Monday, June 02, 2008

She Did It!...well maybe she didn't

Annalise is closing in on 8 months old! Whew, where did that go? It seemed like forever before Caleb was 8 months old, but it feels like just last week she was born and now I'm thinking about how soon her birthday will be.

So being almost 8 months old, she is hitting a lot of milestones - first teeth, pincher grasp, extreme rolling...she is a real world class roller. I mean she is so good that I think it's hindering her efforts in crawling. She really uses it as a means of transportation.

Although he has forgotten most of them now, Caleb knew a few baby signs that we used before he could talk much. It was so successful that we've been trying to teach Annalise. I've focused on the sign for more and a sign we made up for Caleb. After weeks of more tapping, yesterday she signed it back...well I think she did... The thing with baby signs is that you have to pretend they made the sign even if they don't know they made it because that's how we teach them language even though we don't realize it. She definitely is bringing her hand together on purpose (the more sign is to tap your fingers together), but I think she might be trying to clap, which we sometimes do at the table too...as they say, "Having a baby changes everything..."

Being a 2nd baby, I think I am not paying nearly as much attention to Annalise's accomplishments as I did with Caleb. Since she doesn't climb on furniture or constantly ask questions, she seems like a kind of quiet little person, but I think there is a really silly little girl in there! I'm really curious to hear what will be the first things she has to say.

It's easier to wait for her to change than it was for Caleb. I really thought the 2nd year was more fun than the first, and the first year with Caleb seemed kind of long. I hesitate to say it was boring, but babies under 1 year have so many physical needs and so few social ones (compared to a 2 year old).

Well I intended to write a whole blog about Annalise and look how much Caleb crept into it! That is basically my life right now!

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For the record, the rainy season started TODAY (as in, technically it started last week, but it rained like mad today). My least favorite part of the year down here is the last few weeks of the dry season because it becomes VERY humid but won't rain. There are always fires and creeks and ponds dry up. The rainy season has it's difficult attributes (it's what we have instead of snow), and of course it means hurricane season is here, but it's like a count down to the beginning of the dry season, which is very pleasant and pretty much the whole reason why people live in Florida.