Kate has started dancing. Previously she would “dance” while sitting by twisting her upper body left and right. It was cute, and very understated. The other day Den called me over while trying to stifle laughter and we watched her pressing a button on one of her toys to get a song going (ironically it sung “Up and down!”) and then she started doing squats to the music, bobbing up and down with her whole body. I am trying to get it on video, but she keeps running over to me as soon as she sees the video camera. It was absolutely hysterical!

She still likes to climb into the lower corner cupboard, which has remained mostly empty due to her habit of pulling things off the shelves in the back and chucking them on the floor. I had stored baby food in there, which I let her pull down, but the baby food is now mostly gone and the cupboard holds only some unused bottles and cat food dishes. But yet she still likes to pull open the door and climb in, peering deep into the dark corner shelves and playing with the bottles. Yesterday she was under there as I was putting together a smoothie for myself. The blender sits on the counter directly above that cupboard, and I wasn’t sure how she was going to react. So I turned it on and stepped back to watch her. She stopped what she was doing and looked upward curiously. Then she opened her mouth and, “AHHHHHHHHHH!” She was singing along with the blender!

Yesterday evening she was tired and needed some extra cuddles, so I sat on the living room floor with her. She was playing with her toys but kept walking over to me and crawling onto my lap, turning to sit with her back against my chest. Sometimes she would lay across my lap, stretched out like a sunbathing cat, making noise to entice me to give her tickles and kisses. I am thankful she is still a cuddly baby! (Even if she’s not really a baby anymore.)

We ate dinner at a restaurant, my mom, Kate and I. I had a sippy cup of milk for Kate, which sure is convenient in places like a restaurant when I’m trying to eat something too. Kate was feeling a bit tired and thus kind of clingy, but she went into the highchair without much fuss and accepted my offering of cheese and bread. When my dinner came I added to her tray steamed zucchini and carrots. She looked like such a big girl sitting there eating food, then reaching up to snag her sippy cup off the table for a swig of milk when she wanted some. And then of course the requisite leaning over the side of her chair to look over the low wall separating us from other dining patrons, so she could flash her smile at everyone.

I got her a wooden snail pull-along toy, which is very cute and she seemed to take to right away. During the exploring the toy phase when she sat down and looked it over I watched her pick up the attached string, drape it carefully over the snail, and pat it with her fingers as if tucking it in. Yeah, this child is all girl.

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In other news, last night Kate slept 10 hours. No, not total…. 10 hours straight. I put her to bed shortly after 8pm, and she woke up at 6am. That is unbelievably fantastic.

She’s been waking only once at night for a few days now, doing 6-8 hour stretches, but this was a new record! I think it’s all due to a few things that have happened, the night-weaning being the first step. Also she’s been putting herself to sleep for naps and bedtime sometimes – not consistently, but frequently enough. I try to put her down and if she’s still running around her crib when she is clearly tired then I get up and leave. She’ll protest-cry for 2 minutes or so, not get hysterical or anything, and then she’ll whimper a bit and lay down and fall asleep. If she continues to cry I go back in and try again. I’ve found that sometimes my presence is just encouraging her to play in her crib rather than sleep. But then other days she really does need me and will get absolutely hysterical if I leave. Den still rocks her to sleep and puts her down completely asleep. When she wakes up in the middle of the night I learned to wait a few minutes to see if she’ll go back to sleep. Sometimes she will, sometimes she won’t.

I know when the next set of teeth come in her sleep will get all screwed up again and things will change and change again. But mostly I’m just relieved to know that she can learn to sleep. After all those months wondering and worrying, of having people tell us that we have to do X or she’ll never learn – that we can’t keep responding to her or she will continue waking more and more – well now I know what we’ve done works for her.