Taking a Stroll

Caterpillar Girl's new cart from Mommy and Daddy is a big hit. It is impressive to see her walking along the sidewalk, collecting bits of nature. When Mommy got tired, she wanted to keep going...our little bundle of energy.

First Christmas

In a word "amazing"

We had an early Christmas with Ahma before she went out of town,

and then brunch with the rest of the local family.

Caterpillar Girl ripped at paper and played with the wonderful gifts from our generous family and friends. She truly enjoyed all the new toys to grab and squeeze and shove into her mouth.

A few more images of the day...

Daddy entertains with puppets. She really loves it when the puppets sing to her like the puppy from Aunt Melissa.

Caterpillar Girl tears at wrapping paper.

This one tastes delicious.

It is fun to play with Granddad.

Winter Wonderland

Here in Florida, our white Christmas takes a unique form. At the local Winter Wonderland, "snow" was being pumped into the air. The snow bubbles were pumped through industrial fans over crowds. Caterpillar Girl was utterly fascinated with the floating flakes, reaching out to capture them in her tiny hands.

The evening also brought other firsts: bagpipes, a horse-drawn carriage, a child-sized train, and a helium balloon. . .

These days her delight is apparent by babbling and shrieks, consonants and vowels thrown together in singsong fashion, punctuated by giggles. Then she throws her arms up and out as if she wants to squeeze whatever it is in a big hug. The world through her eyes is brilliant and new, and she can't get enough.

Sweet Mornings

Usually Caterpillar Girl wakes up first. She crawls on top of Mommy (and Daddy when he's not already up for work), shouts and giggles at the cats, pats our faces, and babbles until Mommy gets up and carries her into a brand new day. It is a wonderful way to wake up. This morning, though, she slept on after Mommy woke up. After a few chores and checking on Caterpillar Girl, Mommy settled into some Cheerios and tea. (Caterpillar Girl eats less than 20 Cheerios in a day so the box would get stale if Mommy didn't eat them too!) Soon she heard a low noise, certainly not a cry. Heading back to the bedroom, she find Caterpillar Girl sitting up in bed, waving her arms, swaying, and humming...a particularly sweet start to our day.

Independent Eating

My last food post discussed my decision to hold off on solid food for a while. We have moved into a more interesting relationship with food as Caterpillar Girl has gotten older. I call her an independent eater because--then as now--she hates being spoon fed. So we don't feed her pureed food. She has a pincer grasp and can chew, so we offer finger foods when we are eating. She doesn't eat much, but she seems to enjoy feeding herself. She finds peas and corn yummy. Cheerios are fun to mash and throw on the floor. At lunchtime today, we had avocado. Avocado has been her favorite by far. She ate it right up. Of course, it is a messy, smooshy kind of food. After lunch she had to be stripped of all clothes, and the high chair cover had to be thrown in the wash. But you just have to look at her face to see how much fun we had at lunch today.

Baby Time

For about 3 months now, we have been going to Baby Time on Wednesday mornings. It is offered by the library and hosted by my long-time friend Mr. Frank. Caterpillar Girl has loved it from the very first visit. Mr Frank sings, dances, and reads stories, and moms and babies sing and dance along with him. At first, she just stared at Mr. Frank, completely mesmerized. As she grows older though, she has gotten more involved. She dances with songs, walks while holding Mommy's hands during Ring around the Rosy, and crawls around interacting with other babies. Last week, she crawled to another Mommy and sat right on her lap for an entire song. I know as she gets even bigger, she will be clapping and counting along with Mr. Frank, just like the older kids we see each week. It is a tremendously valuable program that we never miss.

Thanksgiving

We spent a fabulous Thanksgiving Day with Gran, Granddad, Ahma, and Ahpa. Ahma cooked a delicious dinner. Where's Caterpillar Girl, you might wonder. She is in her high chair next to Mommy, which isn't tall enough for Ahma's higher table!


Caterpillar Girl is a little shy in crowds right now so she spent most of the day in Mommy's sling, where she could be close and safe and watch the goings-on. as a result, I didn't take too many pictures, but below are a few of a playful Caterpillar Girl, taken by Ahma, in her Thanksgiving dress (the one that actually fit her, rather than the one Mommy made her for Thanksgiving. That one won't fit for several more months.) Only top teeth are showing in this upside-down shot, but she has two more bottom teeth. Six in total now!

Playtime

We are seeing such diversity in the games that Caterpillar Girl initiates these days.

She plays different types of peek-a-boo. Above, at the park, she holds onto a pole and peeks on one side and then pops her head over the other side. Surprise...peek-a-boo...back and forth until she dissolves in giggles. Another variety happens when she pulls up on Mommy who is seated on the ground. Using her back she walks around and peeks over Mommy's shoulder on one side, and then walks back to the other side to peek over that shoulder. Usually this game involves a lot of Mommy saying "Where's my little girl?" and looking on the wrong side until she finds Caterpillar Girl....and then more giggles. And yet another type of peek-a-boo is played with a scarf. Mommy or Daddy drapes the scarf over either their own head or Caterpillar Girl's, and she delights in pulling it off.

