Neglecto-saucer

The pall of sickness is starting to lift at the Homestead. This might have been our first daycare illness, but Homestead Mama and I were down for the better part of a week with a bad cold. The baby got off the lightest with just nasal congestion, thankfully, but her spirits were great.

This was helpful, as I'm not sure how we would have handled both adults being sick AND Pequita being miserable. As it was, she was going through one of her most delightful stages yet - lots of bouncing & giggling & much flashing of the big toothless gummy grin.

She has figured out how to really laugh, and will do it when we tickle her belly - it is very different from her screechy giggle. We also were noticing that she hasn't done some basic things we expected her to have mastered already - she hasn't really cared about her feet, for example. Well, here in upstate NY under a foot of snow there hasn't been much call to leave her feet (or any body part on her) bare. As an experiment, we left her shoes & socks off after her bath and within minutes she had her toes in her mouth. Apparently her shoes - the cutest ever - can't hold a candle to actual live wiggling toes. Oh, the glory.

We received a lovely gift of nice hand-me-down toys from a friend, and now Pequita enjoys her very own neglecto-saucer. She cannot figure out what to play with first. She is a little short for it yet, and most of the toys don't reach her mouth, the overarching fate for all things she encounters. This caused some anxiety.

We ended up having to actually ADD more stimulation to the neglecto-saucer by strapping on more toys that she can chew on while staring at the myriad bouncy/ shaking/ squeeking/ spinning things already on there. Oh, happy day. Hottie Friend was amazed at the difference in Pequita from a mere week ago - she is growing and changing awfully fast.

The other toy, a cube w/ wooden shapes that slide over wires, is very fun to watch her moms play with, but requires a lot of oversight since she seems dead set on whacking her forehead into the corners if we'd let her.

Thanks to Julie for posting the link to Hallmark's new line of cards - I needed a good indignant snort this morning. "