11 posts tagged “play”

When I point a camera at Petra these days, she makes faces at me or gives me big cheesy scrunch-faced photo grins before rushing over to look at the picture.  Natural photos are not easy to come by as a result.  I have to sneak up on her.

Here she is posing with a cart we borrowed from the toy library across the road.

These days, I seem to spend my life perpetually doing the washing.  Who knew that one small person could produce so many dirty clothes.  Fortunately I don't mind dealing with the laundry.

Petra thinks it's all good fun and joins in enthusiastically, which means that I find socks stashed in unexpected places and the contents of our lower drawers strewn all over the floor and clean clothes mixed in with dirty ones.  Her earnest efforts to wrangle things and the way she preens and struts when she manages to hang, fold or put away something are very endearing, even when her "help" is not particularly helpful.

Here she is surrounded.   

Petra likes to hide behind the curtains and pop out at us.  No matter how many times she does it, she thinks she's hilarious.  Here she is mid-boo.

Petra's gotten increasingly difficult to take photos of because she's on the go all the time.  I have lots of blurred images of a speeding baby and many many pictures of the back of her head or of half a face as she turns away or walks out of shot.  But every now and then I fluke something cute.

Petra's had another of her growth and development spurts.  The temper tantrums are a wee bit more full-on now - she yells and tosses things away and has even flung herself down on the floor a time or two all the better to wail and gnash.  She's pretty easily diverted though and is usually happy again in a couple of minutes.

She can run now and walk on tiptoe, and turn in circles and walk backwards.  She's devised a dance which involves lifting her arms over her head and lifting one leg in exaggerated stepping motions - she looks like a crane or a heron or some such stately gangly bird.  She climbs into and on and over things, which occasions me some worry, but so far she's unscathed.

And she's copying us very hard.  I had chicken katsu this evening.  I dipped it into the yummy plum sauce Jizo's provide before eating it.  Petra had her morsels of chicken and dip dip dipped each bite into a handy (and empty) cup before she ate it.

She's getting wonderfully snuggly as well.  She hasn't been particularly demonstrative until now, but she's started coming over and planting wet, open-mouthed toddler kisses on me.  The first time she just walked over while I was minding my own business (I was talking to Carla on the phone) and mashed a kiss on me quite unsolicited.  It's very very sweet. 

We were lying on the bed the other day having a wee wrestle and she rolled over to put her face on my bare stomach.  She did it a few times, giggling all the while.  I wasn't sure what she was up to, but she eventually managed to make a raspberry sound on me, which was just the most hilarious thing ever, for both of us.

Petra's not a big talker yet, but she's learning the value of using words to communicate what she wants.  She says "ta" when she wants you to hand her something and occasionally manages an "up" to go with her upraised arms when she wants picked up.  She's started calling out "mum, mum" when she wants out of bed instead of crying for attention - now that's a change I really appreciate! 

She says thank you.  And "hola hola hola, hello hello hello" to uncomprehending passersby when we're out.  She said "chao" to Nanny the other day as well, just as clear as you please.  So she's picking up bits of Spanish to go with her English words. 

She also has her own versions of "here you are" and "what's this?" which are part of her current favourite game.  She hands things to anyone who will take them and we all hand them back.  Sometimes her hands are empty but she goes through the handover routine anyway.  And sometimes she offers the object then moves it back at the last minute.  It's fascinating to watch. 

Petra got a whole heap of glamorous toys for Christmas and for her birthday a few weeks before that, but she prefers to play with pegs and paper and any small household items she can get her hands on.  Here she is playing with a couple of laundry balls.

We have been slowly working our way round our house making more piles of stuff.  We don't have much left to look through - only the paperwork in the office (aaarggghhh) and the clothes in the master bedroom closets - which is just as well because the movers come on Thursday to pack everything and seal it into our container.  All of a sudden it's nearly time to go.  I'm looking forward to leaving - it's definitely time to settle into a community again.  Petra's ready to meet new people and Travis and I are ready to take advantage of the many babysitting options we'll have in Dunedin - so we'll all benefit!

Petra's taking another of her periodic dislikes to sleep.  She's growing a couple of new teeth - the two top front teeth this time - and they're giving her grief.  Not as much grief as the first teeth did, but enough that she's making uncomfortable scrunchy faces and has lost her appetite.

She's become quite the explorer, crawling off whenever she can.  She invented a game of baby chase the other day, heading for the vertical blinds so that I would follow her, then putting on a burst of speed as I got close and giggling like a maniac.  It was all very cute, if somewhat exhausting.

She also uses the chairs and tables upstairs as an obstacle course, vanishing behind the chair and emerging beside the table.  I have to be quick or she grabs what she can from the coffee table.

Or standing and bouncing anyway.....

Petra's gone through another of her periodic developmental advances.  All of a sudden there's more of her again.  She's acquired more physical skills.  She stands very strongly and can pull herself up against even smooth surfaces like the windows and walls.  She dances now, bending her knees, bobbing her head, and swinging her hips if I sing or if we play music.  She's also happy bopping away to music only she can hear.  She bounces in Travis's arms, encouraging him to jiggle her around.  And she's taken her first cruising steps, clinging to the coffee table then reaching carefully for my knees and moving over to the chair.

