we've tried to teach nissa how to give kisses for a while, but she never really caught on. sometimes she seems to be willing to go mouth-to-mouth with you, but there's usually tongue involved and that's just not what we're looking for. now lately, she's been tucking her lips in, mouth slightly open for a kiss, which works a lot better. it's really cute. we're still working on blowing kisses.
a little think i do with nissa is to take one of her stuffed animals, sing a simple tune and make them "dance." sometimes i finish with them dancing in close and giving her a kiss. she thinks it's hilarious, so i try do this often. over the weekend, we were playing with nissa's little pooh bear (thanks amy and karl), having it dance up arms and legs and giving nissa kisses. to my surprise and delight, nissa would take the bear herself and "do do do" and move the doll around then hold it up to my lips for a kiss. we took turns at this for a while and i just loved it- she's totally imitating something we do with her. adam and i were both impressed.
i'm also impressed by how much more cruising nissa has been doing. she seems to be favoring more and more to walk along furniture then to get back down on all fours and crawl. maybe she'll show off for family in detroit?
nissa and i joined my coworker meg to see the lighting of michigan avenue saturday night. we missed mickey (who initiates the lights) in the parade but we did see santa. it was an interesting experience, to say the least. i then dropped her off and grandparents a's house to head out to an ATV show at cubby bear. a long, fun filled day to say the least.
my monday has already started out great, so i hope i can keep it going for the 2 days i have to be at work this week. after nursing nissa and burping her, i was holding her in my arms for a vain attempt to snuggle before heading off to work. i told her how i have to go to work, that i have to go bye bye. she then took her thumb from her mouth, waved and said, "bye bye." it was sooooo cool!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
12 month doctor's visit
it's hard to believe that we've made it to the one year mark, but here we are. wow.
we had a doctor's appointment yesterday and i'm pleased to say i am very happy with our new doctor. she is attentive, cheerful and honest. her support staff are helpful and respectful of my time there. i'm really glad we made the move. at the appointment, nissa is in the 15% for weight at 18.5 lbs, but 75% for height at 29.75". our gal is long and lean! fortunately the doc is happy with her weight and eating habits, so we have nothing to worry about on that front. the doc was impressed by nissa's verbalization and standing skills; so much so with the latter that she assumed nissa was walking. that's my girl! impressing folks all over the place. she impressed a mom in the waiting room with her "hi" greeting: yes, she really does say hi and means it! nissa's on track for the basic development stuff, so yeah team! after all the good stuff came the inevitable bad stuff: shots. she got 4, 2 in each arm. we come back for more in a month, since her schedule is out of whack due to the previous doctor being unable to have necessary supplies on hand. of course, she was miserable, but nothing a few minutes nursing and a 3 hour nap couldn't fix. today you could hardly tell.
on a more pleasant note, we celebrated nissa's actual birthday with a trip to the aquarium. we think nissa enjoyed seeing all the fish, turtles and frogs, especially since we have fish and a turtle at home. honestly, she probably enjoyed seeing all the people more than the critters. . . but we had a good time, so it was a success. we were even fortunate enough to run into an old friend who works there now, so we were able to see more (oceanarium and wild reef) than we had planned. we came home, had some chinese take out and called it a night. for dessert, nissa got an oreo, just to see what would happen. she didn't make nearly as big a mess as her uncle rick did so many years ago, but she wasn't exactly clean when she was done either. here's my birthday gal enjoying her oreo:
we had a doctor's appointment yesterday and i'm pleased to say i am very happy with our new doctor. she is attentive, cheerful and honest. her support staff are helpful and respectful of my time there. i'm really glad we made the move. at the appointment, nissa is in the 15% for weight at 18.5 lbs, but 75% for height at 29.75". our gal is long and lean! fortunately the doc is happy with her weight and eating habits, so we have nothing to worry about on that front. the doc was impressed by nissa's verbalization and standing skills; so much so with the latter that she assumed nissa was walking. that's my girl! impressing folks all over the place. she impressed a mom in the waiting room with her "hi" greeting: yes, she really does say hi and means it! nissa's on track for the basic development stuff, so yeah team! after all the good stuff came the inevitable bad stuff: shots. she got 4, 2 in each arm. we come back for more in a month, since her schedule is out of whack due to the previous doctor being unable to have necessary supplies on hand. of course, she was miserable, but nothing a few minutes nursing and a 3 hour nap couldn't fix. today you could hardly tell.
