Finger Painting = FAIL

I had high hopes for our first arts and crafts project. I had heard about other babies Sabine's age enjoying finger painting, so I got the supplies, set up a clean area on our patio, ran a bath ahead of time, and stripped the little girl down to a disposable swim diaper. I felt so prepared.

ha ha.

It did look pretty before we actually began....



Sabine thought so too.



Oooh! Paper!



(See how I thoughtfully laid out three pieces with blissfully ignorant intentions of having artwork to hang on our fridge, and also the fridges of her grandparents?)

So we began, and I dipped a couple of Sabine's fingers gently in the blue paint. She looked at it for a minute, then snatched the plate, turned it upside down, and ran off with it. Then screamed when I tried to take it away from her.







A little paint did accidentally end up on the paper. But mostly it was all over Sabine's body, my clothes, and what's left of our potted plants.

We are going to go ahead with the climbing and bouncing toys and blocks for the forseeable future, and ix-nay anything arts and crafts-y. At least the finger paint really was washable!

Busy Bees

Sabine and I had a great first week at home together last week, although I use the words "at home" losely, since we were on the go all week. We saw a lot of friends, went out to eat, went shopping, and finally made it to the Butterfly Pavillion!



I'm not sure Sabine even noticed the butterflies, but she was definitely very happy to see her friends M and S there!



(Unfortunately, we missed getting a picture with B and E, who were also there. Herding five little ones through that big open place was a little tricky.)



Later in the week Sabine and I went to the toy store. That was a lot of fun, although I had trouble getting a non-blurry shot of Miss Miss while we were there. It! Was! Just! SO! Exciting! She couldn't sit still. Here's the closest she got to sitting. (Bouncing.)



She enjoyed a lot of different toys, but seemed to favor a monkey, a train tender (Grandpa would be proud), a big bear (surprise surprise), and a ball. Miraculously, only the ball ended up coming home with us. phew.

Sorry some of these pictures are so small, I took them on my phone.

10 Months Old

Sabine is ten months old today! I know! We're shocked at how fast the last month went, too.



But there's been a lot going on, and Sabine is growing every day. Physically, she's now wearing 6-9 month clothing. The 6 month clothing is officially getting tight. (Fortunately sundresses and rompers tend to be loose and forgiving, so we're eeking out some extra days from those clothes.)

Sabine now has two top teeth poking through, and she's using them to work her way through all sorts of new foods. She's ambivalent about chicken, quinoa, macaroni and cheese; but she has a newfound passion for hummus and watermelon.

She's practically running, she loves her little pool, and is very close with Tatum, our attention-starved (at least, if you ask him) cat, who tolerates a lot of poking and pulling for a little bit of love. But at least she's starting to offer him his own toys occasionally.

As Sabine can now demonstrate, she's just getting SOOOOO big!



It's amazing to me how independent she still is. She wants to walk by herself everywhere we go, choose her own clothes, and rearrange the contents of drawers as she sees fit. (She seems to have inherited her mom and her grandpa's organizational tendancies: piles on the floor.) I already feel like she's just indulging me sometimes when I want to hang on to my baby.



And yet it's just getting more fun. We're very excited for what the next months will bring.

A New Chapter

Today is my first weekday home with Sabine. So far, it has been fabulous. We've played, she's napped, I've gotten laundry and the dishes done (on the same day! I cannot remember the last time THAT happened! AND I showered. Holy cow.) and we've visited a good friend for a little while. Of course, it was a little sad to leave my co-workers, and I think if I could explain it to Sabine (sometimes I'm grateful she's so little) I think she'd be very sad to know our wonderful nanny isn't going to be back as often. We are hoping she still might be willing to babysit from time to time. Fingers crossed.

Thank you, Jen, aka Sabine's SuperNanny!



In developmental news, Sabine is definitely starting to make some correlations between words and objects. We haven't heard mama or dada in context yet, but she does have a sound for "cat," "light," (what is it with lights and babies?) and "bear." She's really into her stuffed bears these days.





We've also been trying to teach Sabine a few basic signs in ASL. Just in the past week, we've started to see that click. So far she's got "milk" down. Kid's got priorities. She's kind of getting "more" and we're still working on "all done," "water," and "eat." Sabine understands a lot more than she's able to say or sign, when we ask her where something is, like her ball, a bear, the cat, or shoes, she'll look around until she sees what we're talking about and then walk over to it. Bringing it back is still kind of hit or miss. Still, it's amazing to see how much she learns on a daily basis. I'm excited to get just that much more time with her.

Swimming Lessons

Last Saturday we started swimming lessons at the local Y. We sang songs, attempted to float Sabine on her back (FAIL), and even dunked her at the end. She was mostly excited to see her friend E and play with the noodle.



In more swim fashion-forward news, Sabine has been sporting her little ladybug suit to go in her little pool at home. Thanks to first cousin once removed Sus for this one!



Strike a pose:

Picture Test

Flickr (the photo sharing site I use) has changed its format...so I am doing a quick test run to see if it's still an easy way to post pictures on the blog.

*Peek*



Oh good. It seems to be working.

Happy Thursday!

Thank You

Sabine's newest game is to give you something...and then expect it back two seconds later. We make a big deal out of saying "Thank you!" when she gives us [a ball, a shred of paper, a stuffed animal, our own personal clothing items: see Dustin's hat below] and then we immediately return it to her, which seems to please her, since the game then begins again.



THANK YOU!



Then she takes it back.



This is fun! Mom's turn.



No, seriously, mom, your turn. Put the camera down and take the hat.



In other news, we are officially headed to Michigan over Labor Day to visit Sabine's paternal great-grandmother, as well as her great-aunt and uncle. Just as Sabine's sleep cycle is finally getting normalized, we're going to disrupt it again. But it'll be fun to see that side of the family, it's been several years since we were last able to visit them, and we're very excited for Sabine to meet everyone!