- rolling front to back: 1 day old
- rolling back to front: 4 months?
- first tooth: 10-ish months?
- crawling: 7 months (ish?)
- cruising around furniture: 8 months
- standing: 11 months
- walking: 14 months
- first word: No idea. She still doesn't talk. Maybe "ball" ("ba") at 11-12 months? "Mama" somewhere around then. "Ni-ni" (ni-night) at about the same time.
At about 12 months, she started babbling, but not a ton. She'd choose a consonant and use it exclusively for a few days, and then move on to another one. She still does the same thing, actually. Right now everyone is "Mama," and everything else she wants to say is "ba ba." She will repeat sounds when we tell her to, but only 1 consonant with no vowels. She does say, "Uh-oh," but more like "UH-uh"with the uh-oh intonation. Just yesterday, she tried to say some rendition of "trot-trot." Her first time using "t." She says "Dada" sometimes, when she's not calling him "Mama." She has also tried something like "Nai" for "Elaine." Mariah and Elaine get a kick out of asking her to say things, but pretty much everything sounds the same. Mostly "ba ba." With the exception of "zizzer-zazzer-zuzz," which she has been saying ("zzz-zzz-zzz") for several months.
Even without words, Sal has been my best communicator. She has always been able to express, through signs (some actual sign language, and many made up by her), facial expressions, uh-uhs, etc., exactly what she wants. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing 20-questions. I ask her a question, and she either says, "Uh," and shakes her head, or grins and says, "Uhhhhhh!" in a half laugh.
Her signs:
- all done (For a long time this one was hillarious. She would wildly wave her arms around with her hands spinning from her wrists. Hard to describe, but very funny.)
- bird
- again
- more
- nurse
- countless made up signs to communicate whatever it is she wants to say at any given time.
She has always been very in tune and aware of her own body. From the time she was really young, she could communicate with me things that were wrong. She'll tell me she has a headache, or a toothache, or an earache. Makes it nice when she's grumpy. I can ask her what hurts, and she tells me.
Along with that body awareness, she's very coordinated and aware of herself in space. She has amazing balance. She also LOVES to climb and has no fear! I have found her a few times on the kitchen table, and today I caught her half-way up her highchair. All day long, she follows me around carrying a stool, so she can climb up next to wherever I am.
She's a a dare devil and a little acrobat. One of her favorite games is trot-trot; when "the horsey goes to bed," she does a backward sommersault off of my lap. I was shocked the first time she did it; she just threw her legs over her head, and over she went. She loves to be tossed and "dropped." Mike will hold her lying on her back above his head and "drop" her to the floor. She lies there, horizontal, way up in the air, completely relaxed, with her arms hanging down, making no attempt to hold on, knowing that any second, she's going to basically freefall to the floor. Complete trust and no fear.
Sal has always loved beautiful things, and has been, for several months now, my fashion advisor. If I'm in my pj's for too long, she tells me I need to go get dressed. She checks my ears every day for earrings. (She pulls my face to one side, checks, then pushes it back the other way to check the other ear.) If I'm not wearing any, she demands I get some. (She has finally given up asking for earrings in her ears.) If she's in my closet with me when I get dressed, she tells me what she wants me to wear. I'm serious.
She is very opinionated about what she wears as well. If she thinks she looks particularly cute, she'll run into the playroom, where I have a kid-size full-length mirror hanging.
These pictures were taken in early October. She dug this hat out of the dress-ups and wore it for a few days. I thought it was pretty cute, so I did a little photo shoot.
Sal holds her own with her sisters. She was not pleased when they tried to join her for the photos.
Here's her smug look of victory:
Sally is a picky eater. I think she has some sensory/texture issues. She gags randomly on things that shouldn't be gaggy and chokes (daily) on things that shouldn't be chokey. She does, however, like her green drinks. (This was a particlurly messy day. She's usually fairly neat about it--part of her fashion sense, I think. She doesn't like to be dirty.)
Some other favorites:
- bananas
- frozen strawberries
- frozen blueberries
- spaghetti
- beans and rice
- chips and salsa
She's attached to her blanket. I didn't realize the strength of her attachment until I threw it in the washer. Colossal tantrum! (She's a tantrum pro.)
She's my little helper. She helps me unload the dishwasher every day. (She knows where everything goes from her days of riding piggy-back in the backpack. Apparently, she was paying attention. (Actually, she still rides in the backpack fairly often. She's definitely my most clingy baby.))
These pictures are from a Sunday morning when we stayed home sick while Mike took M and E to church. Making beans for pico de gallo.
Speaking of the backpack . . . one day back in October, I decided to walk to the grocery store (3 miles round trip). I pushed M and E in the stroller, and had Sal in the backpack. She fell asleep on the way home and slept like this for 45 minutes, with chaos and noise all around. A first in our family.
I made donuts and took some pictures. She's a poser.
She, of course, needs to have her hair done. She climbs up onto the toilet and then onto the counter so she can see in the mirror as I do her hair. This particular day, she insisted she needed all of these clips:
Sal loves books! She still nurses but insists I read a book to her at the same time. (None of my children have allowed me to read while nursing, but she's the first to insist I read to her while she nurses.) Some of her favorite books right now:
- Quick as a Cricket
- Lulu's Busy Day
- Jesse Bear Tum-Tum Tickle
- Jesse Bear Yum-Yum Crumble
- Princess Castle
- Family Lullaby
- Good Dog, Carl
I took these pictures of her reading Good Dog, Carl yesterday. She was so focused and was studying each page so carefully. She loves dogs (at least from a distance) and barks ("wu-wu-wu-wu-wu-wu-wu!") whenever she hears or sees one.
Then she climbed onto the love sace and insisted I take another picture.
Of coures, when Mariah heard all the fun, she had to join.
And Elaine was close behind.
Sal definitely thinks she's one of the big girls. I'm having to train myself to change the way I say things, because she assumes I'm talking to all three of them when I say, "Girls . . . ." That was my call-out for M and E, and Sally didn't respond, but now she does. If I'm not addressing all three, I have to specify.
I walked in on this little pow-wow this morning. Not sure what was going on, but it looked serious. (Notice the pink stool. That's the one she carries around with her. When she stands on it, she can barely see over the counter, but she insists on being right by my side "helping.")
One of my favorite things about Sal is her love for cleaning up. She really is a great little cleaner. She loves putting things away in their proper place.
Sally runs everywhere. Always.
She's not a great sleeper. When she's teething (which is always), she wakes up at 3 or 4 and wants to nurse. And she only takes an hour and a half nap.
Sal loves to play games. Her current favorite is to wave and say "baah" ("bye" with a southern drawl), run to the pantry and close herself in, and then come running out and say, "Buh!" ("Boo!"). She also plays this game around corners or by flattening herself against a wall or any other vertical surface to "hide." She also loves to dance. Her 2 dance moves right now are running in place very fast and a slow-motion-spin-and-fall-down move.
Sally is very tender hearted and likes to help others. She does throw a tizzy sometimes when the other girls take things from her, but just as often, if she learns Mariah or Elaine wants a toy she has, she'll hand it over just to be nice. If someone's crying, she tries to fix the problem and will run get a toy for them.
She is my first cuddler. She won't snuggle for long, but she'll lay her head on my shoulder and give me a good hug. If I ask, "Can you say, "I love you," she'll run to me and give me a hug. If I ask for a kiss, she smashes her forehead into my nose and holds it there.
Well, it's late, and that's all I can think of now. Thanks for enduring. I will most likely add more as I think of things. (Sal's actually coughing/crying in her bed right now, so I'm off to help.)
