the golden life

golden, golden, golden. it looks like those corn blue eyes are going to stay blue. everyone comments on her bright blue eyes. my husband being 25% mexican and dark-haired, and i myself having a dark-haired dad, i thought for sure my 2nd daughter was going to come out with a shock of black hair. but it was i who was shocked when the nurse said, "she's a blondie--look at those light eyebrows!" and i knew then that it had to be golden, the name i had always wanted... because of course it would not have worked with a black-haired golden and a blond-haired sparrow! but God gave me this one as a sweet little treasure, a present of smiles and laughter and faith that makes me quiver in my inadequate mommy boots. it's been over six months now, and time to reflect on it has been elusive like curly wisps of smoke when you try to catch them in your hand. but i have to tell some of what that girl is up to, or we just won't have a record!

teeth: her first tooth emerged on january 15th, shortly after she was five months old. (sparrow's came out at exactly 5 months to the day). golden's second tooth followed on february 5th and they are now two little perfect pearls in the bottom of her gurgly laugh.

waving: when we were in AZ in january, she made her first attempts at imitating a wave, and is still working on perfecting it. there was one morning in tucson, when omi came out and swore golden waved at her and said "hi." hahahaha! i remember really noticing it on thursday the 22nd at fred and pam tuggy's. she was discovering her hands and waving at things all evening, it seemed. kept herself entertained for hours. now she will distinctly wave at people when they say hi. her wave is heavy on the wrist action. she scoops at the air.

food: i was a bit more lax with golden's food to start out: we discovered at 5 months or so that she liked sucking on apples, and though i know they are not supposed to have apples this soon, i would let her have a lick here or there. i also let her suck on bananas til one day she managed to gum off a piece and get quite startled about it. it came out as a chunk in her poop the next day. her first "official" feeding came at the end of january/beg. of feb. (we filmed it) and it was commercial baby brown rice cereal. i have since switched her to the home made stuff because i remembered that to get them eating the homemade (the kind you can mix with kale and brewer's yeast!!), you have to get them used to it and not feed them store-bought. the problem was last week that i could not get the porridge lump-free. and i would also mix it with a little milk to thin it. then she would get surprised by the lumps and spit them out/gag and make the most hilarious lemon-faces. yesterday i had a brilliant idea and used my hand-blender to smooth the porridge after cooking it. and today, to experiment, i gave it to her thick and un-milk-enhanced. surprise!! she ate it and relished it! more than she's ever eaten. no gagging. so pleased. i am determined to introduce her to many different foods and somehow to avoid the pickiness that has been so hampering in sparrow's diet. (side note on sparrow's food right now: she likes bland foods and will eat a predictable tableau of about 20 things, but won't try new things unless they look like cookies, cake, or candy. anyways, she hates spicy food, but it's sooooo funny because she will eat anything if it's at the trader joe's sample stand! ha! ha! she will cry her way through the chorizo burrito, but insists still on eating it. it's also pretty much the only place she eats chicken. then, of course, i will buy something that she says she liked on the sample stand, and she won't eat it when i make it at home...)(let me see if i can remember what she eats on a daily basis: here are her picks--cheerios, almond milk, toast, butter, apples, bananas, eggs, rice, pasta (no sauce), hot dogs, melted cheese on pizza or cheese sandwiches, pureed kale, sweet potatoes, carrots or broccoli, raw carrots, steamed broccoli, peas, corn, corn chips, meatless chicken nuggets, berries...ok. i think that's about it, and that's about all the time i should spend on this topic.)

anyways, golden is 7 months now and eating tons of millet or rice porridge, i daresay she likes it more than nursing! it is a great challenge to get her to nurse enough each day. the main issue, i think, is that she has to be relatively still and face me instead of looking out at life. she also eats pureed pears, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, avocado, and egg yolk.
sitting up: golden started doing mini-crunches to try to sit up at only two months. at five months she was doing great with the propping up-method. at six months she could sit up well, and two days after the 6-month mark (feb. 9th) i noted that she was doing it without falling over at all.

dancing: soon after learning to sit, she learned to bounce and "dance" with her upper body. hahaha! sometimes she grabs a noisy toy and bounces to the music she is making herself!

crawling: right on schedule, just like the sitting up that happened on the 9th of feb., on the 9th of march she was crawling! secretly at first. i espied her crawling shakily over to some toy in the early morning when she didn't know i was watching. later, when we were all in front of her cheering her on with the camera in hand, she got a little too overwhelmed and didn't do it. but now (today is sat. 03-14), she is cruising like a pro and already pulling herself up (and falling) everywhere too. i can tell she is so happy to have discovered that she can propel herself toward the object of her desire!

pulling up: yesterday in the AM when i was still dark, i was at last awakened by golden's noises and when i walked over to her crib, she had pulled herself up on the railing and i'm afraid she didn't know how to sit back down! she was quite distressed. she has bonked her chin and her head as well on similar ventures around the living room. if only anyone had yet figured out how to do life without falling, young one!


communicating: i have been trying to speak german to golden from the beginning. i only succeed about 25% of the time because i am so out of practice that the words just don't flow. i am afraid i am teaching her a very inferior brand of german, if i am succeeding at all. other times it makes me more silent than i would be if i had just english flowing out, as with sparrow. i chatted to her all the time. with golden, i am mindful that it should be german, so oftentimes i say nothing at all. boo. but still, i'm determined. i am doing german when i teach her signs, so she knows what it means to "klatsch die haende" and "kopf shuetteln." she knows "mehr" means more and "fertig" means all done. she does the all done sign now, which is awesome.