Exciting times at the House of Mulhern

[Meghan]

Sydney has learned several new skills this week. First and foremost, she is now eating cereal. I had made some half-hearted attempts at feeding her cereal in the past, but she showed absolutely no interest. I decided not to push it. I didn't see any point in trying to force-feed her something she didn't want.

Then last night, she became obsessed with watching me eat. She followed each bite to my mouth. I decided she might like to try some food again. I put her in the high chair and mixed up a half-tablespoon of rice cereal. The first couple of bites resulted in very strange faces, but she didn't spit it out. Then something just clicked and she started opening her mouth for each bite and swallowing it down. She even fussed when I was taking too long with the next bite. She finished off the bowl and whined for more, so I made another half-tablespoon, and she finished that, too! She had cereal twice more today. I'm sure vegetables won't be far behind.

She has also learned to propel herself across the floor....sort of. She can scoot along either on her tummy or on her back if Mike or I puts our hands against the bottoms of her feet. She pushes against our hands and scoots across the room. She hasn't quite figured out how to do it without our help yet, but I'm sure that's coming. As soon as the muscle tone in her midsection improves, I'm sure she'll be crawling.

Sydney has also learned a new "word." I'm not sure how to spell this word, but it's the word you say when you push your lips together and blow....also known as raspberries. Mike mentioned that she was doing raspberries the other day, but now she has actually started using them in conversation, inserting them into her "sentences" as if they are words. For example, a typical thing for Sydney to say might be, "Ga ga gug *rasperberry* ah ga gug *raspberry*."

Finally, we had a little incident with her jumper seat yesterday. You have probably seen this seat in some of her pictures; it hangs from a doorway and she can jump up and down in it. She loves this thing. It's her favorite toy. I had her in it yesterday, and when she had had enough of it, she got a little fussy. I tried to lift her out of it, and she crossed her ankles, making it impossible to lift her legs out of the seat. I jiggled her a little and finally she let go. But then she grabbed the straps in her strong little fists. By that point, she was totally losing her mind and crying hard. I was getting upset, too, but I just couldn't get her out of the stupid thing. Finally she let go. And of course stopped crying as soon as I was holding her. No harm done; she was happily bouncing away in it again today.

[Aunt Linda]

Sounds like she is growing up so quickly. Wonder if you will notice any difference with the spitting up now that she has something a little more solid in her tummy? Big thing when my kids were little was that eating cereal was suppose to make them sleep better at night, it did not work for me. Sounds like she has awfully good muscle control for her age. Were you an early walker? I can't believe she is doing so much so early, hopefully I will get to see her soon. Enjoy your first Easter with Sydney.