Laughing baby

The best way to enjoy this post is to completely ignore the video and just listen to Carmela laughing. She was on a laughing streak in her bassinet, so I grabbed the camera so I could capture the audio — I had to set the camera down in her bassinet because she gets distracted by it and always stops laughing. For the record, I was getting her chest and tummy, and it was hilarious.

Here kitty, kitty

We've been taking our time introducing Carmela to Tiny because he gets so feral every now and then and doesn't understand that we're not also cats covered in thicks coats of fur, and the teeth and claws hurt. Carmela's been expressing more and more interest in the cats lately, though; she'll stop right in the middle of what she's doing to watch them stroll past, reaching out her hand to feel their fur brush by her. This morning, Carmela was playing with her blocks when Tiny walked by, and the two got to check each other out for a minute. Tiny was very sweet and let her grab clumps of his hair. He had a moment of panic when she grabbed all of his whiskers, and ultimately decided to cut his losses and head for the safety of outside.

Seven months!

Carmela's sixth month went by in a flash of finals (for Mom), Chanukah, Zoo Lights, and spending time with Nana and Grandpa, and *still* we have no tooth! Ela is 7 months old today. Will she get her tooth this month? Impossible to say — we're guessing it's pretty likely, but Mom and Dad are beyond worrying about it and just hope it doesn't give her too much trouble when it does decide to poke its pointy head through her gums.

Carmela is the happiest baby. She's learning so much, and we enjoy watching her explore her world — it seems like she figures out something new every day. She still makes her Wookie sound a lot, but less than she was. She seems to like modulating her voice now — making LOUD, LOUD noises and SHREAKING at the top of her lungs, then ((whispering)) ba-ba-ba, pa-pa-pa, ba-ba-ba really ((quietly)). She also seems to enjoy sitting in her Bumbo seat for "dinner." She's still too little to associate hunger with her banana-plum-brown rice puree, but she seems to enjoy sitting at the table with a spoon and a shot glass (which, honestly, sounds like the saddest dinner in America, and one that I'm sure a lot of out-of-work journalists enjoy nightly). Every now and then she'll suffer through a bite of food, then bang on her tray with her spoon and throw her shot glass on the floor. It's good fun. :) So far, she's tried rice cereal and oat cereal, prunes, bananas, carrots, winter squash, and the banana-plum-brown rice puree. She makes all kinds of yuck face no matter what she gets, but she keeps coming back for more winter squash and cereal, so we're assuming it's less that she doesn't like the new food, and more that it's a total assault on her palate.

It appears she's beginning to form attachments to things, and gets angry and cries if she can't have them. Dad's glasses, for example, are a point of fascination, and she likes to yank them off this head and wave them around. If he takes them away, her little face wrinkles up and her eyes fill up with tears. Same with her spoon at dinner — if Mom takes it away, she opens her mouth to wail, and arches her back to show her frustration. I'm sure this will be endlessly irritating later, but right now we're enjoying the fact that she can communicate so well with us.

Carmela also is figuring out leverage and pulling up; it won't be long before she's standing herself up in her bed and working on cruising. She likes to hold onto the edges of her bassinet and bounce on her butt — we suspect she'll soon figure out that she can go from bouncing over and over on her butt to bouncing herself up onto her knees and feet, from which she'll be able to stand. Her legs are quite strong, and as long as she can keep her balance by holding onto something, she'll probably do alright cruising along the furniture. In response, Mom and Dad picked out a brand new crib, and we've been working on cleaning out the office/guest room to turn it into Carmela's room. (This hopefully will be finished by the end of Christmas break, as Mom has to go back to school, and then will have to take the bar, and then will have to get a job.) Hopefully, Carmela won't be able to crawl out of her new crib, but we got one that converts into a junior bed, just in case she's anything like her Dad.

