The Tickler

Riley is learning to laugh more and more. She laughs at you when you make funny sounds. She laughs when you play peek-a-boo. She laughs when she learns new things. She laughs when you count.
Today, the most amazing thing, she made herself laugh by tickling herself! She was sitting on the bed, and reached her right hand across to her left side and started to scratch. But, instead she tickled herself. She then did it a couple more times, laughing each time.

Oh, she is 7 months old today, and it is Colleen's birthday as well!

Dinner Time

Riley is just learning how to eat. Didn't take long to figure out the part of what to do with food, but how to get it into the mouth consistantly is a little more difficult.

Self Portrait

Six Months Old!

Yes, it's true. Riley is now six months old.
Every time I start out a blog, I can only think to say that she has changed so much since .... And, it's true, she has changed so much since the last blog.

Big thing right now are teeth. Last night she was fussy and crying off and on. We figured teeth, but couldn't really see or feel any. This morning, she fussed early, then shortly after, was happy and talking like usual. I checked her mouth, and sure enough, her two lower front teeth are coming up. They really grow fast, thankfully. Don't want to prolong the misery any more than we have to.

I mentioned that she is eating solids. She absolutely loves to eat with us, and just lunges at the spoon. If your plate or her bowl is close enough, she will grab it and fling it. She knows she wants it, but doesn't know what to do when she gets her hands on it, so off the table it will go.

Last week, she started to roll completely over onto her stomach without any aid. This has led to her using the roll over technique to grab things (or us) that are just out of her reach otherwise. She can also prop her feet against the crib, or, more likely, kick and stomp it.

She is getting bigger and more interactive now, so I will try to post some pictures on the next blog.

Big Day for Riley

After several months of Riley staring us down during meal times, we finally decided to let her try a bite or two of her own solid food. We always have her at the table with us at dinner time in her magic chair, and usually put her in our lap near the end. This gave her the opportunity to watch and learn as we ate. Generally, she would watch very intently and as soon as we would look at her, she would start smiling and laughing (more on that in a bit).
So, tonight we fixed up a bowl of porage for her. Not sure how she would react or take the food, I simply put some on a spoon and brought it up about three inches from her when to my surprise, she lunged forward and put her mouth over it. Each successive spoonful, she would lung and "bite" the spoon. Now, that was easy, but, she wasn't quite sure what to do with the food once it was in her mouth, so not all of it stayed there. She did start moving it around with her tongue, and I'm sure that the saliva started to flow which would cause her to swallow, so she probably got about half of it.
Too bad most of it came up about 20 minutes later.....

Now, about the laughing. For the past four or five days, her laugh has turned into a full on giggle. Before, it was a simple ha ha. When I first heard it, I thought she was about to cry, but then I saw her smile and realized she was really laughing. I think it was when I was tickling her. During bath time, she will play tug-o-war with the wash cloth, and she thinks that is hysterical. I think she and Colleen spend about half the bath time with this game.

Oh, speaking of the tug-o-war game, nothing is safe if it is within her grasp. If she can get her hands on something, it will end up on the floor.

Finally, she has begun forming complex phonemic sounds. You can really see (hear) the foundation of speech being developed. Anybody want to teach her Danish of Swedish?

Lots of new changes.

The past few weeks have been amazing. It seems that Riley made a huge jump in dexterity and interaction. She is grabbing things, holding on, inspecting, throwing, playing, and having fun. She has realized she wants to go places, and is trying to do so on her own. Of course, she also had another milestone, her first cold.

Where should I start? How about the cold.
Last Friday, she started to get a little cough, and by Saturday, she had a good rattle going in her throat. Through it all, she stayed pretty happy with just a few periods of fussyness. At night, she was getting pretty noisy with her breathing, and at times, she would wake up with trouble breathing. So, today, I took her to the doctor. And, she's just fine..
Oh, we had another milestone of sorts. After one of her fussy periods on Saturday, we fed her, and I gave her a little bit of Tylenol, then picked her up to comfort her. Big mistake. I got her just to eye level, when I say this blinding white light (or so it seemed), and it was coming right at me. I didn't even have time to close my eyes all the way. Blam! She puked right in my left eye and all over my face. My eye felt weird the rest of the day.

On to the more interesting things!
Last week, I put her in her swing which has seat belts and a little motor to gently rock it back and forth. Well, I had just set her down and taken my hands off to grab the seat belt when she suddenly lunged forward. I was able to catch her, but it felt close. Once I got her buckled in and the motor set on medium, I turned to start breakfast. About 30 seconds later I noticed that the swing sounded funny. When I turned around, Riley was lunging forwards and backwards with the swing causing it to swing way past even the highest setting. Wow, she wasn't just passively sitting in the swing like previous, she was controlling it, and laughing! I took a video, but I can't post it here, so if anyone wants to see it, send me an email, and I'll email it back.
Today, almost a week later, I put her in the swing, and she did it again. Amazing.

Lauging and playing, and just about to roll over.
She now plays with her toys in a much more interactive way. She grabs, pulls, twists, hits, bites, grunts, gurgles, growls, and generally beats the heck out of things.
Here she is on her play mat. Previously, she would just wack at things or try to grab them, but now it's all about playing. Also last week, she discovered a Teddy bear. When we would give it to her, she would thrust her hands out to grab it, then grunt and pull it back and bite it, then burry her face in it. She smiles when she sees it in her crib or on the bed.

Bumbo
Another really cool thing was when her mommy brought home a surprise. Riley likes to sit upright, but she doesn't have enough strength to keep from falling over, and all her supportive seats put her in a very laid back position. So, mommy got a thing called a Bumbo which supports her butt. This picture is of her sitting in it for the first time yesterday. She absolutely loved it. Tonight, I had her in it in the kitchen while I cooked dinner. She enjoyed watching me, but she started to laugh out loud every time Laney (the cat) walked by. This picture might be the one we send to the Parents magazine contest (thanks Chris!).



Time for a nap.
Well, there are too many things to list tonight, and like a busy baby, I get tired and need a nap. For Riley, that means a nice little nap in Grandma's lap!
Good night!

Happy Valentines Day!

Riley wanted to send everyone her love today.