Catching Up With Fiona - July

A quiet moment for Fiona and Daddy

It's been a quick couple weeks and Fiona is developing by leaps and bounds. It's really amazing to watch - in fact, I often sit on the couch after work and just watch her motor around, doing her Fiona things and making her Fiona sounds - it's pretty much all consuming entertainment for me.

She can now pull herself up to standing without much ado and she crawls far and fast. She can pull herself up to stand at the coffee table and reach for everything. She actually lets go of the table once she is on her feet, and will rest her chest on the table to free up both her hands as she balances there.

This past weekend she was trying to reach a stack of coasters on the table and they were just at the edge of her most extended, standing on her tippy-toes reach - she was getting frustrated because she kept knocking the coasters further away from her when what she really wanted to do was...yes, you guessed it - put them in her mouth. She eventually let out this LOUD yell of frustration, then went for it one more time and snagged the object of her attention. Once in hand, she actually stepped back from the table and balanced herself just with her elbow on the table while she used both hands to stuff the coaster in her mouth. Her balance is improving daily and she is always trying to stand "hands-free" at every opportunity. And she is not daunted by any task. She will even attempt to bend over to pick a fallen toy up off the floor, while still standing...she has a can-do attitude.

For the most part, she is also very deliberate in her actions. No plopping down for her, when she has had enough of standing, she lowers herself very carefully to the floor, squatting down, putting one hand down on the floor, then finally letting go of whatever was holding her up, so that she's sitting nicely on the floor.

She is getting her second tooth - on the bottom next to her first tooth. So far, it hasn't been very traumatic, but she is teething pretty furiously - loves to bite down on stuff and then yank it forcefully out of ther mouth...over and over and over again. She may be cutting teeth on the top, too - most of her teething seems to be concetrated on the top, but we can't get a good view up there. So far, nothing has broken through, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Her babbling continues and most of the time when she is "talking", she is looking right at you and is very interested to see your reaction to her.

We went to the pediatrician on July 10th because Fiona is having a mild bout of eczema and we wanted to get a professional opinion. She weighed 18 lbs 11.5 oz - GEEZ. She's not missing any meals. NP Jolley continues to be amazed at her advanced progress.

Speaking of meals, she continues to disdain all solid food. Auntie Gae attempts to feed her at least once every day and Fiona will allow one to four bites to get in, but after that - forget about it. Gae even tried to give her bananas again and Fiona gave her a look like she thought Gae was trying to poison her. It wasn't just a yucky look, it was much more in the vein of - Poison, poison, you just fed me poison!!! Silly girl. If it doesn't taste like plastic or dog spit, she doesn't want it.

There are big plans for this weekend, so hopefully I'll have lots of pictures and another update soon.