It's amazing to think of how Serena has changed! She is very strong and observant (and vocal!), and is constantly growing in those areas! Last night, Jordan was playing with her, and Serena reached out for his hand. She has always liked grabbing on to things, but mostly only if they were either put into her hand or if it happened to be out to the side where her hand happened to be (for example, she likes to hold on to my sleeve while I change her diaper). But this morning, I rattled her little dolly in front of her (I've been doing this for the last couple weeks just for fun) and as she looked at it with her usual great big eyes shining with interest, she reached her hand out in front of her to grab it! Once she had it in her grasp, she pulled it in to herself and hugged it as she opened her mouth wide to give it a big kiss (or something like that, heehee!). And just like that, we've reached a whole new level of play!
This video turned out to be about 14 seconds longer than 30 seconds. (I know, it would have been easier for me to say that it is 44 seconds, but that just sounds longer than 14 seconds over.... Semantics, plain and simple.) I do have a short segment in here of her playing on her mat with some toys above her head. I figured it might be a little boring to watch her play like that for too long, since it's not very interactive; but you have to understand that for me it is SO EXCITING to watch her reach out for her toys and grab them!!! Hahaa! :D At the very end, there's a little bit where I'm clucking at Serena and you can see her reaction to it! Clucking garners a smile for me almost every time I do it, and it's so cute! :D
Serena had an exciting first Christmas! Besides enjoying the novelty of opening presents, she spent the day being passed around and doted on by everyone; and of course, napping and eating. :) To make things a little more memorable, she had a HUGE blow-out tonight at the Horak Christmas gathering. :P Before we left for the party she had been napping for over 3 hours, and I finally had to wake her up to take her to the party. I didn't have time to change her, so I figured I would just do it when we got to the party. On the drive over, I heard her do a little toot, and I thought to myself how she hadn't pooped for at least two days and whenever she ended up pooping it was probably going to be a big one! Shortly after we got her in the house, she started making the rounds of Jordan's aunts and uncles. I thought I had better intercept her and get her diaper changed since she'd been wearing it for quite a while. Lo and behold, the little twirp had made a BIG MESS in there and gotten it on her clothes and on her blanket!!!! :P Out came the back-up onesie and Serena's cute but poopy "Baby's First Christmas" outfit was banished to a Wal-Mart sack! Way to go, Serena! Merry Christmas! :D
I had just finished feeding Serena, so I laid her down on the couch for a minute to help Jordan with something. When we looked back at her, we had to laugh because her shirt was pulled up a little and her tummy was sticking out all round and full! Poor kid, she's going to hate me for this one someday! ;)
Today I got out the Exersaucer that I had snagged at a garage sale back in May. It was in super shape and very clean; but just to be safe, I put the cloth seat through the wash and then washed all the toys with bleach water. It looks brand new! When I put Serena in it this afternoon, she was just crazy about all those toys within reach plus the novelty of 'standing' up!!! (She loves to stand!) The seat spins very easily, and she got around to all the toys pretty quickly. Macy was pretty curious about it and kept sticking her head up there too, so Serena would play with Macy's face like, "Oh, this toy even comes with a Macy head! How nice!" (Serena loves touching Macy and Macy doesn't mind as long as she can lick Serena's drool-soaked fingers, haha!)
Serena loves to hold something while she's sleeping...usually either one of my fingers or something soft like a blankie or, in a pinch, even a burp rag will do. Today, she got one of her hands free from her swaddle during her nap, so I put a dolly in her arm, and she immediately hugged it to herself and fell into a sound sleep holding the dolly for the next couple hours! She looked so sweet!!
Serena's been soaking up a lot of love from her Grandpa & Grandma and Uncle Grant and Aunt Anna!
