A Christmas Video Extravaganza!!!

I managed to take a few videos of Rowan on Christmas, so here they are!

Opening a Present

Playing With Her Train (Thanks, Aunt Sara!)

Stacking Her New Blocks (Thanks, Pop-Pop and Grammy!)

Rowan's Favorite Outfit

Rob and I let her pick her own clothes, when possible, and twice in the past week she's chosen this outfit, plaid flannel tunic and jeans.  It's her new favorite!

Talking Update

Rowan can now say the following, and I'm going to try and be comprehensive for posterity's sake: hi, hey, no, oh no, mama, daddy, kitty, yeah, oh yeah, touchdown, water, apple, baa, neigh, moo, meow, airplane, shoe, Pippin, milk, all done, cheese, mmm, yum, bye, night night, and probably a few I'm forgetting.  She can parrot words really well, too, and will try things you say to her.  Many of these words don't sound quite right yet (water is "waaawer") but her meaning is clear.  And when you ask her what sound a horse, cow, or kitty says, she gives you the correct sound back, which is fun.  She doesn't really sign anymore because she can say what she wants and doesn't need the sign, but it was helpful for a while.

Walking!

Rowan's getting much better at walking, and just today decided that pushing herself up to standing and walking around with no goal in mind was a good thing.  We were over at the Pratts hanging out with Mary and Cadence, Rowan's 2-year-old friend.  I think watching Cadence walk around all day inspired Rowan, and she just sort of took off in the afternoon.  Hopefully, she'll continue this progress!  She's definitely gotten steadier on her feet the last few days.

Rowan's new hat!

Here's the hat I knit Rowan, modeled by the lovely Mozar.  It has ear flaps and ties in an effort to keep it on her head as she loves to pull hats off.  We'll see if this tactic works.  I'm really proud of the moose patch.  It was my first attempt at embroidery on felt, and it turned out pretty good!

Daddy rules!

We have our first official "Daddy is way cooler than Mommy" phase.  This morning Rob and I were sitting on the floor, having her walk between the two of us for walking practice, and after a couple trips, she would stop halfway, turn around, and head back to Rob without heading over to me.  Daddy is clearly better!

Standing Progress

Rowan stood up all by herself today, without holding on to anything.  She just pushed up from the floor and stood.  Twice!  She's creeping toward walking.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Sara!

She's trying to figure out what the sign says...

Naptime Joy

I can only hope this continues, but for the moment, Rowan enjoys naptime prep because it means she gets to say "night night" as much as she wants.  Sometimes she'll even push my hands off her crib as I'm singing her goodnight song, saying "night night" so I'll get out of the room quicker.

Phipps Visit

Here's Rowan watching trains with my mom at the Phipps.

New words

Today's new words were "moo," "neigh," and whilst eating some carrot at dinner, "mmm, carrot."  Pretty sure these were just parroting, but still fun.  Moo might be a keeper, though.

Our Little Ham

Rowan has decided that it's fun to do things that make us laugh or smile, so lately she's been making faces at us because she knows it will make us laugh.  I find it incredibly endearing.

Rowan vs. Stairs

Rob has been trying to teach her how to go backwards downstairs, and it worked.  She went down 6 stairs in a row successfully today before she changed her mind and went back up.  Then down then up.  She still can't walk, but she can climb stairs!

The Non Nap

Rowan fell asleep in the car on the way home from running errands today, and apparently 20 minutes in the car is all the nap she thinks she needs because she's been in her crib saying "all done" for the last 10 minutes.  Guess she's not gonna fall asleep again, much to my chagrin.

Snacktime

Two crackers, some milk, and a little bowl of grapes.  She loves the crackers so much she won't put them down to drink her milk.  Instead, she leans over and tries to sip out of the cup while it's on the floor.  It doesn't work, but she keeps trying!

Sharing a Flashcard

Rowan loves these flashcards that our friends got us.  They have funny parenting sayings on them, and she loves to grab them and hand them to me.

RSG

New wall art in Rowan's room.

Walking Progress

This morning, Rowan took four steps before falling, a new personal record.  And she was pretty steady.  I think she could have gone longer but she psyched herself out and overthought it.

Teeth!

Teeth!

Rowan's sixth tooth popped through today.  she got her first a week before her birthday, on the bottom.  Then the second bottom one came in, then her right front.  It took two weeks, but three more popped through in the last few days, all on top.  So she has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom.  3 of the top ones are just barely through, so those will take a while to come in all the way.

