Ember is becoming quite the little chatterbox. Her favorite thing – besides nursing, of course – is to lay in my arms or on the bed/floor/bouncer and smile at me while cooing. She makes all kinds of sounds… little “Coo”s, “Cah”s, “Ahh”s and “Oh”s. And she sticks her tongue out a lot. She’s very animated, and her smile is utterly adorable! We are starting to think that maybe she’ll be an early talker instead of an early walker. (Just us wondering aloud – could be both, could be neither, and not that it matters!) She just seems so aware of what’s going on.

She also strikes me as being pretty secure with herself and the world. I’ve said many times, Kate was very needy, she needed me (or Den) as her base of operations. She cried when put down, when in the swing, when in the car. It was hard to distract her with toys or things, too – I remember feeling very frustrated with her crying in the car because she just couldn’t seem to understand and she was just lost in her own little “want mommy” bubble… until about 4 months old I think is when it changed and she was occupied and happy in the car when awake, I’d have to look that up to know for sure. But Ember on the other hand… she’s already wide awake and watching the world go by when in the car, or spending the time intently studying her hands and feet. (I have a mirror, I watch her.) Kate got to that point eventually… it just took her considerably longer.

Grocery shopping today (with the husband – I did not attempt on my own this time!) she spent the entire time in the mei tai. Lots of head bobbing at first as she settled in, but then she was okay with just watching everything. I had to use one hand to pull down the carrier side a bit and the other arm to boost her butt up a little. She’s just too short to get a good view, and I think that’s what bothers her right now. 2/3 of the way through our shopping she got the hiccups and fussed for a bit, I bounced and swayed.. and she fell asleep. Success! This is what I like to see! It doesn’t hurt that now she can put her fingers in her mouth to self-soothe. So I think she’ll be fine in the carriers soon, it’s just that the mei tai’s body is too big for right now (but it makes a GREAT toddler carrier!).

Kate is still bouncing off walls a little bit, but we spent the morning wrapping pipe cleaners around our fingers and doing silly finger-plays. She thought that was fun! When daddy got home she immediately ran over to give him a pipe cleaner and said, “Daddy! Finger!” I need to find more fun little things to do, but it’s hard because every time I think I have something neat and crafty it only occupies her for 2 minutes. (But yet stacking her books will keep her attention for half an hour… go figure.)