Author: Jessica Dickerson

Heather has been so busy these last weeks! Our little girl is growing and learning like nobody’s business. Here are some notes:

• She is totally mobile now. It’s not crawling, but I don’t know what to call it, exactly. It’s an inchworm sort of thing. See for yourself:

  She doesn’t normally fuss while she’s doing it, but I’d been trying to get her to scoot for 5 minutes, and she was a li’l bit grumpy. This video (and all the following pictures) was taken 5 days ago, and she’s already much more coordinated at it. When she has a goal (see #9), she can really book it! Along the same lines, she can pivot really easily, and it’s pretty fun to see her turn in your direction and start coming for you.

• Heather’s doing a lot of exploring these days. She spends her time basically figuring out different ways to interact with the world, and it’s way fun to watch. She looks around a lot, and once something’s within reach, she’s turning it and twisting it and eating it and experimenting with it.
  
• Going along with that, her fine motor skills are really developing. She’ll often stop and stare at her hands as she bends and twists her fingers, and she’s getting really good at manipulating smaller things. She can get her binky into her mouth now with no problems, and it’s one of her favorite toys.
• She can sit pretty well now, though I don’t ever leave her when she’s sitting because she’ll reach for something off to the side and topple right over.
  
• Heather loves buttons. On shirts, pants, whatever. She can’t get enough of touching them.
• She laughs. Well, chuckles. She can also click her tongue, which she’s very proud of. It’s pretty funny, but I haven’t caught it on video yet. Sorry.
  
• We had to lower the crib for the first time on Saturday because she was grabbing the top of the side and trying to pull herself up. (She can’t pull to a stand yet, but she’s pulled up onto her knees several times, and it makes her look like such a big girl!)
• I think she’s a bit shy. When other people are around, she’s much more reserved than when it’s just Kyle and me. Not so animated, not so vocal. Who would’ve guessed, right?
  
• She’s developed a fascination with electrical cords and the bookshelf. I’m trying to teach her “no,” but it’s a slow process. 🙂
• Heather can now bang objects together. Well, not really together, I guess. But she loves to stand in her exersaucer and smack everything with her links. Even when I read to her, she’ll sometimes hit the book with her binky, which is apparently hilarious. (Also hilarious: closing books. You can’t usually turn more than a page or two before she’s closing the book again.)
  
• Speaking of the exersaucer, she now understands that when she drops things over the side, they go down to the floor, and she’ll contort herself trying to see them.
• Along with the object permanence she’s developing, though, we’re getting a bit of separation anxiety, I think. Personally, I don’t understand why thinking that I don’t exist when she can’t see me is better than knowing I’m just elsewhere, but I hear that’s how it works. Anyway, I can’t hide on the nursery floor to see if she’s really going to go to sleep anymore because she pulls the bumper down to look for me. And she was completely traumatized when I took a shower this morning. Good times.
• Heather loves Henrietta. Kyle does the pre-bedtime storytime every night, and when I bring her Henrietta, she reaches out for her and snuggles into her. Sometimes she laughs. Cutest thing ever.
  

We sure love our little bug!

Heather turned 6 months old on April 28th. Overall, I would say that things are getting much better. She’s less cranky during the day and she’s sleeping better. We even have a schedule! (Yes, I am ridiculously pleased by this. My life once more has order and predictability! Huzzay!) Our typical day goes roughly like this:

Between 6 and 7am—wake up
7am—nurse
8:30am—feed cereal (barley or oatmeal mixed with prune juice and applesauce)
9-10am—nap
10:30am—nurse
12:45pm—nurse (I’m thinking about changing this to another feeding of solids at some point)
1-2pm—nap
3pm—nurse
4:30pm—feed some variety of fruit/vegetable (squash, sweet potato, pears, peas)
4:45pm—bath (if it’s a bath day)
5:15pm—nurse
5:30pm—storytime with Daddy (I read to her before her naps, too)
6pm—bedtime
Between 2 and 3 am—nurse (as of this last week, this feeding is going away)

All the in-between times are filled, of course, with playing and such. We usually make a circuit between the playmat, the exersaucer thingie, the bouncer, the floor with toys, and sometimes the high chair with toys. Sometimes she’ll play by herself, but she really prefers to have me or Kyle hanging out right there with her. I usually take her on a walk in the afternoon, but it’s been really hot…we’ll see how that goes this summer.