Another popular game is collecting and piling. Above she is collecting leaves and putting them into one pile. She also enjoys collecting the blocks from her sorting game and placing them into the sorting box.

Her crawling has become more robust with belly off the floor so she also loves just crawling through tunnels in the playground, over pillows in the house, and across the grass and dirt in the park. She is in constant motion, and loving it every second. Ever since she was very young, she got frustrated by her inability to move, and now she can't get enough of travel, as far and as fast as she can go. It's about the journey for her...something we can all learn to appreciate.

[As an aside, our digital camera has partially died. The screen no longer works, however it still takes pictures. It's like having a regular film camera where you can't see the pictures until they are developed (or downloaded). The park pictures in this post were taken this way and many came out fine, but it can be hit or miss. So we are starting to save for a new camera...keep your fingers crossed that we still get some decent blog shots until we can get that new camera.]

Like Father, Like Daughter

Granddad took the top picture of Caterpillar Girl with his cell phone, and then scanned the bottom picture of her Daddy at the same age. Can you believe the likeness?

Stepping Out

A few days ago, Caterpillar Girl pulled to standing on her Daddy's legs. He stepped away and she balanced for a few seconds and then took one step--her very first step without holding on! It was so exciting and unexpected.

Meanwhile, she has been walking all over the place while holding onto our hands, legs, or furniture. However, she is pretty content with her method of travel, toddling while hanging on the furniture and plopping down on her butt to crawl to the next thing she can grab onto. She is particularly fond of climbing and has now mastered the pillow mountain, which she can climb to get onto the couch.

Two Fun-filled Weekends

Caterpillar Girl has been having a ball. Two weekends ago, Mommy and Caterpillar Girl visited Aunt DiDi. Friday night we explored the Five Points neighborhood in Jacksonville and ate a picnic dinner near St Johns River. Aunt DiDi taught Erin how to fly on a breezy, moonlit night.


The next day we visited the zoo with some of Aunt DiDi's friends.

By the end of the day, Caterpillar Girl had made a new friend. They walked through the park holding hands until we got to the Komodo dragon. Little boys get too excited to hold hands when there is a Komodo dragon to be seen.

Before we drove home on Sunday, we swung at the park and watched the dogs making their rounds.

You can tell the heat and humidity has finally broken around here because everything is taking place outside now. The next weekend our family attended a picnic for families who took the Bradley Method Birthing classes with our teacher.

Caterpillar Girl played in the park and practiced her walking. She is quite adept now at walking while someone holds her hands and she pulls up on pretty much anything. Check out the shoes! She has graduated to a pair of pretty pink shoes.

Nine-Month Stats

Our little caterpillar is growing more slowly.

Height: 28 inches, 67th percentile
Weight: 18 pounds, 5 ounces 42nd percentile

First Halloween

After a month of Halloween activities, the special day finally arrived. Daddy carved the pumpkin we chose last week.
We headed over to a friend's house for playtime. Caterpillar Girl plays with a clown who was born just two days before her.

Then the group all gathers for trick or treating in the neighborhood.

After which, we head home to light up our pumpkin and welcome trick-or-treaters to our home. It was a remarkably hot Halloween and the poor pumpkin was melting by November 1.

Merrily We Go Around

Caterpillar Girl took her first carousel ride at the mall. She was thrilled with the motion, but it made Mommy and Daddy a little dizzy to hold onto her looking out. We're sitting in the teacup next time.

I Heart Halloween!

So much Halloween fun, and it's not even Halloween yet! Today we picked out a pumpkin for carving.
This one looks perfect!



Mommy and I will rest here while Daddy gets that pumpkin for us.

Then it was on to our Halloween party with our Attachment Parenting group at Gymboree. So much fun! Dozens of children dressed as mermaids, Star wars characters, witches, and cats screeched and laughed, jumped and sang.

There were bubbles everywhere.


And friends to play with.

Plenty of space for crawling and standing

A tunnel, always a favorite for Caterpillar Girl

And Daddy to help practice our acrobatics.

Talk to the Animals

For Ahma's birthday, we went to Lowry Park Zoo. Caterpillar Girl couldn't have been more excited. She had a big toothy grin as we set off on a lovely cool morning.


Happy Birthday, dear Ahma, happy birthday to you!


When the animals were awake and moving, she was fascinated. The juvenile white Bengal tigers wrestled and rolled for her delight. In the Lorikeet house, brightly plumed birds screeched as loud as Caterpillar Girl as they flew around our heads. What a surprise! The numerous waterfalls throughout the park also brought a smile to my favorite girl's chubby face.

Perhaps the most fun of all though was the children's section with its fountains for playing in (By this time, it had heated right up into the high 80s at least)...

...and the petting zoo. So much more exciting than those cats and dog at home, the goats surrounded us and didn't run away when Caterpillar Girl gave them a pat.

By the end of the day, she was fast asleep in the sling as we headed back to the car.