Keira's First Word...

..."mama."

No surprise there since she's quite attached to me (and I'd say I'm pretty attached to her too!).

For the last couple weeks, Keira has been stringing together more consonant-vowel sounds like ma-ma, da-da, buh-buh, and dee, but these were just noises she made randomly that didn't seem to have any meaning attached. However, this weekend, Noah and I noticed several instances where she repeatedly said "mama" while persistently trying to look for me, reach for me, or crawl toward me. Right now, it seems like more of a call of distress with a pretty desperate, whiney voice, but hey, I'll take it! Apparently, she knows when she wants her mama and, of course, I'm happy to oblige! :)

Mama's girl on Valentine's Day

Playmates and a Nice Shiner

Keira and Jack are becoming quite fond of each other. Right now I think Keira is way more fond of Jack than he is of her; he is still a bit unsure of her unpredictable movements and grabby hands. However, he is realizing that he has a new buddy to play tug-o-war with him!

Below is a fun sequence of pictures that shows some Keira and Jack antics. Jack went inside his bed and was pawing around, having a great time. Keira was watching from a distance and quickly crawled over to join in the fun! It was a super cute moment--too bad we couldn't capture it on video!

Hey, what's going on over here?

Jaaaack, are you in there?

I found him!

I'm gonna get you!

Come out, come out wherever you are!

Now for a video...unfortunately, every time I catch Keira and Jack playing tug-o-war together, I try to grab the camera to get it on video, but they both stop playing and look at the camera (Keira will now come after me to grab the camera!). This is a short clip of one of their tug-o-war games. Don't worry, even though Jack is growling, he is not being mean. He gets very vocal during his tug-o-war games, but he is not aggressive and actually tones himself down when he plays with Keira (as opposed to when he plays with Noah and I). You can see by the video, she is having a ball and cracks up at his antics!




And now that Keira is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up to stand, she's had several falls and bumps around the house. Today though, she got her first real "shiner" under her left eye when she was playing with Jack's doggy-door and fell and bumped her face. Oops! I'm sure it's only the first of many other bumps and bruises to come (hopefully, nothing too serious!). She is adorable though, isn't she?!

Receptive Language

Over the last week or so, I have been astounded by Keira's emerging receptive language skills (this is the language she can understand, such as following commands and being able to identify things in her environment).

For example, as we were playing on the floor with various toys, I noticed her Gymboree beach ball sitting a couple feet behind her. I asked her, "Where is Gymbo?" (the ball has pictures of Gymbo the clown on it) and she looked all around and when she spotted it, she crawled over to it.

Another example...we usually read books before bed and there is currently a big pile of books strewn around on the floor in both Keira's room and in Noah's and my bedroom. Keira and I were sitting on the floor where we read book after book; however, I noticed we hadn't read "Brown Bear" yet (her favorite). I asked, "What about Brown Bear? Are we going to read that one tonight?" Then, she looked around the pile of books and grabbed Brown Bear for me to read.

And, of course, whenever I say, "Do you see Jack?" or "Where is Jack?" she looks at our beloved dog and flashes a huge grin.

I am sharing these moments because you can be sure I do not take them lightly. For 7 years I worked with children with Autism and spent countless hours showing flashcard after flashcard of various common items, hoping to teach them some basic receptive language skills..."Find the cat"..."Point to the dog"..."Where is the spoon"...and so forth. These children were well past 8.5 months old (Keira's age), most of them approaching their third birthday.

Today (and pretty much everyday) I am well aware of the blessing it is to have a beautiful and healthy baby girl, who continues to develop by leaps and bounds everyday. Thank you God for this precious gift.

Another Visit From Grandma!

February has been a fun month for Keira as she has had visits from both of her Grandmas! Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Noah's mom for a visit. Although it was a short weekend visit (and the weather wasn't that great with off-and-on rain), we still enjoyed our time together! Keira got to show her Grandma Sheila how much fun she has at Gymboree; plus, we also walked around Seaport Village and ate dinner at Phil's BBQ--yum! Below are some pictures from our weekend:

Keira loves her Grandma and here she's showing off the fun Valentine's card her Grandma gave her

This is at Gymboree--can you tell she loves this place??

Demonstrating her crawling skills with Grandma

Fun times!

Learning how to climb stairs

Bubble time!

With her new crawling skills, she's able to go all the way through the tunnel

Seaport village

There were lots of beautiful flowers on display

Dear Grandma,

Thank you for coming to visit! I had fun playing with you and showing you my crawling skills! Please come back soon so that we can have some more fun!

Love,
Keira xoxo

On the Move!

Just shy of 8 months old, our little busy bee has now started crawling! So far, she will only crawl forward when enticed with an interesting object, such as a water bottle or cell phone (as you will see in the videos below). Well, it looks like we have a new project in store for us: baby-proofing the house!!

Visit from Grandma

Noah had to go out of town for a couple days for work (Canada, actually), so Keira and I hosted my mom for the week and it was so much fun! Keira had lots of "Grandma time" playing around the house, as well as exploring different sites around San Diego...

Okay Grandma, let me show you how this toy works...

...you have to use this hammer to knock the balls in the chute

We made a trip to the zoo

My mom is humoring me by posing in front of the orangatan :)

There was no line at the panda exhibit, but unfortunately, the baby panda was not out

Taking a lunch break


Back at home, we got Keira a new jumperoo; here she is trying it out

Grandma got to come with us to Gymboree to check out the open playgym

You can do it, Keira (helping her crawl forward)

Dear Grandma,

I had so much fun playing with you this week! Come back soon so we can play some more!

Love,

Keira xoxo