Toy Box Fun

She loves to climb into her toy crates and sit in there.

First Haircut!

Today was Rowan's first haircut, administered by me.  She didn't want to sit still and kept reaching for the scissors, so it took two tries, but her bangs are successfully out of her eyes!

Roughhouse Rowan!

Rowan discovered today that she could climb into her laundry basket, so that led her to try and see what else she can climb.  Turns out, if I lay down flat on the floor, she can climb over me.  She thought that was really fun and spent half an hour doing it.  She would take "breaks" by rolling toward my face so I would wrap her in my arms and tickle her.

She can't walk yet, but she loves to try and climb everything.  Go figure!

A Few Birthday Pictures

Here are a few shots from Rowan's birthday parties.  She had one in Pittsburgh with our friends here, and she had one in Cleveland with friends and family from that area.  She had a great time at both!  And I mostly took photos of her eating her cakes, so here are some of those.

Pittsburgh party first! Our friend Antonia, who used to be a pastry chef, made the chocolate mint cake.  

Rowan really liked it.

Hanging out on the floor with Daddy and two of her friends.

Birthday balloons!  Or, as she calls them, "balls."

Walking practice with my dad at the family party.

Cake by my Auntie Lu!  She did a great job!

What's in here?

Zoe Meeker with her mom, Kathleen.

Hey, want some of my special smash cake? (She liked the icing and mostly ignored the actual cake.)

No?  Okay, I'll just eat it myself.

Rowan's Birthday Trip To The Phipps

Playing with the plants on display.

Trying to grab something and play with it.

Crawling around the outside Discovery Garden area.

Sitting with the flowers.

She really liked this outdoor garden.

But she loved the train room even more.

Watching some trains.

She kept shouting "ball" at the lanterns on the ceiling...

...and she would try to grab them.

Together!

Crawling around Schenley Park with Pitt's Cathedral of Learning in the background.

Locomotion news!

Rowan took her first successful unsupported step today!  It was toward me, but it was really in an attempt to grab my cellphone...

Where's Rowan?

Rowan likes to play a game where I put a cloth over her head and she pulls it off.  We call it, originally, Where's Rowan?

Hanging out on the floor

Literally just three minutes of her on the floor playing with some folded paper.

Rowan Wants My Phone

Rowan's biggest motivator right now is my phone.  She will climb over all sorts of stuff to get at it.  This video is a week or so old, and in the meantime, she has figured out how to pull herself to standing.

Dinnertime fun

For some reason, Rowan really liked it when I pretended to eat the bottom of her sippy cup when she put it by my face.

Rowan Wins!

Rowan likes to break things Rob makes with baby Legos.

Picture Time!

I am an innocent baby!

I like to pull my laundry from the basket....

...A lot.

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Dumping Legos on the Floor

Another game Rowan likes to play is taking her big bag of Legos and dumping them on the floor.  Fun for her, lots of cleanup for us!

The Door Game

Here's Rowan playing a new game, open and close her bedroom door.  She likes it quite a lot, funnily enough.

Rowan's Favorite Book

Rowan's favorite book to look at right now is a knitting pattern book that I've been using to knit toys.  She loves the pictures in it.  And she likes to try and eat the pages, but you know, colorful pictures!  Every time she sees it on the couch, she struggles to get it and take a look.  She's a crafter already!

Nursing Game

When she's nursing, Rowan likes to play a game I call Yay!  She nurses for a bit, pulls off, then raises her arm up over her head and wants me to say "yay."  Sometimes she starts, other times she waits for me to say yay first.  I got it on tape today.  There is no footage of my boob, so it's safe for everyone to see.  There is milk on Rowan's face, but hey, baby.  That happens.

Rowan Is Loud!

Here's a little video where Rowan shows off her new yelling phase.  She just likes to be loud sometimes.  Sorry for the blurry start to the video, but my phone didn't want to focus until like halfway in.

Funny Conversation

When Rowan's in her Jumperoo, she often makes a lot of noise, so I'll parrot them back to her.  We end up having silly conversations, and yesterday she decided the noises I was making were funny.  So you'll hear me making a ton of goofy sounds and exaggerated laughs in this video.

Rolling In Her Room

And here's another video of Rowan rolling around, this time on the floor of her room.  I was also laying on the floor with her.  You'll see in the video how much she likes to pick up blankets off the floor and cover herself with them.