on a more pleasant note, we celebrated nissa's actual birthday with a trip to the aquarium. we think nissa enjoyed seeing all the fish, turtles and frogs, especially since we have fish and a turtle at home. honestly, she probably enjoyed seeing all the people more than the critters. . . but we had a good time, so it was a success. we were even fortunate enough to run into an old friend who works there now, so we were able to see more (oceanarium and wild reef) than we had planned. we came home, had some chinese take out and called it a night. for dessert, nissa got an oreo, just to see what would happen. she didn't make nearly as big a mess as her uncle rick did so many years ago, but she wasn't exactly clean when she was done either. here's my birthday gal enjoying her oreo:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
spoon!
yes, the tick would have been impressed last night. on a whim, i gave nissa a real spoon alongside her bowl of meatball soup (no broth, just veggies, noodles and broken up meatballs). she held the spoon in her left hand and ate with her right, but after a while, she managed to scoop up some food on the spoon and actually slurped up some items from the spoon. i was totally impressed. i was also impressed by how willingly nissa ate up the wilted spinach in her bowl. it was almost like she reached for it intentionally. i'm so glad she likes her veggies!
somewhere along the way nissa has gotten really good at standing up. i think it started a few weeks ago when i noticed she could get to standing from leaning on my knee (i was sitting cross-legged on the floor). that was impressive because previously she had to pull herself up from something higher, like the coffee table. now, she can pull herself up to standing without any assistance at all! she can even bend over and pick something up from the floor while standing. who am i kidding? she can do everything while standing- flail her arms, drink from her sippy, reach out for gibson, what ever! she's been so close to walking, it's ridiculous. not that i'm rushing her, but it's such an odd experience to see it in her face that she's thinking about it. . . then right when she should take a step, she gracefully drops down to all fours and crawls to her desired destination. yes, she'll walk with you if you hold her hands, will walk along furniture holding on with one hand, but no real walking yet. she's holding out until she can do it perfectly, i can just tell.
so this past weekend was the birthday party extravaganza to celebrate nissa's first 12 months on this wonderful world. my parents came in thursday night, we hung out a bit friday, then saturday adam's parents, aaron's family, my parents and rick's family all came over to have cake with nissa. we opened presents before cake (good idea, grandma g) and nissa was interested for about 30 seconds, but then lost interest as soon as the first toy was opened, then only had eyes for that and other toys around. we tried! i'm sure she'll be a little more interested come christmas. i baked a yellow cake with caramel cream cheese filling and mom decorated. we even cut it into the shape of a "1" to mark the big day. from the trimmings, we made nissa her own little cake with a "1" on it in frosting. nissa loved the attention and the singing, but never quite paid attention to the candle. she wasted no time digging into her cake, with the most effort put into pulling off the frosting. at one point she even pried off the top layer of the cake and had a chunk of the bottom layer in the other hand- it was quite the sight. she managed to get frosting in her hair and all over her clothes, but nothing a washcloth and gibson couldn't handle.
sunday was a slightly different story. we had our friends over sunday and it was something best described as "intense." we had about 24 people there, 9 of which were kids (all but one under 3). it was like a party we've had so many times, but with a much higher energy level and the need to watch where you stepped. i think the kids all enjoyed themselves, and maybe even the adults. nissa seemed to love having the company and having so many new people to interact with. at one point, she tried to climb up on a activity table our friend sarah brought (got all 4s up) and when i tried to remove her, she had a minor melt down. so after setting her down and she repeating the climb, i took her up to her room for a relaxing nursing session and diaper change. that definitely helped and we were ready for cake. i baked a banana cake, filled with bananas and banana pudding. i decorated this one myself, with the picture of a sock monkey, inspired by the too cute thank yous we bought from paper doll. (thanks stacey!) the cake was super tasty (from the tiny bite i had) and the inside and decoration earned lots of compliments. again, nissa reveled in the attention of being sung to and performing her messy cake eating for the room. it was odd how quickly people made their exits, without it being a big, obvious exit. it was amazing having our friends with us for the party, but it was a relief to have some relaxing quiet too. i'm still tired just thinking about it.
we took this picture ahead of time to serve as the image for the party on her evite, but it kinda sums up the experience- festive, but frustrating.
somewhere along the way nissa has gotten really good at standing up. i think it started a few weeks ago when i noticed she could get to standing from leaning on my knee (i was sitting cross-legged on the floor). that was impressive because previously she had to pull herself up from something higher, like the coffee table. now, she can pull herself up to standing without any assistance at all! she can even bend over and pick something up from the floor while standing. who am i kidding? she can do everything while standing- flail her arms, drink from her sippy, reach out for gibson, what ever! she's been so close to walking, it's ridiculous. not that i'm rushing her, but it's such an odd experience to see it in her face that she's thinking about it. . . then right when she should take a step, she gracefully drops down to all fours and crawls to her desired destination. yes, she'll walk with you if you hold her hands, will walk along furniture holding on with one hand, but no real walking yet. she's holding out until she can do it perfectly, i can just tell.
