Friday, September 18, 2009

Somebody is Crawling All Over!

Oh yes - she did her first crawl where she actually moved all of her hands/legs more than once each back on Wednesday, Sep 9th. Now, 10 days later, she is a great crawler! She follows me into different rooms when I "leave" her. It's so fun! It is a new challenge, as the training we've been doing with "no touch" is all of a sudden so much more applicable! She is good at obeying it, but not 100% yet.

The whining suggestions in regards to signing helped. That's what I want - to help her understand sign language so that she won't be frustrated. Her whining I know isn't her being bad on purpose, she wants to communicate and she doesn't know how. I have been looking at different websites, and I decided I'd like to use ASL instead of "baby sign language". The thing I'm having to handle right now is that I'm trying to get her to learn an abstract (vs iconic) sign ("More"). It's a hurdle, but I believe consistency, like you guys talk about, is Key. The reading I've done is very encouraging! I even ordered a book with a quick-reference sheet and DVD to get myself acquainted (gotta love getting items 75% off on eBay).

Can you guys tell me when you were able to teach your children about being "quiet" or not fussing (basically, communicating to them "shh" or "hush" in a non-corrective/gentle way?). I know I've seen Susi's child understand and comply with that at 15 months.

I will post about our alternate vaccine schedule, and the whys behind it all, but I can't currently because I have lent out my vaccine book, which has all my specific info in it. But I'm getting it back in this next month, so I'll post then.

As many of you shared or confirmed with me, I have seen a trend now that with new stages of development her sleep gets disrupted! When we unswaddled her and she learned then to roll over in bed, for 10 days she got up between 3-10 times at night. When her 2nd tooth came in and gave her so much anguish, she woke 5-8 times a night. And now that she has learned to crawl, she has learned to sit up in her crib, and gets up an average of 3-4 times a night. Even though she can lay herself down, I think it's just different for her to relate a crib to sitting (i.e. playing!) so she gets distracted from what she should be doing (sleeping), and eventually cries. But this time, I'm less worried about how long this will take, since I do know it's just a phase!!! :)

Jonathan has been getting some hunting in, but not nearly as much as I wish he could get. Since he's deploying in Nov, he'll miss a good chunk of deer season, and so he really needs opportunities now. I love his hobbies (hunting, fishing, and gunsmithing are top). I think he's so smart and intuitive and good at what he does! I do miss hunting with him like I used to, but I'll get some chances in October when we're back with the family. Nothing like a few uninterrupted time in a deer stand together with a book and the glory of nature surrounding us!

This is long enough... Pictures! Labor Day/Daddy's Birthday! :)

First, a family picture of us in Savannah.


Elyana playing in her new sandbox at Grandma&Grandpa's!


My sweet and beautiful (inside and out!) cousin Savannah holding her... Savannah is probably one of the most gentle, loving, self-sacrificing young lady you've ever met. And she loves children, is adventurous, and plays with them, regardless of their age! I want her to be our babysitter!


Karen holding Michael in her wrap! He loves this (duh!). Sweet Daddy next to her and Katrina in a towel.


This was Daddy's birthday and his cakes! Mary made him his favorite (vanilla with chocolate icing). I made him homemade Banana Pudding (a fave), and Karen made a strawberry cheesecake, because Seth likes them and well, more dessert!!! Granddaddy got to be there and it was so wonderful to see and talk to him. I miss him a lot! His presence there was like special old times!


Katrina being too cute for the camera!


My beautiful mother holding grandbaby #4, her first grandson!!! Is he not a cutie?

5 comments:

Seth and Karen's blog said...

Denise,
I love your updates and all the pictures you add, I need to learn how to add pictures to my blog because it makes it 10 times more interesting!

Anyway, I wanted to mention a few things that we could discuss in greater detail next time you visit. I tried to train the girls to be quite by "playing" church on our couch. At first it was very brief - like a minute, but then with more practice you can draw it out. They girls loved it and thought it was a game, but we were able to apply it to Bible studies and church sometimes. Also, every time we had devotionals with Seth or just by ourselves, they were not allowed to talk unless it was a question pertaining to the story. These two practices seemed to help the most and I wish I had done them more often (We're not real sticklers for rules, as you know!)

Also, a wonderful and useful thing to train Elyana to do is respect boundaries you place. Once they learned to crawl I would spread a large blanket in the middle of the floor with toys on it and train them that they could play anywhere as long as they stayed on the blanket. This is especially useful in someone's house - especially one that may not be baby proof! We can discuss particulars if any of these ideas appeal to you!

Elyana is such a precious girl. You guys are doing a fabulous job. You're such a devoted, concerned and intelligent mother!

Love you!

lislynn said...

Regarding training to "shh"... We had little to no success with this with Sofi, due to starting too late :( With Judah, great success! So, word to the wise, start young!

What we did:
with Judah at a veeery young age (I think about four months?), when he'd get those late evening screamies (you know what I mean?) we'd practice teaching him to "stop", by signing "stop" and blowing sharply into his face. He'd take in a quick breath of surprise and stop crying for an instance, in which we'd give him plenty of praise and attention and meet whatever need started the screaming fit to begin with.

As he got older and understood more of the process, we'd require him to hold off the crying for longer waiting periods before getting him what he wanted, or attention or whatever.

This is one difference in training between our two kids that has been KEY in our learning as parents. It is INVALUABLE to have a child that has the self-control at an early age to stop their fits of anger, or even legitimate tears from pain or other cause. Training in every other area has been easier with Judah because of his higher level of self-control. We have only once or twice had to deal with a temper tantrum that required him to sit in his crib and scream. With Sofi this happened MANY times. And I lay it almost entirely on that one training thing, rather than their different personalities. That one command to "stop" has been almost as invaluable as "no" as he's grown in obedience.

Carolyn said...

Awww, you have a crawler! Lots of fun adventures (and challenges) to be had!

Let me know what you come up with as far as teaching "shh" with your little one. I think its going to be very different training Eva Claire because I suspect she will understand things much younger than my first two. On one hand I'm not looking forward to having to discipline her at all, on the other hand I think there will be more fruitfulness if I am right that she understands at a younger age.

I used ASL with Savannah and it was SO helpful. As long as she is already using other gestures (waving, maybe pointing, etc) she should be able to use a few signs. I think you'll really appreciate it especially if she happens to be a late talker.

The Doty Family said...

Hi, Denise!
We haven't met, but I've heard great things about you from a few friends at Crossway. I read your previous blog post which mentioned that you and Elyana made several long road trips recently. I'm getting ready to drive to Pennsylvania (about 8 hours from Charlotte) with my 3 month old daughter. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much! I hope we get to meet someday!
Blessings,
Heather

Susannah Forshey said...

I meant to post on this quite a while ago, sorry.

When I was training Violet to "Be still." or "Quiet." I used some very dramatic body language to express to her exactly what I meant. I'd say, "Ok, now, Be Still." and I'd hunch my shoulders, jut out my chin, bug out my eyes, raise my eyebrows high, and kinda crouch my body, while holding her arms close to her sides, looking unmistakably like I was frozen, waiting expectantly for something, keeping eye contact with her all the time. She caught on to that very quickly. I just practiced it with her at random times, and then told her what a good job she did! I let her be the leader on how long she could do it....I'd hold my position frozen until she broke it, then I'd break and give her all kinds of excited compliments. It, like all training should be, was a fun game. :D

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