Joy Lab II

On Friday afternoon Jeff took Maren to the lake, and Linden and I went back to the Joy Lab at the science centre with some other moms and babies. Here are a couple of highlights:

Balancing act

Maren is making fast progress on her balance bike. Jeff took this video a couple of days ago, and we were very impressed. But now she can balance for about five times as long, after only a couple more days of practice. We can’t believe how much she is suddenly able to do, and she seems so grown up!

Linden is chewing like crazy. I am sure her gums are bugging her, but still have no idea when those teeth will pop through.

Linden is also suddenly more aware of everything. She has been distractible for a while, but now it is kind of insane. She will find things to be interested in even in a dark, quiet room.

We are finding that it is really difficult to meet the needs of two active kids. I am sure that Maren is upset that we have to attend to Linden so often. I will say that I can read a book, but then Linden will need to nurse, and then she will need a diaper change, and then a nap. And it absolutely doesn’t help that right now Linden will only nap in a carrier. That means that every time she naps, either Jeff or I is unavailable. It is hard for Maren, especially when there is no parent available. So she acts out, and often tries to wake up Linden, which is bad for everyone. So it was very sweet when I caught her giving a carrier nap to her doll.

It is hard but we are figuring it out 😊

Reaching and reading

Linden has started reaching and grabbing things with some reasonable accuracy. It is fun to watch her choosing what toys she wants, and becoming more active. Everything goes straight into her mouth. Everything. She drools like a faucet. I am sure I can see her two bottom teeth under her gums, but Jeff doesn’t see them so I guess it is possible that I am imagining it.

With her reaching and grabbing and putting everything into her mouth, we have to be careful not to let her get food. She isn’t quite ready for eating yet, but she might disagree. She watches intently when we eat, and has tried to grab food a few times. Usually babies don’t start on solid food until six months old, but I think Linden may be ready sooner. We won’t spoon feed her before then, but if she happens to succeed at swiping food from our plates we may have to let her experiment with chewing at least.

Meanwhile, Maren has started to read simple words, some with no help and others with a little coaching on the vowels. It is horribly unfair to beginning readers that vowels in English can make so many different sounds. But besides that she really can sound out words. We were unsure whether she was really reading or just figuring out the words from the pictures in books, but today I wrote some words on blank cards and she definitely read them. So we are pretty impressed, and super proud 😊

I love my precocious little girls!

Camping, sleep, Joy Lab

This week we tried to go camping. We sort of did, but left before the second night, because sleep was so bad the first night. Basically the problems were with being too cold, and having too much daylight for Maren and Linden to sleep. We had fun, but probably won’t camp again this summer. Photos of Linden trying to fall asleep with daylight and shadows streaming through the tent, and Maren after giving up on trying to sleep, despite being desperately tired:

Amazingly though, sleep has been really good since coming home, with Linden only waking up once or twice a night, and both Linden and Maren sleeping past 6am. Fingers crossed that things stay this way at least for a while!

Yesterday we went to a new exhibit at the science centre that is called the “Joy Lab,” and is basically a bunch of sets for visitors to play around and take photos in. The scientific question to ponder is whether you get more joy from being there or from looking at the photos later. An interesting question. Here are a few of the photos, including some that Maren took. I can tell you for sure that I get more joy from looking at those pictures Maren took than from posing for them :)