Alexis was such a sweet baby. She was really quite easy to deal with. I told people I would have loved to freeze her from the time she was about 5 months old till she turned about 11 months old and started walking. Then she started getting into more things and life got a little more difficult. But those few months were like gold. So I should expect the same kind of wonderful time with Branwen, right?
Wrong.
Branwen was much happier when she couldn’t move around. Once she started being able to get around a bit (which was fairly early), she found that she could chase me. And if she got anywhere near me, how dare I not pick her up!! Even when I hold her, she’s not always happy. It’s almost always impossible to tell what exactly is wrong. She has a heck of a temper (can’t imagine where she gets that from… ahem), and she knows exactly what she wants, though she doesn’t always communicate it to us very well. Anyway, all I can say is I can’t wait for this phase to end. 😛 She’s cute, but she’d be cuter if I could wear earplugs all day.
At this point, she’s walking easily when holding on to things, and she lets go occasionally to balance for a few seconds before falling or grabbing something again. (Not bad for 8 1/2 months old.) She’ll walk early… it’s just a question of how early. She’s also climbing stairs (still have to figure out a way to block them) and biting a lot. She has five teeth and three more on the way in. Crazy. She’s actually crawling right all the time now, too. No more of this half-army-crawl thing. Her favorite toy seems to be the little jingle ball that we have for the cats. At least it’s a hard rubberish toy instead of something cloth that she could get pieces off of.
Alexis is actually doing quite well with the potty training now. She’s telling us sometimes when she has to go, and we’re reminding her other times. Either way, she hasn’t had an accident in about a week now other than at sleep times. I still put a pull-up on her for nap and bed, so those are often wet when she gets up. We’ll get there eventually. Oh, she won’t poop in the potty yet, either. She either waits till she has the pull-up on or makes herself constipated. *sigh* I guess that will work out eventually, too. I have some different methods to try to see if I can help her out, just haven’t had much of a chance to try them yet.
I don’t think we have much other news for now. Things have been busy, but it’s been a fairly normal busy. We went to NJ to see some of Joel’s family not long ago, and then they were up in our area for Memorial Day. It was good that the girls could visit with them. They don’t see their grandparents on Joel’s side nearly as often as they see my parents. The trip to NJ was interesting, of course. It was much longer than anticipated, but the girls did pretty well. The visit was easier than I thought it might be. It’s always frightening to go to stay in a non-babyproofed house, but Alexis was a very good girl while we were there. She got plenty of attention, so I’m sure that helped. 🙂
Well, I should go. I have some things to do before the girls wake up. Actually, I don’t know that Alexis has fallen asleep yet. 😛 Anyway, time to force myself to get a few things done. 🙂