so this past weekend was the birthday party extravaganza to celebrate nissa's first 12 months on this wonderful world. my parents came in thursday night, we hung out a bit friday, then saturday adam's parents, aaron's family, my parents and rick's family all came over to have cake with nissa. we opened presents before cake (good idea, grandma g) and nissa was interested for about 30 seconds, but then lost interest as soon as the first toy was opened, then only had eyes for that and other toys around. we tried! i'm sure she'll be a little more interested come christmas. i baked a yellow cake with caramel cream cheese filling and mom decorated. we even cut it into the shape of a "1" to mark the big day. from the trimmings, we made nissa her own little cake with a "1" on it in frosting. nissa loved the attention and the singing, but never quite paid attention to the candle. she wasted no time digging into her cake, with the most effort put into pulling off the frosting. at one point she even pried off the top layer of the cake and had a chunk of the bottom layer in the other hand- it was quite the sight. she managed to get frosting in her hair and all over her clothes, but nothing a washcloth and gibson couldn't handle.
sunday was a slightly different story. we had our friends over sunday and it was something best described as "intense." we had about 24 people there, 9 of which were kids (all but one under 3). it was like a party we've had so many times, but with a much higher energy level and the need to watch where you stepped. i think the kids all enjoyed themselves, and maybe even the adults. nissa seemed to love having the company and having so many new people to interact with. at one point, she tried to climb up on a activity table our friend sarah brought (got all 4s up) and when i tried to remove her, she had a minor melt down. so after setting her down and she repeating the climb, i took her up to her room for a relaxing nursing session and diaper change. that definitely helped and we were ready for cake. i baked a banana cake, filled with bananas and banana pudding. i decorated this one myself, with the picture of a sock monkey, inspired by the too cute thank yous we bought from paper doll. (thanks stacey!) the cake was super tasty (from the tiny bite i had) and the inside and decoration earned lots of compliments. again, nissa reveled in the attention of being sung to and performing her messy cake eating for the room. it was odd how quickly people made their exits, without it being a big, obvious exit. it was amazing having our friends with us for the party, but it was a relief to have some relaxing quiet too. i'm still tired just thinking about it.
we took this picture ahead of time to serve as the image for the party on her evite, but it kinda sums up the experience- festive, but frustrating.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
introducing. . . milk!
so, we gave nissa a cup of whole milk with dinner last night. she drank it up without pause, so i guess she likes it. was much more interested in the milk than the yummy stew, but what can you do? now the real test is today, to see how her diapers look.
nissa continues to test her standing skills (tempt fate) and taunt us into expecting steps. adam presumes she'll be like him- wait till she can do it easily before trying. apparently that's what he did as a toddler; he didn't take a few steps, he just started walking one day and never stopped.
nissa continues to test her standing skills (tempt fate) and taunt us into expecting steps. adam presumes she'll be like him- wait till she can do it easily before trying. apparently that's what he did as a toddler; he didn't take a few steps, he just started walking one day and never stopped.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
tsapik!
grandma a (and maggie) have been playing patty cake with nissa since day one. nissa likes the singing, but never really liked having her hands clapped for her. just saturday, we noticed her clapping her hands together a little.
yesterday, when grandma a walked in, nissa started clapping her hands! it's pretty cool. here is the rhyme they say together:
tsapik tsapik tsirani, unem tatik ou papik. Tatiks chashe patrastum, papiks payte kotratum, isk yes nstats tsari tak nkarumem napastak.
[clap clap peachy, I have a grandma and a grandpa. My grandma is cooking dinner, my grandpa is chopping wood. but i am under a tree drawing a bunny.]
nissa is also just starting to get the hang of blowing kisses. that's something grandma g has been practicing with her. when we were talking by webcam on sunday, she kind of did it; i'll just have to practice some more.
but the strangest thing was what i saw nissa doing last night. i swear it looked like she was playing the piano on her gate. check it out (near the end):
yesterday, when grandma a walked in, nissa started clapping her hands! it's pretty cool. here is the rhyme they say together:
tsapik tsapik tsirani, unem tatik ou papik. Tatiks chashe patrastum, papiks payte kotratum, isk yes nstats tsari tak nkarumem napastak.
[clap clap peachy, I have a grandma and a grandpa. My grandma is cooking dinner, my grandpa is chopping wood. but i am under a tree drawing a bunny.]
nissa is also just starting to get the hang of blowing kisses. that's something grandma g has been practicing with her. when we were talking by webcam on sunday, she kind of did it; i'll just have to practice some more.
but the strangest thing was what i saw nissa doing last night. i swear it looked like she was playing the piano on her gate. check it out (near the end):
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