Weeks 38 & 39- Growth and Grammie

These past couple of weeks have been a time of great growth in Karis' development as well as a fun visit from Grammie!

Fun with Grandma!

Since Grandpa was going out of town for a few weeks, Grandma Ginn decided to come visit us for a week! We enjoyed some great meals out, consignment shopping for Karis, yummy desserts and of course plenty of time to hang out and let Karis get reacquainted with her Grammie. I also got some extra time to tackle some projects and Greg and I were able to go out on a coffee date. It was a wonderful time and we are so thankful for the visit!

Karis at first was very wary of her new visitor, but warmed up quickly.

Karis mugging Grammie

She even let Grammie get her up from her nap and feed her food (in the past she only lets me or Greg get her up, otherwise she starts wailing!)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

It was so adorable to see them read together. Yay for storytime!

Generations of Ginns!

Growth from Weeks 38 & 39
I just can't believe all the changes that have happened in such rapid succession since Karis started crawling. I thought she would develop slowly week-by-week, but I guess once she can move she tries to go for the gusto!!

Motor Skillz
Once Karis was crawling efficiently she decided that she also wanted to start pushing up. What's the pointing in moving if you can't get what you want, right? It started at the end of Week 38 when I noticed she was kneeling by her toy basket to try to get at her toys.

Literally the next day I look over, gasp and do a double take. Karis is standing, leaning on the basket! I couldn't believe how crazy it looked with her standing there and it actually made me sad. My baby is quickly transitioning to toddlerhood way to fast!

-Another milestone Karis has hit quickly is that by the end of week 39 she was able to crawl with a toy in her hand. Although some toys trip her up, for the most part, if it fits in her hand she will trail it along for quite awhile!
-Finally, right around the same time we noticed she was starting to go from crawling to leaning on one side of her rump. This eventually turned into sitting and now she can go from crawl to sit (3/27/13) or vice-versa. It makes it weird to come get her from her crib and she's there sitting up and waiting for me!

Playtime!
-With her skills at pushing up, she has become a lot more choosy in her toy options. It has been nice because she is more independent since she can get around and make decisions on her own and it is neat to see what she chooses to play with. Her favorites right now are buckets to empty with small toys like blocks to pull out and her tech toys like the laptop and electronic book.

-Another one of her recent ways to play is hitting toys together. She likes to bang blocks or her plastic toys together and gets even more excited when I join in the fun. We have had some mini-fencing matches going where I hit her toy with mine, however, they always end with her thinking my toy must be superior and thus she will drop hers and grab mine.
-Karis also has finally grasped the concept of a book and will now turn the pages of books instead of just gnawing on it. This has also carried over into her understanding flaps and she currently loves looking at the two big flip-flap board books, opening and closing the various flaps (albeit, some are now badly mangled). She also loves this Melissa and Doug latch board.

Socializer
-Although Karis has become more independent, her new found freedom also has her a little more fearful of the big wide world around her. She will often come back to me or Greg and pull up into our laps, just to touch base before she ventures out again. She will also reach out to you if you walk by and she wants to be picked up. 
-Another social convention Karis has picked up is sharing her toys. She will often offer me or Greg her toy, but hasn't quite gotten the idea that she is then supposed to let go. She loves just holding it out to us and laughs when Greg says "thank you" and pries it away from her. Hopefully she will take this skill to the nursery with her!
-While Grammie was visiting, Karis really started to develop the skill of waving. Her wave is more of a whole arm flail, but it is so adorable. I love how she gets so excited and when I wave back she gets even more into it. She even will wave at strangers! Grammie also tried to teach her to blow a kiss which resulted in a kiss from Grammie and a raspberry from Karis. We'll get there someday!

9 Month Appointment
Karis had her 9 month appointment which was a great one because it didn't involve the dreaded shots. At her 6 month appointment she weighed a mere 14 pounds, 4 ounces. We were certain that by this time she would have broken 16 pounds, so much so that we placed bets. I said 16 even and Greg said 16.2. Well, we were both way wrong. She is only 15 pounds, 9 ounces which places her in the 8 percentile, a decrease of 10% since her last appointment! Thankfully she is still average in height at the 50th percentile which would explain why she has started growing out of her 6 month clothes recently. Other than that she was deemed a healthy baby girl. Praise God!'

Spring Forward
Karis unfortunately had recently decided that 5:45-6:30am would be her wake time which was not met with much enthusiasm by her parents. Thankfully, for once we were excited for the Spring Forward DST because this would mean that Karis would now sleep till 6:45-7:30! We also used the time change to adjust her bedtime to 7:30-7:45 (previously 7:00) to work better with Greg getting home from work and allowing me to teach an earlier Zumba class and just being out later with church and small group. While she adjusted just fine to the later bedtime, after just a couple days she discovered our ploy and began waking up again between 6:00-6:30am. Alas!!

Diet du Jour 
-Upon doctor recommendation to chub her up (especially now that she is crawling) we have had to make some adjustments to Karis' feeding. Twice a day she gets 2 ounces of formula (sensitive kind since I know she doesn't do well with milk) mixed with rice cereal. Since she doesn't like the rice cereal straight up I usually mix it with a strong fruit like mango or peach or baby yogurt. It is difficult to try to get her to eat my concoction, but doctor's orders! 

-Other than that, Karis has made some big strides in her feeding. She will actually pick up an entire ripe, peeled pear spear and gnaw it away. She also will do this to a stick of string cheese, but only if hungry. This has been super helpful because I don't have to cut everything into tiny bits for her!

-She has also expanded her horizons and keeps baffling us with her food preferences. She basically ate a little of everything (sauces wiped down of course!) when we went to Cracker Barrel with Grammie (chicken, dumplings, mac n cheese, biscuit) and loves meat from pot roast, meatloaf and beans! She may not be a big eater in terms of quantity, but definitely in terms of scope!

Until next time!