Grasping!

Our little Phoebe has had quite the exciting week. She’s turned into a thumb-sucking, grasping, elephant-kicking, sleeping-through the-night sensation! On Monday she slept almost all day, which seems to be how she conserves energy to learn something new. On Tuesday she had figured out how to reach out and grasp a toy repeatedly. She doesn’t always know how to let go, but it’s pretty awesome to watch her take Crinkle Lion in her hand and wave him around. By today, which is Sunday, she can use both hands and capture her friend Lion between them.

This video is much longer than the usual, but I was so enamored of Phoebe’s grasping that I couldn’t turn off the camera!

At our last doctor’s visit, Dr. Terpenning suggested that we give Phoebe a bedtime. She’s really responded to it! At 9:00 she gets a diaper change and we read her a story. I feed her and say her prayers, and she goes to bed. She sucks some combination of thumb and fingers until she falls asleep. We couldn’t wait for her to start self-soothing, and it really helped that she got old enough to reliably find her thumb. She’s quite the little thumb-sucker these days: just like her Mommy. She comes by it honestly, and I think it’s adorable.

Check out this awesome outfit Phoebe got from the Mundschaus!

Phoebe was very photogenic that day…maybe because she’d learned something new!

On Thursday at work, it became clear that Phoebe knows that she can wiggle the animals by kicking the farm.

On Thursday night, Phoebe slept from 9:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m.! Hooray! She slept through Friday and Saturday nights too. I didn’t mind getting up with her once in the night, but this is terrific. We do have to double-diaper her, as one diaper can’t handle eight or nine hours of pee.

On Friday we had coffee with Brenda at Cannon Mine. Phoebe was awake and had a good time standing and showing off her grasping skills.

The past two mornings, Phoebe has been kicking the elephants that hang over the pack ‘n play. It’s great that she can control her body a little better now! She can actually put her good ideas into motion.