I’m going to have to find time to blog more often because I have so many stories of Ms. Jane. She is growing so fast and doing something utterly amazing every day it seems. Gone is my little blob. Instead I have a real live kid on my hands.

First off, she is still miserable and teething. The second tooth has finally popped through only now I see yet another on the way in. Now, all my baby books state that teeth come in pairs which makes me shudder to think there may be a fourth lurking somewhere just waiting to torture my poor girl. What does she need all these teeth for?!?! All she eats are Cheerios and she can pretty much gum those to death in under 10 seconds. As you can see, she loves her O’s!

Yes, she’s a reacher. She is also a contortionist which means I have learned to put things out of her reach by at least 3 feet. Otherwise, she somehow manages to get her hands on it. Case in point, over the weekend I upgraded her to 6-9M clothing even though it’s a little baggy looking. She was wearing new sleeper and the arms are way long. So where the sleeve ends, you can’t see her hand ’cause it’s hidden up in the sleeve.

So I’m making breakfast Sat morning and puttering back and forth between the table and the kitchen. Fry the egg, put it on the table. Butter the toast, put it on the table. Pour the coffee, put it on the table. I headed for the fridge for some creamer and when I turned around, my heart stopped. Leina was leaning out of her bouncy chair and had just plunged her hand into my hot cup of coffee. I yelled and lurched to the table to grab her poor little hand. Leina, oddly enough, looked up at me and laughed!

My first though was “my goodness she has a high pain tolerance”. Upon further inspection, I realized that her hand was, in fact, hidden up in the sleeve of her sleeper and she had only managed to dunk the end of her sleeve in the coffee. Needlees to say, I was THIS close to having a major heart attack. I’m telling you, she’s Trouble!

Leina is bravely going through another round of teething. Just like last time, she’s getting two right in a row. The top right has broken through but that upper left one is a big nasty white bulge right now. How miserable. Who’s idea was it to make babies teeth? Why couldn’t they have been born with chompers like every other animal? This teething phase means anything that can fit in her cute little mouth gets gnawed on. This includes fingers, noses and even toes. (Learned the last one the hard way.)

But lately, I’ve discovered something very interesting about Leina. With her, I’ve been inducted into a new club…. the Parent Club. Before Leina, I discovered the Dog Club. I’d be out with Artie and find myself chatting away with total strangers about our dogs just as natural as you please. I’d wave and people with a pooch on leash and smile at every person driving a car with a dog hanging out the window.

Now, with Leina, I’ve graduated to the next level. The Parent Club. I can’t set foot out my door with out being stopped. I’ve had people stop their cars in the middle of the street, roll down their window, and start chatting. How old, how big, what’s she up to? When I mention teething, I get sympathetic “ahhhhs” and lots of interesting advice. The most original came from the Safeway fish stocker. (He has a 3 yr old boy and an 18 month old girl.) His recommendation? Beef jerky. Yup, he said for his son’s molars, nothing worked like a stick of beef jerky. Got everywhere but the kid was happy. I shudder to think what Artie would do if he saw Leina with a stick of beef jerky. He already loses control when he sees her eating Cheerios. Of course, I’m even more afraid of what her diaper might look like after a stick or two of jerky. Bleck.

But this Parent Club is so wonderful. Everyone nods and coos condolences when I tell them she isn’t sleeping through the night. They kindly comment on how cute/sweet/chubby she looks. Often, I get offers from complete strangers for outgrown clothing or baby toys. My favorite is the reaction of the older kids when they see Leina. “Baby!” they cry and head straight for us. What is it about babies that makes little kids so excited? Do they remember being that small? Do they sense a fellow munchkin in a world of giants? I don’t know but yesterday, a mom slowed down her car just to let her 2 yr old daughter in the back say hello to Leina as we walked around the block. Yup, I’m digging this parent thing.

I heard someone say it’s ok to not like dogs or cats or children but if you don’t like all three, something is very wrong with you. Being a proud member of the Cat Club, Doggie Club and Parent Club, I can tell you each is well worth the effort but so far the Parent Club blows the other two away!

The munchkin has a new game she’s playing with her daddy. I like to call it the Look At Me Game. Kevin discovered it the other night while getting her ready for bed. He put her in the crib, turned on the mobile, and turned to get her sleeper. As soon as he turned away, she started to cry. He quickly turned back and gave her a little toy to play with and then turned back to the closet. Yup, as soon as he wasn’t looking at her, the water works started up. He called me in as a witness as sure enough, every time he stopped looking at her, she’d start wailing. Now he wasn’t leaving the room or even going out of her line of sight. No, we was merely turning away and breaking eye contact.

Yes, our baby girl has turned into a little prima donna. It seems she expects us to spend every moment gazing at her lovingly. Of course, she probably expects this because, well, we do!

I also gave her her very first Chreerios and she went wild! I put about 20 or so on her little feeding tray and began unloading the dishes while she played with them. After a few minutes, I turned back and they were all gone! I figured she had pushed them overboard and Artie had cleaned them from the floor so I poured some more on her tray. A few moments later, they were gone too! Suspecting foul play, I added a new pile of Cheerios and stepped back to watch. Sure enough, things were not as they seemed.

