Pigtails for Gabi

Gabi, and her trade-mark pigtails didn't make it through, and these Pigtails from when Sheena was 13 months are in memory of her.

Springing into Spring

Although its still August, we've had some early spring weather that is going to last for a few more days. Its nice not to have to rug Sheena up in so many layers, and have some more outdoor play.

She had a grisly week with a head cold, and missed creche a couple of weeks ago, but she recovered from that on Tuesday ready for Play Group, then a normal week this week.

The head-cold was tiresome. She actually slept quite a lot, but was not much fun to be around when she was awake. Grizzle, wine, grizzle. She could turn on the grumpiest face, and then she decided it was cool, so did it whether she was cross or not. I took her to the Dr's twice, because she was not at all happy, but it was just a nasty cold that she had to ride through.

However, the turn-around is very easy to take, and she has been great fun the last couple of days. Our friends and their 2 kiddies are visiting Melbourne, so we caught up with them in St Kilda. Sheena was in such good form at the restaurant. She was delighted to be passed around, sit in the high chair, then bum-shuffle around the floor for a while. We're finally moving out of that awkward big-baby stage, where she wasn't very strong, and wasn't mobile, to the stage where she is into everything, and getting around as much as possible.

A dream

Sheena is usually a dream to put to bed. Pop her in, a small happy baby dance, then she'll lie on her side, and contentedly pop off to sleep. If she resists in anyway to rolling on her side, I know I have put her down to early. Recently she's taken to squealing as I walk out the door, but I ignore that, and it rarely lasts.

However..., now that Sheena has been getting into sitting by herself for over a week, she has some other options to add, and today I went back in, she was sitting in the middle of her cot. It is so odd for me to see her in all these different possies after so long. Resettling her from now on in going to be quite different I am sure.

Surfing Sheena

Sheena has been tracking along very well, and my sister has told me off for not writing in Sheena Time to boast about her recent efforts.

So, we are now getting ourselves into sitting, and using a sippee cup. Her standing is getting better too, and there are heaps of other subtle developmental things that she has come on with.

Physically, I can now hold onto her hands while she is standing without it seeming like her arms are going to fall out of their sockets. This is really new, and I have no idea how this has all of a sudden changed, but we previously had heaps of problems with pulling to sit because of her lax joints, but this doesn't seem to be as much of an issue with her arms anymore.

I recently bought her a scooter-board to encourage the crawling movement, but I haven't really worked out how to best replicate the pattern, so in the meantime, Sheena looks like she is surfing while I drag her around the lounge room.

Determined

Sheena has learnt how to push herself up into sitting from rolling to the side then up. She uses her arm to push up, and it is very much like the manoever the physio got us to use whenever we picked her up to encourage the pattern. Its good that she's using her arm to do it, as it will help develop her shoulders and arms which are pretty weak from lack of crawling.

She can be quite determined and patient when she is trying to sort something out. Tonight she was in the bath, standing up at the edge banging at a toy boat. After throwing it away, I replaced it with a rubber toy that was much harder to grasp. She was awfully determined to get a hold of it, all while she was standing on her wobble-board legs.