3 March 2012: Saturday

Two unrelated picture for today.  First, Mano gave Seb a bit of a guitar lesson today, with Rox serving as primary audience and judge of entertainment value.  Consider her satisfied:

Then, after a few readings earlier this week of Goodnight Beach, Seb spoke to both me and his 爷爷 about going to the beach.  So this afternoon, while Mano had a haircut, Mano's parents and I took the kids to the beach at East Coast Park, with 奶奶 providing some shovels and such.  We didn't get to stay too long (maybe 30 minutes), but Seb enjoyed himself.

I took Rox down to the waterline a couple of times, she wasn't too keen (I recall Seb being that way at her age on days when there was a bit of wave, like there was today).  She did not like standing in the sand at the waterline and really didn't like it when her feet and lower legs got wet with wave.  However, given that she's a huge bath fan just like Seb was and seems to enjoy (warm) pools just fine, I think she'll be just fine at the beach soon enough.

1 March 2012: Rox Pulls Up

Rox first pulled herself to standing in her crib a couple of days ago, but here is a picture of her looking triumphant after doing it once again today:

28 February 2012: Snack Time

Rox has now worked her way up to three meals a day, and now we've added in snack time, which is the same time as Seb's (they both get up from their afternoon nap at around 4:00 PM, and snack time follows soon after).  Good self-feeding practice opportunity, which means that I suspect it will be a while before Rox actually consumes much of anything at snack time.

22 February 2012: Sleeping Rox

Sleeping babies.  So quiet, so peaceful, so cute.

20 February 2012: Seb on his Tricycle

Seb has had his trike for over a year now, and for most of that time we've had the parental push-n-steering handlebar attached to it.  No more, however, and now I've been taking Seb out on regular training sessions to encourage him to lose the laziness and learn how to pedal.  Hmmm, I may be becoming one of those overzealous pushy parents.  Do warn me if I ever mentioning forcing him up and out at 6:00 AM to do a training run.

Back to the task at hand, however.  After a few days of him failing to grasp the concept of momentum (he gets the idea of pedaling, but not the idea that you have to KEEP pedaling), he's now starting to engage in somewhat continuous pedaling, which itself leads to continuous motion.  I have a short clip that shows the level that he's at now:

There's a little girl who lives at our condo, definitely bigger than Seb (not sure how much older, if at all), and she has a similar model bike (ok, it is exactly the same except it is pink, and one day another mother - not her mother - told another little girl at the condo playground that Seb's trike is for boys only because it is not the pink one....) and does speedy laps around the compound daily.  Seb's definitely not even trying to keep up with her yet, but I'm confident that it is only a matter of time.

16 February 2012: Seven Months

This has been a very eventful month for Rox, physical development-wise.  First, she started sitting up independently.  Days later, she started doing a powerful little army crawl around the house, which she especially enjoys using to squeeze herself under the kitchen table where she's hard to reach.  She then promptly demonstrated her ability to stand while holding onto a stationary object.  Most recently, she's making efforts to pull herself up to standing in her crib, prompting us to move her mattress down to the lowest level in anticipation.

The crawling has been a huge factor in improving her happiness at daycare.  I now come to pick her up after lunch and find her happily scooting around the mobile infant play area, which is loaded with toys, things to climb on, and lots of padding. 

The crawling had also factored into her increasing displeasure with the jumparoo.  Why jump when you can crawl around, she asks.  She'll begrudgingly agree to it when I need to make dinner, fortunately.  Rox similarly is less inclined to sit still for a book lately, although she and Seb continue to share a pre-nap storytime.

In addition to all her getting around, Rox has also been enjoying an increasing variety of food.  If she's keen on what's in the bowl, she'll generally eat nicely, but when she has a cold (fairly regular given that she's in daycare), her appetite will dip.  Seb sometimes tries to share his meals with Rox, so I have to pay attention to make sure unsuitable things aren't ending up on her tray and/or in her mouth.

7 February 2012: Brother and Sister

Playing nicely together