I did get one photo yesterday: Julian playing with his Architectural Blocks, on the couch. I found the symmetry in his work intriguing -- shouldn't a 3-year-old be making random weird things?
It's taken forever, but I finally finished putting together Katrina's new Exersaucer.
With some help from Gabriel, that is: he cut open the myriad of plastic bags for all the toys, then helped install them. I like having projects to do with him, and he loves it.
It helped that I'd had a long nap this morning, guiltily foregoing an aerobics class at the Y. But I've been building a sleep debt, and I was curious to see what Katrina would do if left to her own devices. The answer: sleep, for about two hours. Her awake times are now about 2 hours long, with about 4-5 "naps" during the day. Nighttime, on the other hand, we've been going a bit backward: her longest stretches are at most 4 hours, and she's started to wake up for reasons other than nursing. The last two nights, it's been for giant spitups, so I can't hold that against her.
Katrina's on the young side for an Exersaucer, but she's holding herself up well enough that it was worth trying for a few minutes.
Immediately the downside became obvious: the boys! She's still floppy enough that external motion of the saucer can jostle her excessively, and excessive jostling is exactly what older brothers are about. I had to institute a no-touch rule immediately, mostly for Julian, but he's far more likely to follow that rule if Gabriel has to also.
Still, she liked it! Like Gabriel as a baby (and unlike Julian), she's very welcoming to new situations. She especially liked being able to see Gabriel so close up.
The real treat came after a few minutes: Katrina put her hand on one of the toys and moved it. This is really the first time I've seen her attempt to manipulate something with her hands, and she did so with the typical visual disconnection of a 3-month-old. Still, there's no doubt that she was experimenting with using her hands.
(Later, she was sitting on Dave's lap as he held a take-out menu, and her hand feebly batted the menu juuust enough times that it was clear it wasn't entirely random. My baby is growing up!)
I got up to get something from the kitchen, and Gabriel faithfully watched her, wiping her mouth with great concern every time she drooled. Aww. His tenderness and deep concern for her are truly touching.
Here's a crummy camera video with a brief (don't blink!) capture of Katrina using her hands.
I'm never sure if these videos will work. They appear black at first, and I put the embedding code in again and again, and finally it works. It might just be a matter of waiting for Google video to process it, or perhaps I hit something just right. I don't know. This time, I'm not waiting, so apologies if the video box looks black.
1/12/07
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