Cruising

After crawling, but before independent walking, comes a quirky stage in baby-mobility called "cruising" -- basically walking around furniture while holding on to the furniture for balance. Adelaida has been cruising for about a month, first slowly inching around the coffee table or across the sofa (with almost imperceptible movements), then transferring from one piece of furniture to another (from the coffee table to the sofa, for instance, when they were only about a foot apart).

She became adept at cruising in her crib, moving from one position along the rails to another over the course of a minute or two, as in these photos:


Soon, she was able to walk all the way around her music table (shown here with her friend Shreya) and to transfer from one piece of furniture to another with ease.


Then, one day, I was sitting in the living room with Adelaida and she pulled herself up to standing against the door (using the glass pane borders for support). She often pulled up to a standing position at these doors because I often closed the doors to separate the dogs (in the sunroom) and the baby (in the living room). She liked to look through the glass at Maggie and Murphy, and they liked to look through the glass at her.


She inched her way over to the door jamb, then just continued, pressing her hands to the wall for support.


Amazingly, she did all of this with a toy in her hand!


She was even able to round the (interior) corner walking!


I was so impressed with her new mobility that I didn't realize immediately that her goal was the electrical outlet on that section of wall -- she tried to insert her toy into the outlet sockets and to hang the ring on the outlet.

The next day, we put electrical outlet covers on all the Adelaida-accessible electrical outlets.

This all happened about three weeks ago, and today Adelaida would rather cruise than crawl. She cruises down the hallway, around the living room, from chair to chair (and knee to knee) under the kitchen table, and along the cabinets in the kitchen. She hasn't yet taken any independent steps, but can make her way across just about any room by cruising!

Eleven months old

I know I've been tardy in posting to the blog this month, and to all my loyal readers, I apologize! We've all been well and are continuing to take lots of pictures, but have been more busy than normal and I haven't made time to let you all know what is happening at the Parkes Ranch.

I have several stories (with pictures, of course!) I'm hoping to post in the next week or so, but first wanted to update you all on Adelaida's growth. Just a week ago, she turned 11 months old, which is so close to a year old that I've started telling people she's "almost one" when they ask. Soon, I'll drop the "almost" and just say she's one!

As has become the custom, here are pictures of Adelaida over the past eleven months.


Four days old:


One month old:


Three months old:


Five months old:


Seven months old:


Nine months old:


Eleven months old:


And an eleven-month-old bonus picture of Adelaida with Pink Panther. Adelaida is chewing on one puzzle piece and has another in her left hand. This picture shows her with two of her favorite activities: eating her puzzle pieces and standing at her bookcase.

A case of I-miss-my-momma-itis

I received a phone call from Adelaida's school today letting me know that she had been crying for almost an hour and nothing they could do would make her happy. They had tried feeding her, giving her a bottle, rocking her, letting her crawl, reading her a book, but still she just cried and cried. Most of you have heard me say that Adelaida is such a happy baby who rarely cries (and when she does cry, it doesn't last very long), so this was definitely unusual and probably meant that she was in some pain.


I of course left work immediately and drove to her school as fast as I could, wondering as I drove what could possibly be wrong with her (an ear infection? teething? hungry?). When I walked in, I saw Adelaida in one of her teachers' arms, crying. I walked up to her and said, "Adelaida, what's wrong?" She noticed me, broke into a huge smile, and waved to me.

She didn't shed another tear all day.

In a way, it made me feel good that all it took to make her happy was seeing me. And of course I was quite relieved that she wasn't in pain or injured or ill. She just missed her momma.