Half-way Around the Sun

Hannah's now been with us one half trip around the sun. That's 470 million kilometers, for those counting at home. In that time she's learned to recognize faces, eat rice cereal, grow hair, crawl backwards (sort of), and sleep peacefully through the night. We hope the next 470 million kilometers bring teeth, mobility, words, and potty training. Well, we can hope.

The last month has brought a revolution in recognition. Mornings, we transfer her from comfy bed into cold car seat and she inevitable awakens. She's grouchy for a moment, as we all are, stretches, glares, and then catching sight of a (giant) friendly face, she breaks into a sunshine of smiles. That's a great way to start the day, for everyone.

Peek-a-boo has begun. Oddly, she giggles the most when the cloth is raised, not dropped, though she smiles each time Stephanie's face appears. I told Steph she was beginning to replace her observational, self-centrist ontology with a persistent/permanence model. She just glared at me. Actually, there's a fascinating though brief article on infant metaphysics at Wikipedia, should that tickle your fancy.

Rice cereal is the newest hit. We have slowly introduced the toothless wonder to rice cereal, mushed banana, apple sauce, and her favorite: mushed avocado. Every couple days she eats a half meal of one, with much arm flapping, happy-humming, little shrieks, and reaching for the spoon. Tonight was another milestone: rice cereal in the high chair. Everyone was most happy. Stephanie was particularly impressed with Hannah's ability to move the food (quickly) to the back of her mouth. Next on the culinary tour are carrots and apricots, and a stack of Gerber bottles and little plastic tubs of unnamable muddy-colored goo. It's so easy to forget how exciting the simplest things -- the sensation of flavor, a color, a nice nap -- can be. As adults we want GPS mobile phones and cars with movie players. But it wasn't that long ago we really wanted our favorite bunny and some mac-n-cheese. Hold onto that.

Plus, in another eighteen months I'll take her to Rudy's for real food.

Maybe it's all the food, but the little cue-ball has hair again. Hair! We thought it would never come back. Unlike the original, reddish, male-pattern-baldness batch, this hair is everywhere. Stephanie calls it "honey colored" which is probably just a nice way of saying some is blonde and some is reddish/brown. Who knows. The one down-side is that she's rubbed off a spot in the back, probably while tossing while sleeping, so we're hoping she'll gain a little more strength and be able to sleep on her tummy.

Despite Hannah's early successes, there hasn't been much mobility since. She's able to pull herself upright in the swing, roll front-to-back and back-to-front, sit up for a few seconds unassisted, but actual crawling yet eludes her. Stephanie's noted a few times when Hannah is belly-down and pulls her legs up, cyclicly, moving backwards up to a foot in a few minutes. And though her arms are in the proper position, she doesn't (?) have the strength or inclination to lift her head and chest. Undoubtedly this will come. We know we'll somewhat regret her immobility, the excitement of watching her learn and grow overcomes.

Best of all, she's sleeping through the night, consistently. Stephanie usually partially wakes her around 1-2 AM for food, but Hannah rarely fully wakes during this meal. Soon, we (I) hope Stephanie will have her first full night's sleep of 2008.

So, that's the news.