01-5-2009 - lol

My mood while writing this blog: Ok

Yesterday, Ada turned 7 months and we had her pictures taken as we do every month. A girl who just started working at Sears took Ada's pictures, and I tell you Ada gave her a challenge. I told the girl and her manager that now that she has handled Ada she can take any baby's pictures. It's difficult to get pictures of Ada smiling. I have to take about 20 to get just 1 of her smiling. Anyway, not only was she difficult to catch smiling, she's hard to make stay still. We'd put her down, and off she'd go like a rocket or a horse out of the gate or our dog out of ours. We had to place her way behind the camera mark and count. Then we let her go and by the time the photographer was ready to take her picture, Ada would be on the camera mark. When she wasn't darting from here to there, she was looking all around, so we got lots of side view pictures because she'd turn her head as the camera snapped. I dubbed the new girl an official expert photographer. Ada's pictures were the first she'd ever taken, and like me she had to take lots and lots of pictures to get just a couple good ones.

As most of you know, we use the Good Night, Sleep Tight book by Kim West. In it, West suggests introducing a lovey around 6 months of age. We have often tried, and she had not taken to anything. A couple nights ago, I put in a medium-size bear and a medium-size baby doll against the slats because she often drops her pacifier between the slats and then tries to get it (here's the picture: "Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh," she says, all the while butting her head against the crib side and poking her arms between the slats.). She has been playing with the bear and doll. Yesterday, I heard her playing and playing when I put her down to sleep. Finally, I heard nothing. I went in to check and she had fallen asleep. The funny thing is that she was sitting up but had fallen forward with her legs in front of her like a yoga position. I got pictures. I'll share them when I have more time.

Not only did she do that funny thing yesterday, but she also has taken a shine to the doll. When I put her down for the night, she rolled over to her side and was just staring, and then she saw the doll and reached for it. I brought the doll closer to her, and she (this is an awwww moment) immediately closed her eyes, patted and rubbed the doll and went to sleep. Last night, she woke up and was playing. I got out of the bed to see if she had lost her pacifier, which is normally why she wakes up. She had. I retrieved the pacifier for her and then repositioned her and the doll for sleeping. She draped her arm across the doll. I tried moving the doll, and she grabbed it with all her might. She didn't want me to take it away. I left it. She went right back to sleep. This morning, she woke up and played for 30 minutes with the doll. I stayed in bed and looked up every now and then to see what she was doing. These are the best types of memories.