Jumping Johnny

Riley loves her new exersaucer/jumpin johnny/edutainment center.












One other thing I forgot to mention regarding Riley's cognative development, she has a space shape fit toy that she got from a friend which she is already trying to fit the pieces into the correct spaces.

Major changes.

It has been just over two weeks since my last post, and there have been many noticeable changes in Riley.

To start with, just over a week ago, she started to use the pincher grasp, that is, to use her index finger and thumb to grab and manipulate things. It was pretty crude at first, but now she is getting good at it.

She also started to wave when she sees us, or, like this morning, at the house when we left for school.

I have also heard her humming and sort of singing to herself or along with Colleen. At one time, she followed the melody of a song Colleen was singing to her.

Finally, we count to five with our fingers and aloud to her, and in the past she get excited and grin and watch, sometimes laughing. Just this past week, she started to try and count on her fingers along with us. She can only get to three as she is still lacking in dextarity, but she is trying.

Basically, this past week has shown a real advancement in her cognative development.

Sorry, no pictures this week....

The Zoo

We took Riley to the Oakland Zoo on Friday. It was her first visit, and the first time she had seen any other animals besides the usual cats and dogs (and birds). She was enthralled, looking at everything the whole time, even going beyond her usual feeding and nap times. Of course, when she finally realized she was hungry and tired, we made a bee line to the car, and home. Fortunately for us, it took less than 4 minutes to drive home!

More dinner pics.

Riley anticipating desert.

Here it comes!

La la la

So, Riley has been running a bit of a temperature the past few days, and today it is my turn to stay at home with her. Bummer for her for not feeling well.
One upshot, she said a new thing just now; she said "la la la". Couldn't get her to say it again, though.
In case you were wondering, her favorite words are "da da da", "yeah, yeah yeah", and something like "hiya".

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.