maddie diary      january 1998

nine months old on 29 january
this month
     - pulling up
      - crawling
      - couple of naps a day
      - eats well
      - able to go to sleep by herself

size
      -

activities
      - visit to the zoo

interests
     - exploring slowly

Playing with others
Madeleine has no concept of possession yet.  She can play happily with other kids with no idea of what's going on, just happy to see other small humans.  Bigger kids tend to manhandle her, pawing at her like she's their little doll, and she doesn't seem to mind at all.  She seems to be saying, "they've been around longer, they must know what they're doing."

Physical stuff (1/5)
A few days ago, she was sitting next to the coffee table, grabbed onto the rail, and picked herself up.

She can divert herself, but you can't leave the room for long-- she can roll into positions that she can't get out of.

She's not crawling, but she's creeping backwards, for what that's worth.  She can also lie on her stomach, lift her butt so she's on hands and feet, look like she's going to stand up, and push back into a sitting position.  With any object around, she can push up to standing.  She can cruise a bit (move on her feet while holding onto a piece of furniture).

Whenever she gets a new skill, she seems to have problems sleeping.  She's been sleeping through the night, and knows how to get herself to sleep, but during physical breakthrough periods, she just can't knock out.  When we get out of the sleeping habit, we do the 5/10/15 process, which works pretty well (after some frayed nerves the first night).

Physical (1/15)
Inching forward now.  She'll get a leg in crawl position, with a foot behind her pushing off.  Close.

She's not babbling, but I think she's concentrating on the physical right now.

Playing
She's very amused by the dog.  Howls when he walks by.  He tolerates her touching him.

Loves to sit on the floor and play with her toys.

Her favorite books are two pop-up books (which we read with sounds effects) and a boxed set of Dr. Seuss books.  For some reason, she particularly loves the Slow Feet character in The Foot Book.  Never fails to make her grin.

Crawling!(1/22)
Maddie and I were down in the basement, and I went into the laundry room to clean some brushes.  After about half a minute, I turned to see her poking her head in.  She had crawled about 15 feet.  Obviously, she's going to require a bit more vigilance now!

Eating
We've introduced Cheerios and bagels.