Heather is getting to be a lot of fun and growing her own personality. Sometimes she’ll be very serious, and look around with her brow furrowed, as if she’s not sure her surroundings are quite up to snuff. But then she’ll break out into a huge smile, start throwing her hands around, and make the goofiest noises. Here’s some info about her:

Nicknames: Bug, Drgn, Goober, Bug-a-boo, Bug-a-bug,
Squirmington, Lady Heatherington Fusspants
Favorite Books (she LOVES storytime!): Snuggle Puppy, Babes of the Wild, Stanley & Rhoda
Favorite Songs: “Baby Mine,” “Slippery Fish” (or anything with hand actions), “Hard Scrabble Harvest”
Favorite Toys: Taggies blanket, an empty vitamin bottle (she chews on the dropper squeezer part, and I put some rice in it so it rattles a bit), links, pacifier (she’s getting pretty good at getting it into her mouth properly, but then she often pulls it back out and starts over again)
Favorite Activities: playing on the bathroom counter, going for walks (either in her stroller or the carrier, which she has just started to love)

Heather had her 6-month checkup on the 30th, and she’s doing great! She weighed in at 13.5 lbs, putting her up in the 9th percentile. This made me extremely happy. Guess those solids are really helping!

Heather really likes to be outside. All of these pictures (except the first one) were taken at a little park area across the street. She enjoys laying on the blanket and watching the treetops, but she also loves to watch the cars go by. So if she gets cranky, I will often take her for a walk. The change of scenery usually calms her right down.

She’s currently working on two major skills: sitting and crawling! She can sit, but somebody/thing has to support her so she doesn’t tip over. And she’s getting better and better at pulling her knees up under her (preparatory to crawling). So far, though, she just rocks; she hasn’t made any attempt to move from that position yet. But I bet it won’t be long!

And yes, she likes to put her fingers in my mouth. Best game in the world.

1. Heather slept through the night last night. As in, I put her down at 6pm last night as usual and she didn’t get up until 6:15am! Kyle went in at one point to check on her and moved her binky (which she had spit out) up to where she could easily find it, and that was all the intervention she required for 12 hours! She usually cries for her binky a few times a night and gets up to eat once. It was awesome.
2. After I fed her at 6:30am, I wanted her to go back to sleep (though I didn’t think she would), so I started bouncing her, but then she got the hiccups, so I knew she wasn’t going back to sleep. I put her down in her crib, turned her mobile on, and let her play. After a while, I realized she hadn’t made any noise in a few minutes, so I went in and she was asleep. She has NEVER fallen asleep in her crib on her own. This was a little early for her usual morning nap (7:40am instead of 9am), but I wasn’t complaining. (I think she’d been awake for a long time before she started making noise at 6:15am.) And she slept for a whole hour!
3. I brought Heather home from church after sacrament meeting to put her down for her nap, but she fell asleep in the car. I knew she was tired, but she hasn’t slept in the car in months (or anywhere other than her crib, for that matter—that’s why we went home early), so I didn’t try to keep her awake on the way home. But I managed to get her into the house still asleep, so I just put her carseat down in the nursery and let her sleep. She had another good hour-long nap! (The true significance of this item will be shown later.)
4. This afternoon, the three of us went across the street to the park and hung out in the shade for a while. Kyle and I wanted to walk downtown to walk through the Wine Country Festival going on, but the sun was too hot for me. I went home while Kyle took Heather downtown, and they were gone for about 40 minutes. That’s 40 minutes I was home alone, with no baby!
5. Once again, as I started to put Heather to bed tonight, she got the hiccups, so I just put her down in her crib to play until they went away. A few minutes later, I went in and she was asleep. Sweet!