Sept 7th – Sleepwalking
Since Emily has been doing such a great job with head stability, we’re trying out front-facing her in the carrier. Results were mixed, and I don’t think this is a permanent change. If only because I can’t tell whether Emily is sleeping when she’s facing out! Generally, she was sleeping, but I don’t think quite as comfortably as usual.
We had our first trip to the library, and checked out a couple of board books. At some point Emily will inevitably latch onto her favorite stories and demand that we read them every night over and over again. But until that point I’m going to take advantage of reading new books for her every day. So this will require many many trips to the library. Fortunately we have one that’s only 10 minute walk from our house!
Today (Sept 11th) I was determined to start doing some “social” events, having discovered the Boulder Family Calendar yesterday. On Mondays at 10:15am there is a board books reading event at the library near our house, so we bravely went to that. Naturally, getting out of the house was an event in itself, so we arrived 10 minutes late, just as the host was finishing reading the last board book (10 minutes is a rather long attention span at this age!) But no matter, we just hung out on the floor chatting with other Moms (and one Dad).
Sept 7th – Books!
It was mostly slightly older kids (crawling and walking, so 8+ months) so Emily was a lap baby, happily absorbing the goings-on. So yeah, we lasted about 15 minutes before it was clearly nap-time for Emily, at which point we briskly shuttled back home.
But hey, it’s a start! Baby steps, as they say. As one wise mum said, for the first year it isn’t really necessary to “socialize” your kids – mainly they just need Mom and Dad. Still, I do think that Emily was fascinated to see other babies, even just for the visual stimulation, so I don’t think it can hurt.
Plus, maybe just a coincidence, she was overstimulated enough by the tiny outing that she slept in her crib for 30 whole minutes later in the day. What?! So it looks like we’re making progress there too, incrementally. I’m now a third of the way through “Precious Little Sleep” but so far there’s been no mention of how daytime activities (like being outside, intensity of play, etc) can effect sleep. But I imagine it does, quite!
Sept 8th – Happy kid!
Sept 9th – I love this picture. For some reason this particular face expression reminds me of a photo of my mom, Grandma Bet.
Sept 11th – Books read to Emily so far (I’m probably missing some)
Sept. 9; Maybe that’s her little old lady expression. Mighty cute!