The above present was the culprit in her first major bruising incident. She had a hold of the squiggly wires on top when she fell over and planted her cheek into the edge of the wood. Poor thing. She was only a little hurt when it actually happened, the bruise just really made it look like she hurt herself pretty badly. This happened Christmas night.
Christmas afternoon:
December 28th - the bruise
December 29th, looking better, no longer as purple
It is doing a nice job healing and it no longer looks like she has a dirty spot on her cheek we need to clean up.
The Official Tooth Count = 7! Seven teeth! On November 30th the other bottom middle tooth came in, bringing the bottom teeth total to 3. On December 6th I noticed that your top right tooth had broken through, and the other one appeared on the 8th. We were happily marching along when all of a sudden I noticed both of your eyeteeth had broken through on the 16th. There were a few cranky patches, but not enough to make me think more teeth were ripping holes in your gums. I don't see anything happening with your bottom fourth tooth, but I'm sure it could surprise us any day. I bought you a board book on Saturday and by Sunday the spine had been chewed up in three places. Neither I nor your Daddy noticed you were doing such damage. But apparently, nothing is safe! Your new teething toy is a carrot stick that you will carry around all afternoon.
Ha ha! Last night was terrible, and I am pretty sure I see that bottom fourth tooth peeking out of your gums. Momma was wrong! But only time will tell!
You truly got the hang of walking on December 14th. It was like one minute you couldn't walk alone, and the next you had given up crawling for good. The first day you "got it":
And you've only gotten better. What is hilarious is when you try to "run" from us and your little legs are going fast, but your upper body isn't going as fast. There are times when your two halves just don't match up, but you keep going anyway. Not much slows you down. On the 17th of December you were in the middle of the family room and you stood up without pulling yourself up on something! You got yourself into a tripod with one arm on the ground and then you managed to find your balance enough to straighten up. It hasn't happened since but I was pretty amazed when you did it.
Your new thing when eating is to wait until we get the spoon somewhat close to your mouth and then use both your arms to waive us off. Like you are on board an air craft carrier and you are telling us we can't land at the last minute. Those arms are crisscrossing in front of your face so fast! A lot of the time you are shaking your head "no" along with the arms. You can imagine the mess it makes if we aren't quicker than you. Baby food is going away, by your decree. Now if only you'd decide you want table food, we'd be all set. The nurse at the doctor's office said that sometimes when babies get teeth they get more interested in eating. I've seen some truth to that. Actually being able to break things off with those teeth gives you great pleasure, so I am hoping that trend continues. Green beans, cheese, crackers, Cheerios, yogurt, waffles...that is about the extent of your non-baby food diet.
The brace has been off and on lately. I think it has a lot to do with the teeth, but we are not doing as well as we did the last 3 months. We go back in February, so hopefully we'll have a few more long stretches where it can do some good. Because, gosh darn it, we are TIRED of it!
The list words that you understand is just growing everyday. I can ask you to get your water cup and you will, or give me the clam and you will go find it and bring it to me. You point to the Christmas Tree and I have to say "Christmas tree" and then you point to the smaller one and I have to do the same, and then you point to Santa, and I have to say "Santa" and then we wave to Santa. I put up a wreath during your nap today and now we have added "wreath" to the routine. I have heard something that could be "tree" come from you a few times. Things need to be named in order for you to be satisfied. I spend most of my day saying the names of things that you point to. My favorite "trick" that you do is to raise either both or one arm above your head when you hear an airplane. And then of course, I need to say "airplane" so that you know you are correct.
Naps are still fairly consistent. Down about 2 1/2 to 3 hours after you get up in the morning and then again around 3 or 3:30. Once you start waking up around 5 in the evening I go around the house and turn on all the Christmas lights so that they can be on when I go get you. But really, the most important thing to do after you wake up from a nap is to "pick flowers". You take the flower pictures down off your wall and we carry them into the hallway where the photos of the family are. We put them on top of various pictures, trading them for the ones that are already there and spend about 5 minutes swapping out flowers. Sometimes we end up with only 1 or 2 of the 12 flower squares actually still in your room. That's when we have to do a replant.
December 2, 2008
December 6, 2008 - Cutting down our own Christmas Tree!
December 6, 2008
December 8, 2008 - Handing me laundry to fold piece by piece
December -9, 2008 - Climbing in or on anything!
December 16, 2008 - Peek a boo!
December 21, 2008
December 21, 2008
Retrospective perspective:
December 23, 2007, Celebrating Grandpa Hughes' Birthday
December 23, 2007 - Pregnant - 36 Weeks, 2 Days
December 22, 2006, Celebrating Grandpa Hughes' Birthday
December 22, 2005, Daddy doing a puzzle at Gram and Grandpa's House
We are looking forward to our first Christmas with you in three days.
Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything's right I said hey, I put some new shoes on and everyone's smiling, its so inviting oh, short on money but long on time slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine and I'm running late and I don't need an excuse coz I'm wearing my brand new shoes
After months of fighting with Autumn to keep socks on, I tried shoes. When I bought these last month I didn't think they would work. And when I looked at them on Monday I didn't think they would work. And when I was shoving her adorable little feet into them this afternoon I didn't think they would work. But they did. She spent the first 20 min standing in front of the couch trying to slip out of them or kick them off. Once we were in the car she tugged on them a little bit, and all through Target she left them alone. Until we were just about to check out when she started pulling at them. I took them off her at that point, because after successfully wearing them for 2 hours, I figured that was a good breaking in period.
We waited to cut her bangs until we went up to Gram and Grandpa's because I was too scared to cut it myself. The hair had begun to get stuck in her eyelids it was so long, so I knew we needed to do it soon.
Here is the Before picture:
Here are a few During pictures:
You can see the kind of death-defying circumstances Gram had to work with, what with the sharp, sharp scissors and the baby swinging metal measuring cups about.
And here is the After picture:
And here is my tired, tired Pumpkin at her first Thanksgiving meal. She lasted through an olive slice, a small piece of a roll and a taste of mashed potatoes before I had to put her down for her nap.
Later that night she enjoyed a few tastes of pumpkin pie, so all was not lost!
Teeth! We have teeth! And the process hasn't been as bad as I thought it was going to be. You have your lower left middle tooth which appeared on November 4th and you have your lower right lateral incisor (not the other middle tooth, but the one on the other side of that tooth) which came in on November 17th. Yay! You did it! I can also see where the gum is thinning around one of your top middle teeth.
You took your first solo steps on November 16th. You did it about 5 separate times throughout the day. It is mostly when you aren't thinking about it that you do it. The first time you were standing there for a few seconds and then you thought about where you wanted to go and I could see the wheels turning on how to get there. You struggled for a few seconds trying to get your hip up so that you could move your leg, but it wasn't quite working for you. Then you figured out that if you bent your knee slightly you could release that leg from being locked. And off you went! Well, it was about 3 steps, with your arms up in the air and a huge smile on your face. After that initial hurdle, the starting out was much easier. Though you still only take about 3 steps before gravity and momentum drag you down. Your Daddy and I just look at each other in amazement. I still haven't been able to catch it on film because as soon as you see the camera you want it and the fastest way to it is to crawl. You seem to do better if you are standing somewhere for a few seconds where you really get your balance, then when you start walking you aren't so wobbly. So far, this is the best I can do:
Car rides have been okay lately. Your favorite thing to do is throw all your toys out of your car seat. I do my best to teach you that once you throw them out they are gone, but sometimes I just can't take the unhappy noises coming from back there and reach back and give you another toy. Two more months and you can face forward! I've already ordered the new car seat!
The Crusher is still alive and well. Besides Cheerios, there isn't anything that you consistently will put in your mouth. Green beans, maybe, but probably not. Pieces of cheese, sure, a few. Bread? Okay, you'll eat bread (you are your mother's daughter!). Waffles? Nah, they mostly end up on the floor these days. You like yogurt, so that's good. We try feeding you at restaurants but everything is just too exciting for you to concentrate on eating. How silly of us!
Unfortunately you still have to wear the brace. The doctor said there has been a lot of improvement, but it isn't quite "perfect" yet. And he'd rather you be perfect. So we have another appointment in February. The past week or so hasn't been the best when it comes to sleeping in the brace. I hope it's due to the teething and once a few more teeth pop through you will calm down. We'll see!
You had your first Halloween! You were a candy corn, and while some people who saw you didn't quite get it, most people did! Daddy and I carved our three pumpkins, but we didn't take you trick or treating.
You had your first playgroup experience this month as well! There were about 8 other kids there, but you seemed to gravitate towards Ava, Phoebe and Laura. Watching you interact was pretty cool. You were not happy when Ava used her foot to push you out of the way, but other than that you were a very happy baby.
On the 23rd of October you started saying "da-da". It was "da-da" for everything. At one point you pointed to a picture of Daddy and said it, but I think it was just a coincidence. You say something like "thit-cat" when you see a cat or a picture of one. If I say "Buddy" to Luke, you will say "Bwah".
You LOVE "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", as you can see here. We can't sing it enough times. The Nursery Rhymes book Gram got is an all time favorite. I can't tell you how many times your Daddy and I have sung you "The Wheels on the Bus", "Old MacDonald", "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", and "The Hokey Pokey" over and over and over in the same sitting. Tonight you even started shaking a hand all about!
