Words!

My genius child has been communicating words to me since she was thirteen months old. In the last month she began understanding me well enough to fulfill my requests, get something for me, put something away, select the pink shoes from the shelf, pick up the cheerios off the floor. She even seems to get a modified version of “time-out” that I tried this week, putting her in a chair that faces the wall and counting to 30. She actually stayed in the chair the third time I tried it. I explained what she did was wrong and asked her to say sorry. She looked at me and rubbed her closed hand on her tummy in a circle.

“Sorry,” she signed.

She uses a combination of sign language and one syllable words. My husband and I try to brainstorm all the words she knows, but we lose count. Here is what we can remember:

GENERAL
Dad*
Ball
Mama
Mimi
PawPaw
New
Day
Night
Star
Watch

Please
Sorry

Moon*

Baby

Signing

Time

ANIMALS
Dog*
Frog
Giraffe
Lion
Bear
“z-raffe”
Horse
Bird

CLOTHING
Shoes
Socks
Sleep Clothes
Hat!*

FOOD RELATED
Drink
Food
Juice*
“All Done”*
Finished
Water
Cracker
Milk
More, More, More*

MODES OF TRANSPORT
Bus*
Train
Car

ACTION
Swing
Happy Dance*
Bath
Play

Boobs**

*denotes a particular favorite

Story Provides an Update ...

To my fans,

Story here! And I’m writing my own update this week because my Mom is super busy with job interviews, chasing after me, and wiping my runny nose! I told her, “Mom, people need to know how many times a day I poop.” And she was like, “Story, Mommy only has two hands and right now I need both to pin you to the changing table to keep you from rolling around in said poop.”

I told her, “That is what toes are for.”

Well, she didn’t think that was very helpful, so I pulled up my iPad and got to typing. Let me give you the headlines: Mobility, Food, Poop, Sleep.

Mobility
The big news around the house is that two weeks ago I started crawling. Had I known the attention it would garner, the “oohs and ahhs”, I would have started it months ago. Seriously. My parents went nuts. Then three days ago, I decided to just stand straight up and hold my stance for a five second count. I thought my Mother was going to pass out right there in front of me. She gasped and cooed and followed me around the house with a video camera for the rest of the day.

Here are my top ten observations since crawling, cruising and standing upright:

1. Must my Mother follow me everywhere?
2. The view from 2’5” off the ground is spectacular.
3. Since learning to pull up and cruise, I noticed my parents have a lovely white couch stretched like a blank canvas across one entire side of the room.
4. My parents recently bought a cage and they throw puffs on the ground to entice me to crawl into it.
5. All of the chairs in our house are great teething elements, I especially enjoy the walnut finish.
6. Electrical cords are pretty much the tastiest things ever, I recommend you get the entire cord and plug into your mouth to really appreciate the sweet taste of copper wiring.
7. My parents have a lot of books, magazines, printer paper, newspapers and other munchies just lying around the house.
8. I’ve noticed a direct correlation between my increased mobility and the number of times my Father says, “No”.
9. There are so many rooms in this place! Who knew?
10. Did you know there was a little round sink in the bathroom just for kids?

I’m holding out on the walking thing until I milk this crawling/standing bit for all it’s worth. I figure if I pull out the big guns around Christmas then I’m getting all sort of new toys.

Food
Mom has me eating a bottle every four hours along with a breakfast, lunch and dinner of solid foods. Sometimes I just feel like I am eating non-stop. I mean, I wake up, I breastfeed and just two hours later I’m eating rice cereal, fruit, and toast. Two hours later I’m drinking a bottle, taking a nap, waking up and then, you guessed it, I’m eating again!! Lunch is rice cereal and vegetable puree and maybe some cheese. Well, I’m stuffed like a turkey on Thanksgiving by the time I get through the afternoon bottle and dinner. But Mom still feels the need to pop a boob in my mouth right before I go to sleep. I think the woman is trying to fatten me up so I fit in the 18 mos. sized clothes. Sometimes I try to trick her by taking my food out of the bowl and spreading it all over my high chair tray so it looks like I ate more. But she is relentless; she scoops it right off the tray and into my mouth. And don’t get me started with the songs she sings to try and get me to eat. It’s embarrassing. But it works! I just want her to shut up so I slurp it down as fast as I can. The only up side of this entire food experience is the puffs.

I love puffs. Puffs are these heavenly fluffy little star-shaped cereal bits that melt right in my mouth. I could eat them all day. And I do. You see, I hide them all over the house so whenever I want a snack I can just crawl right over to one of my hiding spots and pop one in my mouth. Favorite hiding spots include, but are not limited to, the following: Behind the door to my bedroom, under the couch, squeezed between the floor pillows, tucked into Mommy’s brassiere, pushed up under my car sear, in the sugar bowl, in the creamer, along the bottom of the fridge, in Daddy’s slipper.

