Motoring

Audrey has been developing her motor skills, both fine and gross, to the point where if she is not watched closely she will pick up tiny bits of dirt, fluff, grass to put in her mouth, or just disappear altogether










Luckily, she has been pretty easy to find (unlike my brother as a baby in the funny story posted in the comments section here.)

Other gross motor skills (that's the moving around ones, not the putting things in her mouth ones) include pulling herself up on everything, then sitting back down again or scooting along the edge on whatever she is holding on to. She has also had a few instances of standing all by herself for a few seconds, the first time was long enough for me to drop my jaw, pick it up, and say "holy shoot!" before she gracefully sat down on her butt.

Some of her fine motor skills have been documented by video and posted to YouTube. Here is one of her using a modified pincer grasp to eat cheerios and here's another showing her grabbing rings while playing with Gammy , it starts with some adorable giggles before getting down to the more serious business of holding on to the rings, dropping rings, picking up rings, etc, etc.

Visitors

Okay, I'll admit this post is very late in coming but it's better than never coming right?! We had folks come and meet Audrey for the first time:


Grand-uncle Tom and cousin Kevin stopped in for a night along their motorcycle road trip in June.




Great-cousin Meghan visited in May.





And follow this link to the
Visit from grandad album
to see pics from way back in March.


We love visitors, so come on out to see us and maybe you'll make it onto the blog ;)

Forward Ho!

After working out how to move backwards, sideways, in circles, and anywhere but forwards, Audrey has now begun crawling towards an intended target. The target seen here is the beloved dada.

This exciting development has triggered the start of retrofitting the house for baby safety, but she is still fairly slow, so we can beat her there if she is heading somewhere we don't want her going.

Sweet peas

We harvested the first of the season from our garden. The cold frame allowed us to get a head start, along with the early spring. We didn't feed Audrey any of the delicious arugula, but we'll be feeding her peas in a few more weeks.

Movements

No, this post is not about the bowels.

Audrey no longer stays in the same spot when I put her down on the floor! She has a variety of spatial movements which change her location a few feet at a time.

One is to go from sitting to belly in order to reach something just out of grasp range, she can now execute this without face planting with more frequency than with the face plant and accompanying tears.

Another move is to scoot on her butt, a little bit like a frog but with her feet out front. This one has not been used very often yet, but I can seen it gaining favor as a forward movement because forward is challenging on all fours.

When she is in crawl position she drops down to her belly and inches backward, which does not seem like the intended direction.



Being on the belly is hard work and she often gets frustrated, As can be glimpsed here

Vertical movements include getting herself hoisted onto her knees, where she can balance pretty well, and using offered hands to pull herself to sitting from laying and to standing from sitting.


A more experienced mama friend advised not letting the baby hang out on the floor much because she'll figure out how to crawl and get into stuff that much sooner, but I love watching Drey try to figure it out, like on this video, so she will continue to get plenty of floor time.

Happy mothers

Breakfast in bed, a hike with my honeys, and swimming at the hot springs made for a good day.

Me and my babe at Mad Creek



I send well wishes and homage to all the amazing mommies I know, especially to my own sweet mommy.

Food

Audrey started eating at six months, upon the doctors recommendation of waiting until then because of her skin sensitivities. When she reached the appointed age we were in California and decided on avocado as her first food. With that first feeding she was somewhat reserved in her reactions, not overly enthusiastic or perturbed, probably a bit confused more than anything else, and she got the hang of swallowing quickly, so more went in than came out. There may be a video of it linked here someday (but why delay the post while I figure it out?!). Since then she has had bananas, sweet potato, rice cereal, and, the biggest hit yet: applesauce. Upcoming menu items include butternut squash and pears. Here are the pics:

Eating out in the backyard

Yum sweet potato

Developing a taste for apples


Helping out in the kitchen

Eyeballing grown up food

Whetting the appetite with a little Sophie chew