Rolling In The Park

Every Sunday morning, Rob, Rowan, and I go to Schenley Park here in the city.  Rob plays soccer, and I walk Rowan around a gravel oval around the sports complex.  Then we head over to a grassy area with trees for shade that overlooks the city and hang out for a while.  It's pretty awesome, actually.  Here's a video of Rowan rolling around on the blanket we spread out.

Morning Jumparoo Time!

Here's Rowan jumping around in her new jumparoo.  She loves it.

First Cart Ride

Here's Rowan sitting in a grocery cart for the first time.  She liked it a lot.  She got to see everything, look at all the people that stopped by to say hello.  Guess we'll be doing that from now on.

Happy Grandmother's Day!

Wait, Mother's Day is TODAY?!?!

 

Oh, no, I didn't get anything for my grandmothers.  Just being my charming self is enough 

of a present for mommy, but my grandmommies like to spoil me!  I need to encourage that!

 

Okay, don't panic.  Mommy gave me this paper to hold and is pointing the flashy box at me, 

so maybe this is something for them.

 

I'll just see what this says...hmm.  Nothing.  Interesting.

 

Maybe it's drool-activated.  I'll just chew on the top here...still nothing.

 

Well, maybe it's -- oh!  "Happy Grandmother's Day, Love Rowan!"

 

Nailed it.

Exersaucer Fun Time!

One of Rowan's new favorite things to play with are toys where she can activate music, and her exersaucer has a station that has large buttons with pictures of animals on them, and if you hit it you can cycle through to the sound the animal makes, its name in English, Spanish, and then a song.  Rowan can only really hit the center duck hard enough to cycle through, and she usually hits it until the song comes on and then stops to listen.   Which is what she's doing here!  She gets really excited about it.

Rowan Eats an Apple Slice

Here's a video of Rowan eating an apple slice.  We've gone from feeding her mashed-up food to letting her try and eat normal food.  It's a technique called baby-led weaning (wean in this instance means complementing their milk diet, not weaning themselves off milk) and it's basically just giving babies food in appropriate shapes and letting them try it.   She's already gotten much better at grabbing food and getting it to her mouth in the four days she's been doing it.  And the goal here isn't really for her to eat a lot of this food we're giving her as much as it is to teach her how to chew and eat by herself without us having to feed her.

So, today we did apples.  First I gave her an apple I cooked in the microwave for two minutes so it was soft enough to mush up but still hard enough to hold on to.  Two pieces got some cinnamon on them.  She liked the cinnamon and licked it off, but once she got a piece of apple that was plain, she really didn't like the taste.  But she loves uncooked apples, so that's what she got.  Anyway, this is literally just two minutes of her eating, but you can see her pick up a slice and put it to her mouth near the end.  Pretty good for a 6.75-month-old!

Hanging Out on the Floor

Here's another video of Rowan just hanging out.  This time she's in her room, and it's hot and the fan's on, so she's looking up at it.  She's doing her usual roll to her side but not all the way over.  And toward the end of the video, you can see her roll to grab the blanket and then roll back.  She really likes doing that and will sometimes do it on both sides so she's partially wrapped up.

Everyday Activity Videos

Here are a couple of videos showing Rowan doing what she does on an average day, so those of you who don't get to see her often can see how she's interacting with her environment.

Watching Merry
Rowan loves to watch the cats, and since Merry is around more often, that usually means him.  Pippin doesn't care for her so much and generally stays away.

Playing With Toys
She's getting much better at sitting up and reaching for things.

Some Instagram Photos of Rowan

For those of you not familiar with Instagram, it's an app for iPhone and Android that lets you take photos and run them through arty filters to make them look cool.  I downloaded it for my Android and have been using it a lot to take pictures of Rowan.  One of the things I like best about it is that if she moves around and ends up blurry, Instagram helps make it look arty instead of just a blurry picture!  Score!  Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures I've taken via Instagram in the past two weeks.

April 6, watching her daddy play pick-up soccer.

April 8, listening to some music.

 

 April 12, at the pediatrician's office for her 6-month checkup.

 April 15, falling asleep after early-morning nursing.

 

April 15, eating bananas.

April 17, bath time.

 

April 17, post bath.

April 20, sitting up on her own.

 

April 23, smiling at mommy.

April 24, drooling for the camera.

April 24, sharing toys with daddy's face.