June 9th, 2003 - Monday

For Posterity

This is an entry that's mostly for me, but by all means feel free to enjoy it too.

Hayley is 8 1/2 months old now and growing and changing in leaps and bounds. Because it will become more and more overwhelming to remember everything, I wanted to compile a list of things she's doing.

What she eats:

Rice cereal, real rice (made a bit mushy), oatmeal, chunks of banana, applesauce, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, baby fruit salad (with apricots, peaches, and pineapple!), carrots, peas, squash, sweet potato, bite size pieces of baked chicken leg, apple juice, zucchini, Farley's baby cookies, teething biscuits, and probably other stuff that I'm forgetting. Her favorite thing to have is still mama's milk, but her favorite solids are banana, applesauce mixed with oatmeal, and she really does love her vegetables.

She is perfectly capable of taking the spoon and feeding herself although I usually do it for her since her newest thing is to play "hide the spoon". She can pick food up in bite sized pieces but hasn't figured out yet that she can then put it in her own mouth (I've never understood why she can put everything in her mouth except the food).

She has 6 teeth out, 2 below the surface, and possibly 2 more on the way. Gah. Barracuda baby!

She sits perfectly for unlimited time spans now although she still hasn't quite figured out how to sit up from a prone position. She did it for George the other night but hasn't done it since.

She can scoot around on her butt though she doesn't seem to always realize that she's doing it (otherwise I'm sure she'd be scooting down the hall as fast as her little butt could transport her).

She still shows no interest in trying to crawl if you put her in the hated tummy position, but from a seated position she's come really close, and also does a bit of moving around on her butt with one leg tucked underneath. If she catches on that she can tuck BOTH legs under her and crawl, she'll be into everything.

She pulls herself up on anything. She'll use our hands, the crib rail, the coffee table, our clothes, hair, whatever. She loves to stand and if you're holding her hands, she'll then jump up and down in excitement.

She walks while holding on to things, cruising along furniture or around and around the inside of the crib. She also loves to hold our hands to walk.

She understands words. She responds to her name. If you say "big girl!" she'll jump up and down. If you ask her where the cat is, she'll start looking around the floor for Cricket. If you ask where the fan is, she'll look up at the ceiling fan.

Saying hi or bye will get you a wave. If you wave first, she'll do it back. She's almost learned to give "high five!" but half the time she'll just laugh and lick your hand instead. If she sees herself in the mirror, she smiles and waves at herself - same thing if she sees a picture of herself. She understands what "kiss!" means but will only give you one if she feels like it.

She says "dada" and "mama" as well as "baba" and "yaya" though none of the words seem to mean anything yet.

She loves Baby Mozart and Baby Beethoven and will sing along in her own way to her favorite parts. She loves her Uncle Dino's recently composed jazz song and when she hears it, she'll smile and lay her head on George's shoulder, then peacefully fall asleep if it's naptime.

Speaking of naps, in the past month she's made a big step forward and no longer needs to nap on me. She can now nap peacefully in bed for a decent amount of time. I still let her nap on me once in awhile just because it's nice to be so close.

She plays games. Ever since she was a newborn I would randomly toss a blanket or shirt over her face and call, "Where's Hayley?! Where's Hayley?!" Then I would pull it off and exclaim, "There she is!" Apparently it sank in, because now she'll pull things over her face herself (such as her bib or a towel after a bath) and lie there quietly until you ask the question, at which point she pulls it off and laughs while you give the appropriate response.

One of her favorite games is to sit on the bed, throw her hands up in the air, shake, and then throw herself backwards until someone pulls her back up to do it again. This is really cute except for her occasional tendency to do it while sitting on a hard floor (which is why she still has pillows behind her even though she can sit without them).

A game she more or less started on her own is the "shark game". She'll suddenly dive at my face and start gnawing (gently, usually, thank goodness!) on my chin as I pretend to scream and shriek "Shark! Shark attack, help!" This makes her giggle.

I've spent a lot of time bouncing her on my knees while singing the theme song to the "Lone Ranger" and now if you start singing it around her, she'll start bouncing up and down on her own, no matter where she is.

She loves going to the park. Just the other day, I took her in the stroller and as we started walking on the path into the park itself, she started bouncing up and down and chanting with excitement because she knew where she was. She loves going in the baby swings and she also loves sitting on my lap on the big girl swing.

She has definite recognition of people. Whenever George comes home from work, she realizes he's come home after being away from her for a significant amount of time, and she always reacts the same way - with a huge smile that threatens to crack her face in two. Whenever she makes that big smile (seen below), we say it's because she's so excited she just can't keep her mouth closed so she's letting the excitement out.

Hayley lets the excitement out.

She does so much, every day, that I can't even think of everything. I'm sure that I'm forgetting a few things. I'll probably edit this entry if I think of anything else in the next week or so.

She's not even nine months yet but it's all going so fast. I can't believe she's growing up already. I don't know her weight, though I'll find out when she goes in for her eye surgery in two weeks. I know she's over 20 pounds though, and I'm guessing about 22 pounds. She's wearing 12-24 months in most of her clothes by now. So big and so small at the same time.

Slow down.