Beware on this Halloween Eve, there may be a Nina-saurus Rex lurking in the bushes! She'll growl at you, steal your candy, and if you're not careful she may also give you pink eye!
Grandma Vicky made this adorable costume for Nina. It is just too much! The best part is when she walks the tail wags back and forth.
I is scary?Here are some smiles that are sure to brighten up your day!
Actually, I am really posting this so I can brag about my daughter. Just so you know, she is no longer "taking steps" - she is walking.
Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for....
Although there have been some previous rumors of Nina taking steps (see the comment section of this post), I witnessed Nina's first official steps last Friday. Here are all the gory details:
A few weeks ago, we bought Nina a cart that she can push around. She instantly started holding on and walking behind it. In the intervening weeks, she has pushed it around a bit but didn't seem terribly excited about it.
Then last Friday, she got a bug up her butt that she was going to push that damn cart around! She pushed it all over the house with this huge excited grin on her face. It was amazing - there was no stopping her. Until of course she would get the cart stuck against the wall, and then she would pitch a fit - screaming and crying until I moved the cart so she could push it again. Then she would smile and laugh and continue on again.
After a good 20 minutes, she seemed like she was getting worn out so I put the cart out of sight. Then I had her stand up and I held a big blue ball in front of her. Sure enough she took two step towards it! Absolutely amazing!! The cart had warmed her up and so she was ready to go it alone! She took more steps over the weekend and this week as well. So in the end, Aunt Andrea, you were right - first steps at 9 months. Wow.
In less monumental (but still pretty exciting) news, this week Nina has started to wave bye-bye. She holds her arm up and flaps her little wrist. It is so silly looking.
Let's end with a super-cute picture of Nina looking uncharacteristically subdued.
Nina has now gone from the occasional "accidental" standing to outright free standing. She stands, she knows she is standing, when she falls she gets back up to standing. So we'll mark standing somewhere between 8 1/2 and 9 months. She'll go for maybe half a minute at most, but usually she gets distracted by something before then.
And her new favorite game is knocking over stacks of blocks. If you make a tower of blocks, she will sprint-crawl toward them to knock them over. Greatest game ever.
Oh, oh, this just started in the last day or two - she is waving bye-bye. It is more of an arm flap then a wave, but she seems to be starting to figure it out. Fun stuff!
There is one milestone we have been waiting for. We had no idea when it would come, she hadn't even been close before. But then last weekend, it hit .... Nina's first trip to the urgent care! Early Saturday morning she was running a fever of about 102. We gave her Tylenol, and she seemed ok in the morning. Then as the day progressed, she went from cranky and fussy to just plain miserable. She wouldn't eat her solid food, wouldn't nurse and was crying like crazy. She seemed like she was in real pain. First we were thinking teething, but then as she got worse we thought maybe an ear infection, so we made an appointment at the urgent care for late Saturday afternoon. Poor baby cried the whole time in the doctor's office. There was no consoling her. The doctor on-call checked her out, no ear infection, no UTI and her lungs were clear. So Nina got some more Tylenol and home we went.
Saturday was the worst, but she was fussy for a couple more days. Wouldn't eat her food and wouldn't let you get anywhere near her mouth. So in the end, we're guessing teething. Although here we are a week later and no new teeth yet, so hhmmm.... It was so sad to see her in so much pain.
But now we are so happy to have our little girl back! So on to the good stuff.
This picture was taken the day before the teething hit:
There she is! Our standing girl! She can stand now for about 5 or 10 seconds. Or more accurately, until she realizes that she is standing. I guess she has fallen so many times in her attempts to pull up that she is a bit weary of this whole standing unassisted business. She is most likely to do it when she is distracted - for example, she has a toy in each hand and doesn't have a third hand to hold on with. Then when she realizes she standing, she gently bends her knees and lands on her bottom. Silly girl.
Oh and she can clap now!! That is a super fun one. And for several weeks now everything is dadada.
She's getting good at opening the cabinets. Sometimes she just likes to open and close them and listen to the doors squeak, but sometimes she like to explore a little further. Whatcha looking for there, Nina?
Fall has hit here is California. Perfect weather for Baka Dragica's sweaters....
Ok, time for an update! Where, oh where, to begin? First with her hands - Nina has begun to figure out how to manipulate toys in new ways. Before she would grab toys and maybe shake them or eat them. Now she figured out that some things can be opened and closed. Here she is with her little farm set. She has figured out that when she opens the doors, the Old MacDonald song plays. She loves it! She goes over, opens the door, and then lifts her arms and dances. Unfortunately, this also means she has figured out how to open the cabinet doors in the kitchen and bathroom. (I don't even know how to begin to baby proof the kitchen!) She has also started to touch things with just her index finger.
And of course her mobility continues to be out of this world. Even though she has learned how to sit, she prefers these crazy other contortions while playing. Sometimes she kneels, sometimes she does this:
Anything just so as not to sit still! Standing, however, is still king. She'll often be standing somewhere holding on something. Then she'll see a toy on the ground, go down to get the toy, then stand up again. She prefers to play with the toy while standing! She has started to cruise a bit too - sliding along the edge of the coffee table (usually trying to grab some forbidden object that we left unattended!).
I noticed that she seems to like the big play structures at her daycare, so after a trip to Target I made some use out of the diaper boxes. Fun for her to explore and work on her balance.
Yep, she is a busy girl, but she still makes time to stop and smell the roses...
or at least eat the leaves!Last week after I posted the blog, Mirko looked at it said, "That is just great! That may be the best entry so far!" Then he looked at it later and said, "but, you know, she is not really smiling in any of the pictures." Well, that is just not right! Nina is such a smiley and happy baby, we must document it for the intertubes to see!
So for your viewing pleasure, here are a few of Nina's happiest moments from the past week. Enjoy!
Do you notice anything?
Yep, Nina is now sitting up! She had been using an arm to hold herself up for quite awhile now. And then, oh, about a week ago she finally mastered it. Sitting up gives her a whole new world of possibilities because now she can manipulate toys with both hands. She must have played with that book for 20 minutes, flipping the pages, holding it up and shaking it. She has a variety of sitting positions and this one is probably her favorite:
I think it is an easy position for her to get into from standing and then she can quickly pop back up again. Another super-cute one is one kneeling on one leg and the other one out in front. So, sitting at 7 1/2 months. Yay!
Now that she is a stable sitter, we finally felt comfortable to put her in a restaurant high chair. Here she is enjoying a meal at none other than the Left Bank in Menlo Park. Only the best for our little girl - too bad she only got to eat jarred sweet potatoes or carrots or something. Wait, she ate the tablecloth too.
But won't be long until she'll be able to move on to pomme frites, because look!
Those teeth that started to emerge a while back are definitely in now.
Now that we have all that serious business out the way, it is time for some just-for-fun shots.
Just precious
Whatcha doing back there?
Who me?! I didn't eat the ice cream.Apparently, we haven't downloaded pictures from our little camera in a while, so we missed out on these gems from the past several weeks. Time to catch up!
Mirko has been doing the San Francisco half marathon at the end of July for the past several years. The day before the race, we headed up to the city to check out the expo and to hunt down the samples and freebies!
Baby's First Starbucks
Hip in the city.
Nina particularly likes her mom's new earrings.
Nina has her running shoes on.
The big news this week is that Nina has started babbling a recognizable sound "bababababa". We noticed her doing it on Saturday, and I thought it might be just a one time thing, but nope she's the bababa girl now! When she sits in the carseat, she babbles to herself. It's wonderful to hear these adorable little noises coming from the backseat.
And it is about time to post some new video of Nina. This one is a couple minutes long and showcases all her new skills - crawling around, pulling up and all the while carrying around this little plastic lid!
On Saturday, Nina turned 7 months old. Wow! She is such a busy and active baby, I don't even know how to begin to describe everything she is up to. First of all, she loves pulling herself up to a standing position. Here she is all confident and holding on with just one hand:
You can put her in a frilly dress, but she still has her game face on. She is pretty much an expert at getting up and down now. Coffee tables, shelves, you name it. Or even better climbing up Mt. Mom or Mt. Dad (then pulling their hair).
One amazing thing she started doing is dancing when you turn on music. She starts bouncing up and down. It blows my mind that she has figured this out.
Her hair is starting to come in more, or at least reaching a critical mass. It is light brown and a little curly. So cute!
Nina has adapted quite well to daycare. She actually started at a new place at the beginning of August. After 13 months on the waitlist, we got a spot at the CCSC at Stanford. Yay! I thought we would sort of have to start over with getting her adjusted to a new place, but nope, on the first day I picked up her after work the girls said it was like she had been there all along. They also said she explored every single inch of the place. And I believe it! When I drop her off in the morning, she digs right in playing with the toys or bouncing to the good morning song. In related news, she is now officially a member of the runny nose club.
P.S. This post was brought to you by grandmas' homemade clothing! Grandma Vicky made the outfit in the top two pictures as well as the hat in the bottom one. Baka Dragica knitted the pink poncho in the bottom picture.
For Nina, crawling was a minor milestone on the journey to her ultimate destination, which we can only assume is total world domination! Mere days after mastering the full-out hands and knees crawling, she started pulling up on things. This is a series from last weekend:
She is one motivated little babeinator! She has more or less figured out that she needs to hang on or else she will fall. Nevertheless, her poor little head has been getting pretty banged up. She doesn't know how to get down so after a while her face crumples and she cries until we help her get down.
The funny thing is that she isn't actually able to sit up unsupported yet. When she wants to play with a toy (or more likely munch on it) she holds out an arm or an elbow to balance herself. Sitting, not so interesting - standing, now that is the way to go!
"What?! I got places to go."It is official, Nina is crawling! She has been doing a pretty good commando crawl (on her belly) for probably a month and a half. Then on Monday when I brought her home after daycare, I put her on the floor while I changed out of my work clothes, and sure enough she popped up onto her hands and knees and started motoring toward me. We really need a video for this one, but this picture does capture the action fairly well.
"Oooo, my favorite toys - the rattle and the captain! I'm going for it!"
Good job, honey.Over the July 4th holiday, we headed up to Calgary to visit Mirko's sister, Romana, and her family. Nina was very excited to meet her cousins! Stefan is almost 5 and half, and Filip is a little over two years old.
The first meeting of the cousins (aka miracle shot of three kids all smiling looking in the direction of the camera)
In no time the three were best buddies and ready to go off marauding the high seas together.
The boys were quite fascinated by Nina, particularly the fact that she likes to put everything in her mouth.
This shot best captures the interactions between the cousins. Stefan really took to Nina. He was great with her - very gentle, wanted to be with her and play with her all the time. Filip was more interested in doing his own thing, like re-arranging the balcony chairs.
Tetka Romana is happy to hold her niece.
Hightlight of the day was of course the train ride. Do all kids love trains or what?
And a close second was the boat ride.
Indeed, Nina experienced variety of transportation modes. Here is a not-so-old fashioned buggy ride.
Nina really dug the swings!
Fun for the whole family!
Let's chow!