As I watched, Artie sauntered up to her side and craned his neck over her tray. Sticking out his long tongue, he began to lap up the O’s. Leina, delighted, began pushing any wayward O’s toward him. In a few moments, both Leina and the tray was covered in a fine sheen of dog slobber. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the morning teaching Artie not to eat the food off of Leina’s tray. Instead, he resigns himself to waiting at her feet for those tasty O’s to come flying over the side which, inevitably, they do. But boy o boy does she love those Cheerios!

Had a wonderful weekend. Leina went to a party with the big kids on Saturday and while she didn’t get to run on the mats or chow down on chocolate cake, she did enjoy the party favors.

She is a great little sitter now and loves chairs. She’s also developing quite the little will which I haven’t decided if I like or not. I kind of miss my little baby blob. This new little person is a force to reckon with when crossed. I’m thinking she may have a little Taurus in her after all! Right now she is out with daddy on a late afternoon stroll. Her latest trick is to stay awake from 1 to 7pm. Crazy kid. Clearly, no one has told her that babies should take an afternoon nap! Oh well, at least it’s nice out and Artie doesn’t mind all the extra walking.

Still to come, the seven month Pooh picture so check back soon!

Yesterday was Leina’s first swim class and she did great! It took her a while to warm up to the water but once she did she was splashing and kicking up a storm. She looks so sweet in her little bikini. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to snap a picture but I’m definately going to get a shot of her in her hot bathing suit next week!

She had a blast right up until I dunked her. Not on purpose mind you, but nevertheless, her little face went right under and man did that freak her out! She came up sputtering for air, her eyes wide and her lashes plastered together. She looked around the pool in absolute horror and was winding up for the mother of all screams when everyone started cheering. “Yeah Leina!” “Good baby!” they all cried. Leina, being the center of attention loving Leo that she is, went from terror to delight as she realized that the whole swim class was smiling and clapping at her.

I’m telling you, you can’t turn your back on these kids for one second or they’re falling off the sofa or dunking their faces in the pool. I’m going to have to work on developing eyes on the back of my head I think. Just yesterday I got her all dolled up to go over to her grandparents house to celebrate an engagement of her auntie Laura. She was in her pink dress and white tights. I put her on her play mat and told Artie to watch her while I went to change myself. When I came back, she had managed to roll over a few times, off her play mat, and into the fireplace!!! Her cute pink outfit was now more of a sooty color and her white tights were now a very chic charcoal. Artie it seems had fallen asleep during baby duty. Of course now that she has learned how to cross a room by rolling, she is all over the place. Every time I turn my back she heads for that fireplace. I shudder to think what will happen when she starts to crawl!

It’s a beautiful spring day so we’re off for a stroller ride. But before we go, I thought I’d leave you with a photo of Leina doing her EdithAnne impersonation. Enjoy!

So many changes in so little time! Lets see, where to start?

Well, my baby girl has turned into the rollover champ. She’s making up for her slow start and now evertime you put her on her belly, she rolls. This was cute until it was time for her nap. I put her down on her belly, tucked her in, and tip toed out the door. After a few minutes of fussing, I heard a big old wail. After 20 minutes of heary crying, I decided to see what was going on. Poor little baby had flipped over, tangled herself in the sheets, and somehow ended up smooshed against the crib railing! So I gently straightened the blankets and flipped her back over. Quiet for few moments, and then crying! Yup, she was back on her back. So I flipped her again. We did this about four or five times and then when I went in, she saw me and started to laugh. I swear the look she gave me was, “oh mommy, what a fun game this is!”

That was the last time I went in to flip her back over. Now, if she rolls on her back, she’s stuck on her back. Can anyone tell me how long until she learns to roll from back to belly? Ah well.

Aside from rolling, she’s also figured out how to breath through her nose. Ok, I guess she’s always been breathing through her nose but now she can do it on purpose and it is HILARIOUS. She’ll catch your eye and then scrunch up her face, wrinkle her nose, and start huffing and puffing. Sounds almost as if she’s hyperventilating. Of course, it cracks me up which is probably why she does it. But it’s simply beyond cute.

And then this morning, she began blowing bubbles! Little baby raspberries. I don’t know where she learns this stuff but it leaves me in a constant start of amazement and wonder. I’m sure Leina is a total typical, normal, plain vanilla baby but to me, her mother, she’s a wonder.

Aside from turning her over, I’ve been spending a lot of time fishing things our of her mouth. She’s gotten very good at using her two little teeth. Between her two pearly whites and a copious amount of drool, she can pretty much destroy anything. Her favorite is paper. Newspaper, kleenex, napkins, you name it. So this moring, after fishing a large chunk of the front page out of her mouth, I decided it was time for a teethng biscuit. I figure, if she wants to gnaw on something, it’d probaby be best if it was digestable. So, I popped a biscuit in her chubby little hand and let her go to town. Boy did she ever!

If I thought Leina was excited by the buscuit, imagine my surprise when the dog walked in on this messy sight. Until now, Artie had little use for Leina but when he saw her with food in her little hand, his face lit up. Even better, every crumb that fell was quickly devoured by the pooch and when Leina was done, he gave her hands and face a nice doggie cleaning by licking every last speck of cookie off her. I’m thinking Artie has found a new best friend.

What will tomorrow bring? I can’t even imagine. This kid, I tell you, is simply full of surprises.