Naps are going fairly well. Although the last few days you've thrown some one hour naps in the mix. Seriously, kiddo, Momma needs at least an hour and a half, if not two! You go down around 10:30 and then again around 3.
It is 10:30 on the night of the 22nd, so I'd better wrap this up. Next month will be three days before Christmas! Can't wait! On to the pictures!
October 23, 2008
October 24, 2008
October 25, 2008
October 31, 2008
November 2, 2008
November 14, 2008
I always feel that somebody's watchin' me!
We have these three monarch butterflies hanging from the pull chain on the fan in the family room. They are hand painted on feathers and really look realistic. When Gram was here she brought you a book that had these pictures of animals (penguin, whale, lion, tiger, etc). When Gram got to the page with a butterfly on it, the first time it was read to you, you looked at it, looked at Gram, and then looked up and pointed to the butterflies on the chain. You made that connection all on your own! And the butterfly in the book was white, not orange! Gram and I both looked at each other with our mouths open.
Now, whenever we say “butterfly” you look up and point (you don’t always get your orientation right the first time, but you look around until you find them) even if we aren't even in the family room! So you were pretty happy when those daisies started blooming out back and the butterflies arrived. We can just stand outside watching them and you track them from plant to plant. Right now I am teaching you about airplanes because you always manage to see them in the sky and point.
November 14, 2008
November 16, 2008
November 18, 2008
Retrospective perspective:
November 22, 2007, Thanksgiving (GiGi, Daddy and Grandpa Hughes waiting for some pie!)
We've been trying to get Autumn started on finger foods for a while. We're still giving her formula in a bottle and baby food mush, but we're trying to move past that now. That classic standby Cheerios has worked wonders. At first she had difficulty picking them up and sticking them in her mouth due to lack of hand-eye coordination (once I get her started on video games, we'll fix that...), but now she loves them. Due to the success of Cheerios, we tried to move onto other things like green beans, kidney beans, pieces of bread/waffle/pancake, bits of meat, and unsalted pretzels. We try to give her a lot of green beans. Autumn really likes the green bean baby food so we thought that real green beans would be an easy sell. We're using canned green beans so they're slightly mushy and easy to chew with no teeth.
At first she didn't really know what to do with the beans. She'd just shove them around on the high chair tray. It took a few days but soon she started picking up the beans and ate them! For a few days there she was really packing away the green beans. I thought to myself, "Hah, this feeding stuff is easy!" What I didn't know was the Crusher was lurking, waiting to bring destruction to food everywhere.
She hasn't been eating her finger food much lately. That's because the Crusher is in control. I'll put a bean down on her high chair tray and say, "Autumn, do you want to eat your green bean?" I'm hoping that the Crusher doesn't show up today. She briefly looks at me before looking down at the bean. Her little hand lifts and starts toward the bean. Then the Crusher takes over. Her hand stops and the index finger points. This is the first tool of the Crusher. That finger comes down on top of the bean and crushes it to pieces. No food is safe from the crushing finger! I've even seen her launch a Cheerio off the tray like a tiddlywink.
Even if the food doesn't get smashed by the finger, there's a secondary weapon. Autumn will pick some food, say a chunk of bread. She'll bring it to her mouth, maybe even give it a tentative lick to give you hope that she'll eat it. Then that little fist will pull away from her mouth and crush whatever is there. Crumb of bread will fall, beans will squish, nothing is safe from the grasp of the Crusher! I've even seen her add insult to injury when she drops the entire mess over the edge of the tray onto the floor!
I really hope she outgrows this whole crushing thing sometime soon. With her teeth starting to come in, I'd like to see her start eating more table type food and less mush/liquid type stuff. I know that there's still plenty of time, but I'd rather see her eat less food that comes out of a blender.
You have to admit, if she does decide to have a career as a supervillian or a profession wrestler, she's got a great nickname!
Since Richard and I voted early, we didn't have to go to a polling place. But I decided to dress her up as a patriotic baby who is looking forward to casting her first presidential vote in 2028!
No joke, she's actually teething this time. I promise! I can actually see where the top of the tooth has broken through her gum. I can only see the bottom left one, so I'm not sure if both are coming in or not.
I got a Babybel cheese package for a snack, but gave it to Autumn to carry into the living room. I wasn't able to get it back from her for about 20 minutes because it made the perfect teething toy. She gnawed on that thing and was so happy!
The above present was the culprit in her first major bruising incident. She had a hold of the squiggly wires on top when she fell over and planted her cheek into the edge of the wood. Poor thing. She was only a little hurt when it actually happened, the bruise just really made it look like she hurt herself pretty badly. This happened Christmas night.
Christmas afternoon:
December 29th, looking better, no longer as purple