She's become a real wriggler which makes changing her or trying to convince her to lie still to eat or sleep a bit of a struggle.  We used to give her toys to hold while we changed her, but that doesn't work anymore.  We've had to move on to small household objects because she's now much more interested in our stuff than her toys.  I've rinsed a baby soap bottle for her to suck on, we throw nappies over her so she can pull them off her face and giggle, and we try to distract her by being as silly as possible, but it's a tall order to get her to lie still long enough for us to shove a clean nappy on her.

The wriggliness is part of a general increase in Petra's busyness and engagement with her surroundings.  She's thoroughly delighted when we play with her, laughing away if I pull silly faces and make funny noises, or if Travis tips her upside down.  And the other day, she played with the maid.  She's been a bit leery of her, but on Thursday they had a nice time playing from opposite sides of the glass door in the lounge.  The maid waved her cloth, sliding it up and down the glass, while Petra crawled around grabbing at it and giggling.

Petra's very chatty, calling out to us and stringing together sentence-like sounds.  She grunts and growls as well as ga ga gargling and cooing.  I say "oh really," "Is that right?" and "gosh" while making wide-eyed surprised and interested faces.  She's also interested in talking to herself, waving, bouncing, and chatting when she sees her photo or her reflection in mirrors.  She can understand simple instructions now.  I taught her to get down off the sofa by turning her around and telling her to back off if she wanted down.  I thought it might be tricky to teach her to turn around, but it only took a few repetitions before she had mastered it.  We've been playing at passing small things back and forth between us.  I say "ta for mum" (a nice antipodean phrase that!) and she'll give me the toy, reluctantly sometimes, but she hands it over.  Then I say "ta for Petra" and give it back to her.  She's much less reluctant about that part of the game!

Petra seems to remember more about her surroundings as well.  She knows where things are, even if she hasn't seen them for a while.  And she immediately spots an unfamiliar item in the lounge no matter how carefully we think we've hidden it and will charge over to investigate.  We've had to move everything to higher ground, making the lounge look like a tidal wave has passed through it, stripping it bare to a height of about three feet.

She's fascinating and is very good company.  Her enthusiasm is infectious and we get to be as silly as we want to be in the name of entertaining her.

Petra's nine months old tomorrow, which seems like a big milestone to me for some reason.  Perhaps because it means that she's been out in the world as long as she was in my belly.   I can't quite believe that she's as old as she is.  Now that she's mobile, teething, eating (albeit reluctantly) solid food, saying a few words, and most especially, now that she's standing up, she's not a little baby anymore.  She's well on her way to becoming a toddler.  I'm excited about all her achievements and am fascinated watching her reveal more and more of herself as time passes.  I am also wistful about the end of the baby stage.  Babies are lovely, so cuddly and snuggly.  They stay where you put them as well, something I'm learning to appreciate as I head Petra off at the tv, or phone cord, or vertical blinds for the umpteenth time.

Petra's delightful at the moment though, so full of laughter and enthusiasm about everything.  I talk, she gargles, growls and coos right back; I wave my arms around, she giggles; Travis and I talk, she loudly joins in.  She's been particularly fun today.  She napped well and worked hard on standing between naps.  She's worked out how to pull herself up, then let go and sink quite gracefully down onto her butt.  I thought she'd start cruising after she learned how to pull herself up, but instead she's intent on balancing without holding on.  She plants her feet, lets go with one hand and extends her arm for balance, and slowly lets go with the other hand, dabbing it down for support if she wobbles.

She's in a particularly good mood today because her teeth don't appear to be hurting as much and because she's not as tired as she has been recently.  We seem to be settling into a bedtime routine again after a few exhausting and chaotic weeks of random bedtimes and lots of night time disturbances.  I'm so relieved.  The broken nights and late bedtimes had me tearing my hair out.  I managed when she was a newborn, but I found the recent disruptions very stressful.  "It's not supposed to be like this now," was my cry, "we're regressing."  But we're not regressing after all, we're just moving toward a new arrangement.

Petra's seven months old tomorrow.  Already!  I can't quite believe how quickly the time has passed and how much she's grown and changed.  Just the other day she was a tiny baby and we were clueless new parents.  Now she's big and busy and it seems as though she's been with us forever.

I'm having so much fun being Petra's mum.  I had no idea how much pleasure she'd bring me or how hard I would fall in love.  She's wonderful.

And, in honour of her seven month birthday, here she is:

Seeing bubbles for the first time - which was more fun for us than for Petra I suspect.

Looking cute in clothes from great aunty Marilyn.

Petra's been resisting solid food, closing her mouth tight and turning her head away when I offer her cereal or veges.  Tonight though, we had a breakthrough.  Petra got all excited when I strapped her in her booster seat.  And when I showed her the cereal bowl and spoon,  she opened her mouth wide and leaned in for the first spoonful.   She ate a fair amount while I bounced around saying "good job," "nice work," "well done," etc, etc.

I'm pleased that she's branching out into the wonderful world of solids.  She needs them to fuel all the amazing physical work she's doing these days.  She's not crawling yet but she's swarming all over her mat, leaning way over and straightening up again, and getting down onto her belly to grab at things.  She's also getting much stronger and more balanced on her feet.  She spends ages each day standing on my knee playing with my neck, pulling my hair, and sucking on my face, which is all very flattering, even if somewhat slobbery and painful.