bet!  Staley now officially understands and uses the sign for 'more' consistently. (We just add the please to hopefully start some early lessons in manners).  She doesn't even need prompting.  Once a bite of food has entered her mouth or the last Cheerio has been eaten off her tray, she's signing for 'more' before she has even finished swallowing.  Eating is good motivation when teaching her to sign since eating remains one of her favorite activities.

And along with her official first sign, we've come to a consensus and declared 'mama' Staley's first word.  She still doesn't always use it in context, but she has become more consistent crying it when I walk away or saying it when looking at me.  I still wasn't convinced (I'm a stickler about being absolutely sure before declaring a 'first'), but Zach was ready to make it official.  (And who am I to complain about my daughter's first word being 'mama'?)  She has also said 'up' several times when playing a game where she stands up and then plops down, and she said 'Papa' a few times one day when her Papa Sancken was over.  And 'uhmah' or 'mum' are frequently paired with the sign for 'more', so that one is getting close.  Staley is so alert and interested in her world, and it will be fun when she can share more of her thoughts with us.  But she can already share one thought--'more food, please'--and that's a good start.