Ride of Your Life

Uncle Paul’s gone back to Chicago. It was fun to have him here. Romelie is just starting to get over some of her separation anxiety issues, so she was laughing with him a lot more than the last time they saw each other. Uncle Paul was so good at taking photos, I didn’t bother to take any myself…but I have to wait to get copies from him before I can share. Sorry…slacker, anyone? Who’s surprised? No one.

On Monday night, my mom and I took Romelie to Chuck E Cheese where she went on her first rides! She enjoyed the little chair that goes around in a small, slow circle (see photo for a blast from the past from your own childhood, I’m sure). She did not, however, enjoy the motion simulator. You sit in these chairs that move and jerk just slightly, but they do it in time to a big screen picture of something like a roller coaster ride, and the two in combination makes you feel like you’re actually on a roller coaster ride. Romelie was on my lap…and she did not like it. We had to hit the emergency stop so we could exit the ride early. That’s okay, though. New experiences and all.

Romelie is apparently starting to experiment with walking…which means she’s been injuring herself a bit more this past week. She skinned her chin outside at daycare and fell on her face onto a toy drum. Yesterday she fell off a chair and hit herself in the head with a toy phone. So we’re giving lots of extra hugs and kisses. And sprouting more and more gray hairs every day.

And my mom got Romelie a CD of toddler tunes. So we took a video of my mom forcing Romelie to dance to “The Yellow Rose of Texas” in honor of our family in the South. This torture is for you, Dancer clan!

Just sitting and spinning

Hmm…I’m slacking on the blogging. Maybe it’s because I was busy OBSESSING over some truly silly books: the “Twilight” series. Yes, friends, this lover of children’s / teen fiction and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” finally picked up the first book of the vampire-and-human-fall-in-love series and couldn’t put it down. I read all four books in 9 days. I’m pretty proud of that fact, actually, but it leaves me craving more poorly written trash, and unfortunately I’m all out. I’m going to see the movie when I get a chance, though. Yes, I apparently think I’m 15 years old.

Anyway, on to Romelie. She’s continuing to learn more and more new things, but it’s hard to simply point to something and say “There! That was new! She’s never done that before!” I can say that she went down stairs (feet first, on her tummy) for the first time, and we have started giving her bigger pieces of food so she can learn how to take bites with her new teeth rather than trying to shove the entire thing in her mouth at once (she’s about 50/50 on that one). She did have a fever last weekend (Feb. 7), but we gave her Tylenol and it went away. Not really sure what that was about. And we went out to Baker’s Square for Valentine’s Day (with the baby – I know, we’re straight out of a Jane Austen novel), and she was very well behaved and cute.

Yesterday was Romelie’s 15-month check-up. She had three immunizations AND had to have blood drawn adult-style (rubber band thing around the upper arm, needle in the inner elbow – the whole torturous deal). It was pretty terrible; she was really scared, especially since they had to hold her arm down the whole time so she wouldn’t hurt herself by jerking away or anything. Sad sad sad. But otherwise she’s doing well. She still has that weird leg rash, though. Dr. Dukinfield thinks it might be a staph infection, so we’re going to try a new medicine for the next two weeks and see if that banishes it once and for all.

And Uncle Paul’s in town! He’ll be here for the next week or so, and we’re going to spend some time with him and my dad and grandma tonight. So I’ll be sure to take pictures, since I’ve been slacking on that again, too. I do have one video to share. Someone from Chason’s work gave us their old Sit ‘N’ Spin (you remember how much fun those used to be, right?). Well, Romelie figured out how to do it. She can’t walk yet, but damnit, she can sit ‘n’ spin like a professional. Enjoy.

Learning new things

Romelie seems to be learning new things very quickly lately. I can’t tell if she’s hitting developmental milestones or if I’m just noticing all the new things at once, but it’s pretty exciting to see. In the last week or two she has started to do the following:

--Climb stairs. She did this once, back in Houston in October, but then started shying away from it. She’d climb a stair or two, then slide back down. Well, now she clambers up them without hesitation. We’ll wait a while before we practice going down, though.
--Get down from things feet-first. She tends to go head-first off of things, which is okay for our low couches in the basement (she generally catches herself with her hands), but obviously not so good for the bed or taller couches upstairs. Somehow she’s discovered how to get off of those by going feet first.
--Blow kisses. Jen taught it to her. I couldn’t believe she was doing it the first time I saw it. It’s adorable.
--Manipulate toys. I’d mentioned that she turns that book music thing from my dad (haven’t gotten any better at describing that toy, sorry to say) to hear the singing repeatedly. She’s also figured out how to do that with other toys. She knows which buttons to push to hear music on her Winnie-the-Pooh phone from Nanny and Papa (Angel and Steve), she’s more interested in her books, etc.
--Learn routines. She holds up her feet on the changing table when it’s time to put on socks or pants. She grabs the blanket that I normally put on her lap in the car as soon as I set her in the car seat. She opens her mouth – and slightly less helpfully, sticks out her tongue – when I pick up her toothbrush and run it under the water. She knows what’s going on and what she’s supposed to do to accommodate.

So this is great. No, by the way, she’s not walking yet. But she’s progressing, and I’m proud.

Just for the record, we’ve had a much better week this week. Romelie ended up sprouting a tooth over the weekend, so hopefully that explains some of her behavior from last week. My mom was in town to watch her on Super Bowl Sunday (and even gave her a dreaded bath!), so that was a nice break. The weather was warmer, so we got to spend some time outside “playing” in the snow – sitting in the snow is a bit more accurate, but she enjoyed scooping it up with her mittened hands, and threw in a classic kid’s move…watch this video for an explanation:

And we got to see my mom’s family for my uncle Larry’s retirement party. Romelie finally got to meet my aunt Linda and uncle Doug, which was awesome. I don’t think I’ve seen them since our wedding.

One final video, just because I was trying to put my camera to good use this week to make up for the last picture-less blog entry. Here’s Romelie dancing, waving, and high fiving with her dad: