Fourteen Month Baby Update

[dorchadas]

Even though I know when Laila's birthday was, for some reason I kept thinking "Oh I'll write the post on Thursday." Oops.

Laila is doing well! My last post was about taking her to the hospital for an overnight EEG, and we did that, and the EEG was totally normal. That's what the team of doctors--and the nurse, and the nursing assistant, and a couple hangers-on because everyone wanted to see the cutest baby on the 19th floor-- came in to tell us, and they told us to keep an eye out and that they would continue her medication adjustment. The day we got home, she had more strange movements, but I had noticed a pattern--both times, they happened at the end of her mealtime, when she was belted into her high chair. Could it be that her seatbelt, which I had shortened a couple months ago to prevent her from leaning forward and vacuuming up all her food instead of using her hands, was now too tight? sashagee said that since she's there watching Laila, just to put in her without using the belt anymore, and we haven't seen any strange movements in the last week. Whether it's the seatbelt or the medication adjustment, now she's okay.

She's not quite walking yet, though she is standing up on her own for brief periods! She's following Wile E. Coyote rules, though, where she can only really do it if she doesn't realize that she's doing it. She'll be standing all on her own for a moment, realize what's happening, and then plop back down, or rock back far enough that she realizes she's not holding on to sashagee and then fall, and so on. Maybe she just needs a bit more confidence--she's definitely a very cautious baby. I'm reminded of when she was first learning how to get down from standing up, where she'd hold on to the table with one hand and slooooooooooowly lower herself until she could feel the floor with her other hand before finally letting go.

Also, she has curly hair!

I may not have given her my red hair--the most I managed is a reddish tint--but she does have sashagee and my curls. The happy smile in that photo is because she just knocked the pan off the shelf and heard the CLANG.

She's saying a few words now, too! "Mama" and "Abba" of course (though she still has a bit of trouble with that one, and sometimes says "papa" or "baba" instead), but she also understands some others. Just a few days ago she bit sashagee and when sashagee said, "Laila! No!" Laila responded with, "Ow? Ow, ma ma?" She knows "wow!" when something happens that she thinks is interesting. She also knows what "No" means, though she only really says it in times of extreme duress like when we dare to clean her when her face is all covered in food. When she hears it, it's even odds whether she looks at us and then ignores it, stops what she's doing, or tries to finish whatever she's doing faster before we get over there to stop her.

How much will she change between now and the sixteen-month update?

Comments

[susandennis]

i am not one of those who thinks all babies are cute. but, i totally get the med staff's reaction. she is really really cute and that curly hair on top. seriously cute.

[dorchadas]

I realize that I'm very biased, but I think Laila is in the upper tier of baby cuteness.

[cocosmileyboo]

I'm not one who thinks babies in general are cute, but she is kind of adorable.

Also definitely a reddish tint, but that could definitely darken as she gets older. When I was a baby, my hair was black, fell out and grew back in white, and I retained bright blonde hair through early childhood. Then it slowly darkened to the now-shade of between golden blonde and light brown. And also when I'm in the sun, my hair has a strawberry tint, which is kind of cool. Hair kind of fascinates me.

[dorchadas]

Hair is tricky, it's true. Her hair wasn't black when she was born, but it was a very dark brown. Then it all fell out and turned the current color. It'll probably darken as she gets older but it doesn't have to--my hair was fire-engine red when I was young and it's been getting gradually lighter as I've aged (so have my eyes, weirdly), not quite strawberry-blond but with blond highlights. My sister used to be strawberry-blonde and now is much closer to just blonde.

I'm very curious if Laila's curls will stick. My sister used to have curly hair and it went stick-straight when she hit puberty, but sashagee is the opposite--her curls only came in with puberty. Maybe my waves and sashagee's curls will ensure Laila keeps her curls!

[cocosmileyboo]

That is kind of interesting about curls. My hair was pretty straight when I was growing up, but it's definitely developed waves and curls since I got older. The shorter it is, the more curls I have, obviously. My hair's also always been really thick, and I'm actually kind of nervous about it thinning as I age.