Tuesday, October 13, 2009

13 Months Old


Check out that cute little tushie! Our home scale shows that Mena weighs 23 pounds.

Mena turned 13 months old and she had a follow up doctor appointment about her physical development. She's made some good improvements in the last month but not as much as the doctor was wanting to see. On November 5th we have an appointment with LPS for Mena's overall development to be evaluated. We'd like to have her evaluated now and find out there are no concerns rather than later find out there was a concern that we could have been helping her with.

For the last month we had a couple foam mattresses on our living room floor for Mena to climb on, but the weekend she turned 13 months Mena decided to start pulling herself up on the furniture. She's pulling herself up on the couch, chair, and end tables so we've taken the mattresses downstairs. It's nice having more room in our living room again. Mena does know how to crawl up on her hands and knees (rather than her usual army crawl) but Mena seems to be a child of necessity. If she wants something that she can't see from her army crawl then she will crawl on her hands and knees, otherwise the army crawl works just great for her and she doesn't see any need to do otherwise. My job as her stay-at-home mommy is to create a need for her to get up on her hands and knees and to create a need for her to stand up. So I no longer set toys out on the floor for Mena to play with. I set a variety of toys up on the furniture so she has to work to get them before she can play with them. It's a lot of fun watching her figure out how to get the toys.

In the last month Mena had 3 more teeth come in. Technically the doctor said they were in last month, but I didn't think they'd really broke through the skin until the end of September and the beginning of October. Mena now has all 4 front teeth.

Mena made the switch to a sippy cup on October 3rd. I'd tried introducing the sippy cup before this, but Mena wasn't interested. So on Saturday the 3rd, Mena woke up and I offered a sippy cup of milk. She batted the cup away. So I just sat with her in the rocking chair with the cup in my hand. After 20 minutes she took the sippy cup out of my hand and drank all the milk in it!
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Sunday, October 11, 2009

New Toy Shelf



I couldn't find exactly the kind of shelf that I wanted to hold Mena's toys in the living room so I decided to build one. We'd bought a table saw a few months ago from a co-worker's boyfriend and this was our first chance to use it. One Saturday afternoon I bought the wood at Menard's. Then we put Mena in the Pack 'n Play on the driveway while Gene and I cut the wood. The next day while Mena was napping and Gene was at work, I drilled all the appropriate holes. During the next nap time I screwed the shelf together. That night Gene helped me carry the shelf from the garage to our basement. The following day I primed the shelf while Mena napped and after lunch she and I went to Westlake Ace Hardware to pick out paint. Over the next couple of days I gave the shelf two coats of paint. It was dry to the touch but the directions said we had to wait two days before using it--two torturous days! Today we brought it upstairs. I love it!!
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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Buzzard Billy's Restaurant


We took Mena with us to Buzzard Billy's for supper. I gave her some french fries and fried alligator tail. We already knew she liked french fries, but we were surprised that she liked the fried alligator tail, as well. Mena also enjoyed the jazz music they had playing. She was bopping around in her high chair the whole time we were there! The next morning Gene got out some jazz music here at home and she was dancing to it, again.
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Standing Up

On October 9th, Mena pulled herself up to a standing position next to the couch. I took the seat cushion off so it wouldn't be so tall. The second time she pulled herself up I got this video of her doing it. In the week that I've been home with her she has been learning so much. It really seems to be better for Mena to be at home with me where I can tailor our day and our activities to fit what she needs for her personal level of development rather than her being in a classroom that was trying to meet the needs of 16 infants.
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Climbing on the Mattresses


After a few days Mena figured out how to climb on top of the mattresses. Emmy Lou is no longer safe to sleep on the couch in peace, but I don't think Emmy Lou minds too much.
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Doing Laundry



I was trying to figure out how I was going to carry the laundry basket and Mena downstairs when I came up with the great idea of putting her inside the basket! She thought it was really funny! Mena and I are having great days here at home together since I quit my job. Gene and I are both much more relaxed with her at home with me.
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Mena Pulling Herself Up




Since Mena had pulled herself up while we were camping I looked around our house for things I could put in the living room for her to pull herself up on. The couch and chair were too tall for her. I ended up stacking two toddler mattresses on the floor. Together they are about 8-9 inches tall and she was so excited to reach the toys I'd set on top of them.
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Camping September 25th - 27th


Grandma Frye introduced Mena to Goldfish Crackers. Mena kept reaching to Grandma for another and another and another. It's a good thing that Grandma only gave them one at a time. When we got home I bought some goldfish crackers. I put a bunch on her high chair tray, turned my back, and then when Gene and I looked back at her, she had shoved as many as she could fit into her mouth and was trying to fit more. She couldn't even close her mouth she had so many in there! I would say the goldfish crackers will be a regular snack around our house now.

Grandma, Gene, and I were in the camper with Mena when Grandpa went outside to start the grill for supper. Mena went over to the screen door and after a few attempts got herself up on her knees so she could see Grandpa.



Mena and Daddy had great fun crawling around outside and studying the leaves. I had to pull a few leaves out of her mouth because she wanted to eat them! Mena is such an outdoor girl! We got a bigger tent that we tested out this weekend and it worked great for the three of us. We'll be taking her camping again next year!
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