Communication

(from Ro)

Radha's latest development spurt has definitely been all about communication. She's starting to talk, and also her non-verbal communication is coming along nicely. She's always been pretty focused on mental things more than physical, often preferring books over toys. Here's a snapshot of where she's at:

Words: Mama, Dada, cat, cheese, Baba (for her Grandpa), bath, lots of attempts to repeat what we're saying

Signing: "More", "Eat", and gesturing along to songs like Ittsy Bittsy Spider and 5 Little Monkeys

Body Parts she knows: Head, hair, fingers, toes, arms, eyes, ears, mouth, nose

Singing: Twinkle twinkle, 5 Little Monkeys

Animals she recognizes: Duck, dog, cat, cow, pig, sheep, snake, frog, fish, monkey

There's plenty more I'm forgetting!

"Cheese!"

Little Drummer Girl

Little Drummer Girl
Originally uploaded by MookieLuv

Happy New Year!

Although it's a couple weeks late, Radha wanted to ring in the New Year with a catchy beat. This drum and her little egg shaker instruments were definitely her favorite gifts from Santa. Both are sure to bring lots of fun and noise mayhem to our household for years to come.

Note the boogie dancing she does.

Next week Radha turns 9 months old. We've been hearing a lot from friends how "grown up" she's looking these days. It'll be interesting to get her stats from the doctor next week to see just how much she's grown.

Xmas Jedi

DSCF4230
Originally uploaded by MookieLuv

(from Ro)  The weather outside has been frightful over this last week. We've been inside most of the time, trying to find new ways to entertain ourselves and Radha.  We noticed her looking at our tree topper, so I decided to put my puppetry skills into action.  I think Radha has a new best friend.

Baby Mayhem

(from Terri)

I finally hosted my playgroup of moms and babies last week.  It was the first time I had hosted this particular group; the first time we had planned to do this, Radha got sick.

We had 8 babies and moms altogether in our living room.  As you can imagine it's difficult to get all babies in one picture, so not everyone was captured here!

When we tried to put everyone on the couch for a group shot, all hell broke loose!  This seems to be the case with the group baby pictures.  The crying seems to always be contagious.  Radha tried to take her friend Molly's toy, various babies pulling hair, trying to eat body parts of other babies, etc.  Pure mayhem!  

Should I feel bad that I was laughing at bit at the chaos?  (I wasn't the only mom laughing, by the way!)  And boy, did we need to do a thorough cleaning of Radha's toys after this playgroup.

Exersaucing

Now that Radha has her head control she's been able to spend a lot of playtime in her "exersaucer".   

We were fortunate enough to get this item gently used from one of Ro's co-workers.   It's been especially nice to have a structure that supports her while she plays because she outgrew her bouncer chair last month. (The amount of clothes she has outgrown already is pretty staggering!)

Can you see the drool coming from her mouth in that picture?  Clearly, she's working really hard at spinning those colored cylinders...it takes a lot of focus and attention!  She likes the cylinders (which each make a different sound when spun) and the sun rattle the best.

Friends, Human and Inanimate

(from Terri)

Now that we're feeling a bit more comfortable getting out and about with Radha, we've been getting together with friends more these days.  We've been especially eager to meet up with other parents and hoping to build a circle of potential playmates for Radha, as well as develop her social skills.

My friend Robin and her lovely daughter Claire stopped by one afternoon this week.  Robin was so nice to bring gifts, including a cool wooden rattle and a summer dress outfit for Radha but also all the fixings for huevos rancheros for Ro and I.  How awesome is that?  (She had no idea that huevos is one of Ro's favorite breakfast dishes).  We already made an dinner out of them one night and it was heavenly.

Claire is a little older than a year, so while she's in a totally different developmental stage than Radha obviously, it was fun for Radha to "share" some of her toys with Claire.  We got this barnyard toy from Ro's co-workers.  We hadn't really pulled it out until this last week, but boy does it have a bunch of bells and whistles!  Radha loves the noises the animals make and it also plays a few songs when you spin the wheel on top.  I think Radha was a bit confused and wondering who this other cute girl was in the house though!

Speaking of friends, Radha and I went to our second "new moms group" on Friday, which includes a wide range of babies from a few weeks up to six months.  One little girl "graduated" from the group this Friday.  It's pretty crazy being in a big room full of moms and babies...I think there may have been around 15 or so moms and babies this week!  the connecting and relating with other moms with little ones around the same age is really comforting and reaffirming, plus it's cool to be in a space where you can not be phased by your child fussing, crying or feel awkward about nursing or changing diapers in front of strangers.  Some moms have organized some playgroups and we're looking forward to participating in those in the next little while, including meeting up with my friend Liz and her adorable daughter Fiona (who was born just a few days before Radha.)