mamababy

k10e7
Originally uploaded by Kristy and Eva.

this expression of eva's reminds me of photos of myself as a baby. i couldn't find the exact shot i was looking for, but this is one of me is close -- and those of you in my family will know what i mean. (kristy 10 mo, eva 7 mo)

so i feel like this baby aged by leaps and bounds in the past week (note that one can apparently both "leap" and "bound" without crawling, because there's all but zero sign of that yet). several people have told me she seems so much more engaged/thoughtful/alert, and this reaffirms the change i've sensed in her. and she's had some big developmental steps as well. she's now eating finger foods, like O cereal -- which she can reliably pick up and get into her mouth, something she caught on to between thursday's first offering and saturday. the last two days she's eaten a ton of food where she was mostly just exploring it before (this morning, a quarter of an avocado, two big pear slices, and a bunch of Os). on tuesday she started pulling up to a standing position after grabbing on to my index fingers, and by friday she was taking a dozen little steps in a row (and will more often than i'm prepared for protest having to sit -- oh the indignity! -- until i stick out my hands for her to pull up). she went swimming in a real pool for the first time on friday, and squealed and kicked away and didn't mind going under water. and out of nowhere she's wearing 12 month clothes and her feet are big enough to wear her shoes. and, as i already posted, she did her first sign and is really trying to communicate about the dog (i don't know when to cross that border and say she's saying it, but it's clearly on the agenda to be her first word).

i'm not trying to convince the world how cool my kid is, but rather point out how freaky it is that babies can change/learn/do this much in 7 days. it's nuts.

it's exciting and disorienting at the same time. i just feel like so much arrived all at once. some of it is my noticing or changing things (like the clothes), or maybe (as larry pointed out) it just seems all at once since she was somewhat foggy with a bit of a cold for a while before this. it's probably less dramatic from the outside looking in, but for me i feel like last week i had a baby and all of the sudden i have this near-kid instead. who came up with this schedule?