Suma Camelion

She's only 9 months old. It's fine that I haven't recorded anything about her life except her birth, right? Actually I was feeling terribly guilty a few weeks ago about having neglected Summer's first year, until I realized that aside from a few pictures, I don't have a clue about my first year of life and I turned out ok! So I decided I could put off this post a few more weeks. And even though, in the long run, Summer may not care what date she cut her first tooth, my efforts to record bits and pieces of her life are really to help me cement these memories in my head a little bit. She is growing too fast and I just want to capture a few memories for myself.

Summer, these are your baby milestones:

Newborn - Sep '11. First nickname. There are a lot of songs about 'Summer' that I catch myself singing. Yet the first few weeks you were home the song I sang most often was, "Suma, Suma, Suma, Suma, Suma-Camelion" (aka, Karma Camelion). I sang it so much that Ruthie and Austin would actually introduce you to people as, "and this is our baby, Suma Camelion."

6 weeks - Oct '11. First Smile. That is, first awake smile. Official or not, I still loved all the little sleep smiles you gave me too.

3 months - end of Nov '11. Discovered Fingers. You take after your aunt Tiffani in the two-finger sucking department. And not a moment too soon! Daddy was determined to get you sleeping on your own in a crib instead of being cradled in his armpit all night long. I was worried about how you'd do on your own, but since we'd sleep-trained Austin and Ruthie at 3 months and since Daddy was taking the night-shift, I couldn't really object. Thankfully, you found your two middle fingers about 2 days before sleep-training officially began and what a blessing it was for all of us. For the most part you have been an amazing sleeper and napper.

4 months - end of Dec '11. Rolling from back to stomach. I made a prediction that you would accomplish this before the end of the year. Austin was the first to see you do this just 2 days before the New Year. I didn't actually witness it until a few days after the New Year.

4 1/2 months - mid Jan '12. Rolling both directions. It seemed like just a few weeks after you mastered rolling, you figured out how to use it as a way to get around. You rolled from one end of the room to the other and even around the couches. Sometimes I swore you were already secretly crawling because of how you got around.

5 months - end of Jan '12. First tooth. What?! Teething at 5 months? No fair! Austin and Ruthie didn't cut their first tooth until 12 and 11 months respectively. I felt a little panicky that we would have an early end to breastfeeding, but not so. At this age, Austin and Ruthie started including you in their super hero games and nicknamed you "Super Baby". Your super power was "biting villains" with your one tooth which could grow super long to get them. I picked up on this and for the next month called you "The One Tooth Wonder."

5months - end of Jan '12. First laugh. It was a little laugh, but it was adorable.

5 1/2 months - mid Feb '12. Sitting up. Looking like a pro.

6 months - end of Feb '12. Crawling (Army style). You learned to army crawl just before our big family trip to Disneyland. I was a bit frazzled by that because I thought you'd be a little handful in the hotel room (though it wasn't a big deal after all). Now (mid May) you just left this stage and I already miss it! Stop growing up cute girl.

6 1/2 months - early Mar '12. Second tooth. So I changed your nickname to "The Two Tooth Wonder."

6 1/2 months - mid Mar '12. First solid foods. Normally I would've started you on solids at exactly 6 months, but you hit that milestone while we were at Disneyland and I didn't want to risk you having an allergy or something while we were there, so you waited an extra couple of weeks. Your first "official" solid food was oatmeal cereal (because I eat oatmeal everyday, so it seemed more appealing to me than rice cereal). This was followed shortly by mushed carrots and bananas. Austin and Ruthie often ate an apple everyday and gave you their apple cores to suck on. With 2 teeth, you actually managed to get some "meat" off those apple "bones."

Your first "unofficial" food was a sip of Daddy's rootbeer around 5 months. He confessed his sneakiness the next day by demonstrating for all of us. Austin and Ruthie LOVED seeing you drink like a big girl and they each HAD to try to feed you a swallow themselves.

7 months - end of Mar '12. Rocking on knees. Uh oh. Here comes the craziness of getting in to everything!

7 1/2 months - mid Apr '12. Going up stairs. Our kitchen and living room are actually one big room with two long steps dividing them. It must have seemed so unfair to you that we could come and go in the kitchen as we pleased while you were often left in the living room. Beginning in April you became obsessed with mastering those steps. For 2 solid weeks you spent all of your time working on this. No matter were we set you down in the living room, you immediately bee-lined it over to those steps and started working. For a while you could only get up one step, but after 2 weeks of work you finally did it!! Your reward? Eating kitchen dirt! You still haven't mastered going down the steps and have fallen off several times, but I'd much rather have you learn on 2 steps than 14! And just this week (mid May) you finally learned to stop at the edge and not topple off.

(going up steps at grandparents house)

8 months - end of Apr '12. Crawling on knees. Your grandpa and I witnessed this while helping aunt Debbie pack up her kitchen for moving. You got up on your knees and took your first "step" forward! Way to go!

8 months - early May '12. Standing. You now love to pull yourself up to a stand whenever you can. Sometimes you do this funny little one-legged-hip-rocking thing. It'll only be a few more days and weeks before you're cruising along the furniture and then off and walking!

8 months - early May '12. Table foods. We've been getting in to our fruits and vegetables around here lately. Which means there's lots of baby-friendly table foods around. Just in the past week you've eaten broccoli, green beans, peas, carrots, apples, bananas, raspberries, kiwi, strawberries, tomato, avocado, corn, cucumber, peaches, pears, apricots, blueberries, raisins, and probably a few others (like the occasional popsicle).

I thrill at all of your achievements. I do miss each passing stage, but you get more and more fun everyday, so I guess it's all good. For instance, this week, I put you and Ruthie in the bath together. You were sucking on a washcloth and squealing and Ruthie started mimicking you. You thought this was soooo funny! You'd suck the washcloth, then Ruthie would suck on hers, then you'd squeal, then Ruthie would squeal, then you'd LAUGH and LAUGH (the biggest belly laugh to date). Then you'd repeat the whole thing. Such a cutie bootie!