Smile, Grab Camera, and Shake

I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post until I checked the blog last night and noticed the date of the last entry. However, that time has given us the opportunity to put videos right onto the blog, so you don't have to click any links anymore. (As a side note, if this makes it take too long for the blog to load, or if the videos don't work for whatever reason, let us know. You can leave a comment at the bottom of the post if you want.)

Addie has finally begun to crawl, only just barely. It's really more of a military-style sneaking maneuver, but it works. She lies on her belly and extends her arms and sort of drags herself along, usually toward whatever motivational object (like the computer, as I type this post) may be in front of her. Some might think of it as an under-developed crawl, since she's not on hands and knees, but I like to think of it more as a stealthy alternative.

Addie is also beginning to give us plenty of motivation to keep the house well vacuumed. She's quite adept at finding all sorts of goodies in the old shag carpet of our apartment that we had no idea were there. And as these goodies tend to make their way into her mouth, it's probably best that we remove as many of them as possible. We don't want to spoil her, after all.

A little while ago Ame found a pattern for a baby carrier (called a Mai Tie) to replace her sling, since Addie was getting too big for the sling and putting quite the strain on Ame's shoulder. So she whipped out some fabric and put this thing together and carries Addie from place to place in it. Now that Addie is becoming more attentive, it's sometimes difficult for her to fall asleep for a nap, since there is just so much neat stuff to look at and play with. (As an aside, she has an uncanny way of finding and attempting to play with nearly everything that we don't want her to play with, such as stacks of paper that are being sorted. In fact, she swallowed a corner of a piece of paper this way.) However, Ame's carrier serves as a wonderful little respite from the world for Addie, who often falls asleep while being chauffeured from place to place, sometimes to the point of ultimate relaxation. (For some reason, I can't get the first picture to rotate so that it's upright. Turn your head, or your computer, or just use your imagination.)




Now for some videos. Again, you should be able to watch the videos straight from the blog here. I really don't think they need any explanation. I take that back. I'll offer a small bit of commentary. The first one shows Addie being quite interested in the strap on my camera, and finally succeeding to grab it and give the camera a nice little shake. Concerning the second one, we have recently discovered that Addie is ticklish under her chin. I'm the first one tickling her, to which she responds with a cute little smile, pushing my hand away. Then Ame gets her hand in there and Addie quickly turns from "Ha ha, this is fun" to "Seriously now mom, stop." So there. Enjoy.








Direct links to the videos, if needed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIb46qkTsPI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMlv5JpeAyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQSmmjhTKEM