Easter
Yesterday we celebrated Easter Sunday at our place. After attending church services in the morning we took some pictures in the yard and then ate lunch. It was a beautiful day. I took Megan behind our house to see our neighbor's horses and I'm practically sure that she said "dog.....dog." She is on the verge of uttering words. Surprisingly, her first words don't appear to be "Mommy" or "Daddy" (and sadly not "Granpa") but "bird" (when she hears one outside) "Key" (for kitty) and "bye" as she waves bye-bye. She also makes a kissing sound to imitate us when we blow her a kiss.
Crawling - Update
Well, I haven't been as faithful to update my blog as I initially intended. But we have seen a lot of Megan during the past month and it has been great! She indeed is crawling and doing it quite well. She also is pulling up, which makes everything from 0-3 feet high accessible. In addition to the added mobility, her dexterity also is improving. She loves to throw things. It’s interesting (and comical) to see her amidst her pile of toys just prior to an excursion. She begins by getting on her hands and knees, then throwing everything out of her way until she clears a path.
Megan’s personality is also developing at a rapid rate. She loves to entertain and is beginning to mock actions like waving bye-bye, making kissing sounds, and blowing raspberries. Of course she has a willing and approving audience. The positive feedback likely reinforces her activities. Negative reinforcement for undesirable activities (like throwing food) isn’t working as well. So far, she just gets a no-no. I’m not looking forward to the evolution of punitive action (like time-outs) but that’s where being a grandparent fits in nicely. We’ll let Matt and Laura fulfill those responsibilities.
I’m convinced that she thinks that she is talking. She just hasn’t gotten the idea yet that words are supposed to
mean something. She joins in conversation with all kinds of noises that sound like words, and says them with meaning. Sometimes she goes to “preaching” by waving her arms and vocalizing forcefully. When she “talks” to the kitty she does so in a high-pitched loving way. If we sing to her, she sings back in an undeniably sing-song tone.
One thing that Megan lags behind in is hair. I went back and looked at the 9-month photos of the baby-blogger that I’ve been following. That little lady had a full head of hair at Megan’s age. Megan is still bald (So was her mother at her age – Maybe it’s genetic).
With Megan’s new mobility I’ve been taking a lot of video but few still images, so I don’t have much to post here. I need to get busy and reinitiate my efforts at posting streaming video. I have developed a couple of DVD’s, the most recent of which was mailed to both great-grandmothers today.
