big girl poop!

so, in the world of motherhood, you find elation in the mundane. yesterday was one of those times. i was changing nissa's diaper and had to call adam upstairs to witness: nissa had made a big girl poop. no runny, pasty, grainy yellowish mess, but brown and firm. i feel kinda foolish describing it here, but it was such a big difference, i feel it's necessary. she had another one this morning. we dumped it in the toilet, waved good bye and flushed it away. i just hope she keeps it up because this is a lot easier to work with!

speaking of mundane joys- nissa has 2 teeth in that little mouth of hers, not just one. they are both on the bottom and still flush with her gum line. but they are sharp little buggers and she insists on putting them to use. when i went in her room after her nap on saturday, she was standing in her crib, chewing away on the end of the bed. i seem to recall little toothmarks on my old headboard from my own chewing habits. . . nissa has taken to standing in her crib quite well. thank goodness grandma a recommended we lower the mattress when she did! most days now adam finds her standing when he gets up. sometimes yelling, sometimes not. but almost always standing.

the tricky part about all this standing is having somewhere to go after that. i happened to read a couple of weeks ago that most babies need help learning how to get down from that glorious standing position, something i had never thought about. but it wouldn't be the first time that we discover things out of order, or at least impartially. so having witnessed her go tumbling down from the precarious standing position more than once, then proceed to cry and cry, i thought i'd try to help. when she stood up, i took her hands away from her support and guided her onto her bum. we did it a few times, made it funny and enjoyable. did it a bit more briskly a few times to get her used to her new natural enemy, gravity. this weekend i was starting to see progress: she very tenuously attempts to lower herself down from standing. she kind of squats a little, but holds on for dear life with her hands until she's ready to commit to the drop. it's a big deal and i've been telling everyone about it! i'm so proud.

what i'm not proud of is how she treats her cousin. well, it's not all bad, but nissa still has an unfortunate attraction to her hair and is motivated to pull it. before doing so and making sarah cry, she did grab her leg and smile at her, so it wasn't all terrible. it's fascinating to watch them interact.