Sometimes I find other things in these hiding spots. For example, today I was searching for puffs and found something special that I wedged in my cheek and managed to hide for around six hours until my Mother discovered it half way through swim class. I had just popped up from a dunk under the water when I thought it would be a good time to sneak a chew, but Mom gave me a puzzled look, stuck her finger inside my mouth and removed the fibrous end of a green onion I had been savoring since breakfast. She can be a real kill-joy.

Poop
Most of my fans know that I struggled with solid waste for a while. Well not any more. In fact, I’m pretty regular now. Mom even suggested to me that I slow down with the nasty output, but I can’t help myself. I mean, with all the food that woman crams down my throat it’s only natural that I poop three to five times a day. She acts like it’s all strange that I poop like a normal kid, reading the ingredients off my baby food, consulting blogs and taking my temperature all the time. I just want to shake her and say, Look, lady, it’s NORMAL. But the truth is that my Mom can just be a little paranoid sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I love her like crazy and can’t get enough of her soft lady lumps, but she worries about every little thing. Just the other day I was eating her parking ticket and it got lodged in my throat so I threw up like ten times in a row until I was sitting in a pool of creamy spew and my Mom just freaked. She pulled out the parking ticket, wrapped me in a blanket, plopped me down in the kitchen sink and started calling people on the phone. Really Mom, is this so traumatic that we have to use the kitchen sink? I’m bathed in the essence of breakfast and lunch, must I also be bathed in dish soap?

Sleep
All my Mother’s friends ask her if I sleep at night. Which got me thinking, what happens at night that all the Moms are trying to keep to themselves? Is there a Mom party at 2:00 AM? Does she serve banana pancakes topless at 3:00 AM? Do Grandma and Grandpa come over at 4:00 AM with a pile of gifts? I decided to launch my own investigation, waking up at various intervals to try and catch the adults off guard. I noticed it takes them at least five minutes to come and collect me from my bedroom. What are they hiding in those five minutes?

When I wake up at 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning, I need someone to come and get me so I can investigate the perimeter. If I just lay there and ask nicely for them to please come in and pick me up, they don’t even have the courtesy to come to my door. So I’ve learned that the only real way to get them to show some respect is if I scream with every ounce of energy I’ve got, turn purple and act like I’m throwing up. Mom is a complete sucker for this and will almost always come running, scoop me out of the bed, rip down her shirt and stuff her boob in my mouth. If I’m lucky, I can get her to walk me around the house to check things out. Dad on the other hand, takes a lot more energy. Whenever I realize it’s his shift, I just have to do a little cost/benefit analysis because chances are I’ll cry for twenty minutes before he comes in the room. It will take me another ten to get him to reach into the crib and touch me and then it will take a good fifteen more minutes before he finally wakes up my Mom who just comes in and puts her boob in my mouth. Sometimes it’s just not worth it and if my wails bring Dad I may just roll over and go back to sleep until I know Mom’s on deck. Annoying!

Mobility, Food, Poop, Sleep - those are the big headlines over here. A lot has been happening the last few weeks as we approach the holiday season. I've left out all the little stuff about how I smile all the time, give kisses, wave hello and make the sign for milk. To all you babies out there, save some big stuff for the Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas holidays, it’s sure to mean more candy, more turkey, and more gifts. I’m gearing up for some big stuff this week that my Mom can show-off about with her M.O.P.S. group, ‘Mommy and Me’ sign and song class, swim lesson circle, UCLA wives clique and urban sewing club. I plan to use my new tricks to gather chocolate for Daddy on Halloween. I figure I can find a way to get the chocolate to make him pick me up at night. Stay tuned for a Halloween update with some pictures of a surely ridiculous get-up that my parents will make me wear.

To my fans – Keep it real. I love you all. Nigh Nigh.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Hello world!! Today, I am five months old!

I thought I was five months old when I was twenty weeks, but Mom says that’s not the way it works and from now on we are counting month to month. So since February only had 28 days this year I am only just now turning five months old (even though I’m twenty-one weeks and four days old!). Mom says not to make a big deal of it – it works out in the long run and lets her tell people I am developmentally advanced for my age. It has been sort of a big month for me.

The Move
The day after my Auntie Elizabeth and Uncle Kevin got married, my parents packed up all my toys and clothes and stuff and Mom took me on my very first ever plane ride. Mom seemed real nervous about things, but I slept through most the ride. She was really uptight for the next few days and I had to wait ten whole days to see Daddy again. I thought once she saw Daddy she would chill out a little bit, but she just complained that he took up too much room in the bed. I could feel the tension, so for that first week, I woke up every few hours to make sure they were doing okay and had someone to talk to.

I think it helped because they seem much happier now and I don’t need to wake up so often to check on them. Mom has me sleeping in my own little room that she calls ‘the closet’. It’s super cool and dark and I have my very own night light. I got to meet my Papa for the first time and see my Ina again. They love me! Ina is always making lots of funny noises and sounds and smiling at me. Papa like to take naps with me and somehow he always makes me feel safe.