Carmela's favorite toys right now are her blocks, which Nana and Grandpa saved from when her Dad and Uncle Jason were little; the box that her blocks live in; her fold-out grocery cart mat from GG in Maryland; an empty oatmeal container (which rolls on the floor, and also acts like a drum); an empty, sealed Tupperware bowl; her Bun-Bun (from Gail in Berkeley); her Bear (from Bizzy, Patrick, and Michael in Maryland); tags (which she'd rather play with than just about anything else); her teething fish, Miguel and Arbul (I held them up to her and those are the sounds she made ... "Miguel" might actual be "McGill," which would be very clever, as he is a fish ... ); and her toes. She's also fond of tearing up magazines with her hands and her feet. She still loves going places with her Mom and Dad, and we take her all over town. This past month she's been to Zoo Lights, to sushi dinner (where she was a big hit with the staff), to brunch a couple of times, to Target — she even got to see a big police response at Sears, but when all the officers started pulling their rifles and cocking their guns and telling people to get in their cars and leave, Mom got scared and hustled her into her car seat.

So life's been pretty exciting this past month, and we'll just see what excitement 7 months has in store. Here's cheering for that tooth! Go, go Incisor!!

Fashion sense

Carmela had a really great day today — Auntie Jen came up from Tacoma and spent the afternoon. Carmela really liked her pretty necklace; Auntie Jen was smart and removed her big hoop earrings before Ela could fixate on them. Later, after Auntie Jen left, Ela got to try on Mom's hat. So pretty!

New vantage point

Carmela's legs are getting really strong, and she feels really solid on them. Unfortunately, her balance is terrible, so while she can stand with assistance, and she *loves* it, she's definitely not ready for Mom or Dad to let go (notice the hand in the first picture and the foot in the last one holding up the bum ... ). It won't be long, though, before she's cruising ....

Our daughter the Wookie

Carmela has a new sound — it's the gurgly throat sound that a Wookie makes, and she seems to enjoy making it all the time. Mom and Dad make it back to her, and then we're like a Wookie family gurgling at each other all day long.

Remember one of the first video posts on this blog — the one with Carmela lying down in her bassinet watching her bird mobile? A lot's changed in just a couple of months!

Believe it or not, this room was pretty well-lit when I took this video with my camera. I'm not sure why the video always comes out so dark. Maybe someday we'll upgrade to a better camera ....

Presents

Carmela gets to open her Chanukah present from Grandma. The wrapping paper is as much fun as the gift!

Carrots

Carmela took her first taste of carrots last night. I'd say they weren't a huge hit, but who knows? It only took her Mom 30 years to like them.

Happy Chanukah!

Carmela is in the midst of celebrating her first Chanukah this week. Unfortunately, she's also teething (we think for real this time), so the wonder and curiosity at all the lights is punctuated with crying jags and general crankiness and irritability. While it's fairly easy to distract her during the day, last night was rough, despite a dose of infant Tylenol, and ended with Mom sleeping on the couch and bouncing the bouncy chair to keep Carmela consoled and sleeping. Today Mom tried rubbing a little rum on Ela's gums; it seemed to work this morning, and Ela was able to drift off into a 2-hour nap. It didn't seem to work this afternoon, and Ela fussed and cried while Mom drank the rest of the rum. Tonight we'll be trying the Orajel. Hopefully Ela won't be freaked out at the way it makes her mouth feel ... especially because there's no more rum.

But back to Chanukah. On second night, Mom put Carmela in her dinner seat and lit candles — Carmela enjoyed watching the flames flicker. Yesterday morning, Ela got to open presents from Merle and Irene and from her Great-Aunt Patty and Great-Uncle Steve and her cousins, Patrick, Bizzy, and Michael. She thinks presents are pretty cool because they're covered in crinkly paper. It's like two presents in one!

Last night we went to our synagogue's Chanukah celebration. Ela liked watching all the kids run and scream, make candy menorahs, and play dreidel. Mom and Dad liked eating some latkes and sufganiyot, which were delicious. At the end, everyone gathered around and lit their menorahs that they brought from home. Carmela really liked looking at all the candles, even though she'd cried a little bit before the candle lighting when some cheering and clapping scared her. When we got home, Mom and Dad had dinner, including more latkes, and some peppermint ice cream for dessert, while Carmela cooked up her crying jag in the bedroom.

To think there's four more days of Chanukah, and 32 teeth.

Sitting up!

Look at this girl, sitting up by herself!