7 Months and Crawling

This has been a major weekend for the Princess' growth and development.

The Royals are therefore pleased to announce the first successful crawling of the Princess. The first time was this afternoon while Joy and I sat on the bed and had her crawl to us from the other side of the room. "She was pretty pitiful because she was crawling to us whimpering and crying, and not from excitement." She repeated her performance tonight with both of us on the couch, again whimpering all the way. When we cheer, she stops moving (and whimpering) to look around startled, then she starts again.

Until now, she's been "swimming" across the floor, using her elbows and knees to propel herself but with her tummy dragging on the ground.

Many more updates below the fold.

Yesterday she pulled herself off the floor to a kneeling position and got one foot up in her struggle to stand. Joy says, "We were playing Husker Du with Prince and she was behind the chair he was sitting in. It was low enough for her to grasp. She was trying to reach onto the chair, so he was sitting on the very edge of the chair. She used that chair [and her teeth] as leverage and pulled herself up! Woah! It was really scary when Prince stood up [because the chair tipped over and she almost fell over] -- but I was watching her more than I was watching the game, so no incident. Then today she pulled herself up again during church on the barrier we used to keep her from getting at the cords."

Technically, "Mama" and "Dada" aren't supposed to count as first words. Untechnically, Princess has said her first word, and with meaning. She can say "Mama." Boy, can she say Mama! Joy - "I think she thinks Mama means milk right now. And we respond quickly enough that she knows it has to do with me." But even when she is sitting in Joy's lap, she will call out "Mama" because she wants food. "She's called it out in great distress when she was hungry. But if I come to her with my arms out and suggest that she say Mama, I can't always solicit the response." I have not yet convinced her to say Dada. She does not mumble Mamamamama the way Prince did. She just says "Mama" - very distinctly.

This might lead you to guess that we are serious when we say she is quite attached to her dear mother. Even when I hold her for too long, she gets panicky. Where'd Mommy go? She needs to be held pretty constantly by Joy. That by itself isn't new, but the anxiety accompanying it is, and I used to be a good substitute. "I got a couple weeks' reprieve from holding her constantly until about 3-5 days ago, when the anxiety got more acute and I couldn't even set her down for more than 30 seconds or one minute. SORE muscles." Today I actually got 5 uninterrupted minutes of happy time with my daughter when Joy wasn't around. She still loves her Daddy - loves to smile at me, loves my noises and faces, loves having me FEED HER bananas or oatmeal, and has even learned to enjoy me tossing her in the air ... sometimes. But I'm not her security blanket.

Joy: "As you might guess, she wants to eat anything I'm eating. Raw apples and carrots happened that way." She loves playing with a carrot during mealtimes. She gnaws a couple tiny pieces off of it and is very happy to suck on it and play with it for a lot of the meal. "Now that she has 4 teeth, she gets more gnawed off, including having eaten some apple. It's very nice to have her in a booster chair for mealtime now that she's doing better at sitting up. I think she got into a sitting position by herself twice today which convinces me to let her sit up ... so she also fell twice from a sitting position today. She also eats cabbage. We think banana is her favorite. I am thankful that she still prefers nursing before getting solids. If we sit her in her chair, she will cry if she is really hungry and wants to be nursed first. I'm not ready for her to be weaned." And of course her favorite is Maybe This Will Fit in My Mouth.

"I think that Princess looks just like her Grandma Jule,
especially when she smiles."

This week, "and I don't know if people would really believe us about the arm thing," she started helping both of us when we get her dressed. We put her hand into the shirt's armhole, and she pushes her arm through. "Three days ago, I started noticing it because at night I took her arm out of the armhole and she put it right back in! It surprised me." Even Prince isn't always that helpful.... No, that isn't fair. He just started putting on his own Sunday shirt minus buttons.

Speaking of the Prince, she sure loves her older brother. I tried to post a video of him making her laugh last week, but after several attempts it failed. They make each other laugh very heartily. They play mostly with each other's toys, but he can't stand it when she plays with his [My parents are sure to comment that that sounds familiar.] When I can't make her smile, I turned her over to him to work his magic. Yesterday during a seminary video we were watching, she crawled to him and then kissed him for the first time. So now she has kissed Mommy and Prince.

Trying to escape the "playpen" formed by the couch and chairs

"She's given me a zerbert too! Right after she got her teeth, I was leery of letting her put her mouth on me, cause she bites sometimes. But she's starting to respond when I say No - that's a big development too - so I'm getting more comfortable with letting her try something and I can say no if I don't like it. So she put, it was I don't know a few days ago, she put her open mouth on my arm and just blew and made a zerbert. She's done it a couple times. She's given me kisses for giving her a zerbert too before."

"She enjoyed her first bath sitting up on the 19th. I supported her a lot, but other baths she's been happy a little bit of the time, but not happy the whole time.