Mom says we are only here for a little while before we move to our new home in Los Angeles. She says I am going to love LA because it’s sunny all the time and there will be lots of other kids to play with. Don’t tell her, but I miss our home in Philly, our daily walk and going to the Park every day. I think Mommy misses Philly too. She got a little emotional when she saw Philly Cheesesteaks on the menu at Jake’s. Moving wasn’t my choice, but I can see that it makes Mommy and Daddy pretty excited about our future. And Daddy says that Home is wherever we are all together. So I’m excited about our new home too. I hope we can bring Papa and Ina with us when we move to the next place. They are really fun to play with, Papa cooks dinner for Mommy and Daddy and Ina takes me shopping all the time!

Toys
Ina took me shopping right the day after we got off the plane. She and Mommy bought me all kinds of strange things to play with that I had never seen before. Thank goodness! Boy was I getting bored of staring at Mommy as my main form of entertainment. I love the noisemakers and the jumper-thingy is awesome. I could spend all day in that jumper-thingy. It plays music and let’s me sit up like a big girl and watch Mommy making dinner with Papa. It makes Ina do some crazy things, like yell in a high-pitched voice, “Boing, Boing, Boing, Boing little Geraldine McBoingboing.”

My least favorite toy is the Bumbo. Mommy brought it home from Target and I tried to tell her I was too big for it but she crammed me into it anyways. When I stood up, the Bumbo was stuck to my butt and I had to have my thighs pulled out of it. I am now 18 pounds, can sit up all by myself and stand with support, so Mom – too big for the Bumbo. Told you so.

I love all my new books, toys, jumpy-things and noise makers, but my favorite toys of all are my toes. I could talk to them for hours, they taste delicious and I never have to ask Mom where she put them. My piggies are spectacular.

Sir Poops-a-Lot
I poop more now. I know my Mom would want you to know. Maybe the plane ride jostled things around a bit. Mom thinks it’s because she is now feeding me solid foods. That’s right! I eat big people food now. Well, I haven’t actually ever seen a big person eating the food from those little jars, but I see them eat with a spoon and now I eat with a spoon too! I like sweet potatoes, green beans and sweet peas. I don’t like carrots. I scream when they try to feed me carrots. Mom just doesn't understand my issues with texture or the way they turn my fingers orange. I just don’t like them.

I get to eat with a spoon twice a day and I try to keep it fun by banging on the table and making raspberries when my Mom least expects it. Mom makes the best face when I spit peas at her, it's classic. Tonight, I showed Papa how I didn’t even need Mommy to feed me. I could just pick up the bowl and put my face in it and then throw it on the floor. I think he was very impressed because he got down on his hands and knees with a towel to wipe away the tears of laughter.

Mommy and I went to Target and picked up a few new flavors for this week. She wants to make it fresh for me – but I just think that’s crazy when we can just buy up a variety pack at Target and I can eat Pears and Prunes and Apples, something different every night. I hope she doesn’t try making me dinner the way she makes it for Daddy. Because then she might want me to start doing dishes and I hate dishes.

Lullaby and Goodnight
Mom would want me to report that I no longer sleep with a swaddle. I made it as tough as possible for Mom to break me of the habit, but she finally did it. No more sleeping in a straight jacket and strangely, I now just go to sleep when Mom puts me in the bed. Of course, I whine a little, but Mommy just puts her hand on my tummy and looks at me until I fall asleep. I wake up once at 3:30 AM to check on Mom, but she seems to be okay, so I might just start sleeping through until my alarm goes off at 8:00 AM.

Night time is my favorite part of the day because Mom feeds me sooooo much. She starts at 6:00 PM with the green beans and then at 7 PM with a bottle and then we take a bath together and she lets me breastfeed while she reads me a story. Then we listen to music together and I doze off around 8:00 PM. She tells me, “Shhh, shhhh, shhhh, go to sleep now Ms. Story. Sleep makes you feel good. You are going to feel so fresh and happy when you wake up in the morning for another day full of adventures.”

I take two naps for about 1.5 hours. Sometimes longer. Mom or Dad lays me down around 10:00 AM and then again at 2:00 PM. Unless there is the World Cup or a boating trip or something else more exciting going on. Then I get to sleep on Daddy’s shoulder or in my stroller. Or in my favorite spot, inside the Ergo baby. Here I can hear my Mommy’s heartbeat and she rubs my toes and kisses the top of my head and whispers sweet things in my ear.

Today she whispered, “Happy Birthday little Story. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you. We love you so much. You are going to have a very special day.”

And she was right. Today I woke up and went for a walk on the beach with Mommy, took a nap, watched the world cup with Dad, ate peas, took another nap, opened gifts from the big party, ate green beans with Papa and Ina and spent an hour in the jumpy. Mommy took a bath with me and made up a different voice for everyone of my new bath tub squirters. So the Nederlands lost the World Cup. It was still a good day. And every day I spend with Mommy and Daddy is special.

So, Happy Birthday to me on this very special day! And go Nederlands!

Love - Story Brynne