Out of reach

Sunny is so close to crawling it is just about driving her crazy. There are other options for now. She has found that she can do some consecutive rolls to get closer to things or people. Being a limber little baby, she will just flop herself forward and reach her arms past her legs to get whatever she has her eye on. Recently though, these maneuvers just aren't cutting it and it just frustrates the heck out of her.

Generally, her out-of-reach target is Ezra. In some families, the older sibling teaches the younger how to do things, but in our family, it seems to be Ezra. Ezra still fawns over her and howls when she cries, but he has learned that if he is close to Sonia, he will get his fur pulled or his paws touched. So when one of these things happens, he just gets up and moves over a foot. Then Sonia moves any way she can to get closer. Then Ezra moves over again. If only he knew what was coming, he would not be so quick to motivate her to crawl.

Sonia loves animals. She squeals when Ira makes an entrance(as cats do)and lunges if he or Ezra get anywhere near her. We used to take her to the zoo when she was a little baby since it is scenic place to push a stroller. Alan or I would walk around and look at the animals and Sonia would look at the leaves. We had not gone in awhile because of the cold but we had a day off together and went. Sonia now tracks the animals and smiles when they come close. She really wanted to give the red river hog a big hug and did not seem to understand our reluctance to just drop her over the fence.



Maybe this girl is headed for an adventurous life. I did not used to think so because she is pretty cautions about things that have caused her distress in the past, like rolling over and hitting her head on our wood floor. On the other hand, there is almost nothing she will not eat, like limes, kale, and avocado, and her favorite games these days involve being swung in the air and tossed onto the bed or beanbag. Or held upside down. Or bounced high in the air on our knee. Feel free to come visit if you are looking for some strengthening exercises.

New Sun

First of all, I must thank all of our friends and family who made Sunny's first Christmas so much fun. We all had a great time visiting. Sunny figured this was a good time to cozy up to her grandparents:










More Christmas shots:






A baby has to celebrate, so Sunny has been ringing in the new year with lots of raspberries and spit bubbles:




I hope these pictures are conveying in a small way the person our little Sun is becoming. Watching her figure out the world and show us how she feels makes us so excited. She will now play with a toy, if she really likes it, for half an hour instead of thirty seconds and cries pathetically if we take it away before she is done with it. Thanks to Ezra, she smiles and lunges at every dog who comes within a few feet of her. During the holidays, she refused to sit when we were holding her but then within a matter of two or three days she figured out how to balance and catch herself and now sits for ten or fifteen minutes. And she laughs, and smiles and generally makes our lives joyful.

Happy new year!