a few more things

My daughter can say "Ma Ma" pretty well now.
She can also "fly" too - open her arms wide wanting someone else to hold her.
She can't crawl forward yet, but crawl in circles by half a circle and backwards a little bit (between half and one foot).
Probably like all babies, she likes to be bathed, and is also okay when taken out of the water, but starts to cry when being wrapped up in a towel. She stops crying when we are done clothing her again.
She loves to play with her feet, or more precisely with her socks. The moment we put a sock on her, she will pull the other one off. Sometimes we feel like Sisyphus, putting socks on her in eternity.

Adapting to changing needs

We are very lucky - my daughter could sleep 6 hours straight when she was 2 months old and has been setting new records every month. Her record so far is 12 hours. During the past week, however, she woke up around 1 am several times, and stayed awake for 1 to 2 hours, in fact until we fed her. So last night we fed her more solid food for her dinner, and added some solid before bedtime. And she slept through the night, waking up after 9 hours of sleep this morning. Raising a child is like a game - their needs are always changing and you need to adapt your strategies. It's basically trial and error. The hard part is, when you figure out the right way, you feel guilty for all the errors you have made.

A happy father

今天宝宝七个月整。上午我给宝宝换尿片的时候，老公照例在旁边帮忙。宝宝伸手摸着爸爸的脸，突然说了一长串的＂爸、爸、爸、爸＂，把她爸爸乐坏了。
她不到四个月的时候，有一次她要pacifier，我说＂叫妈妈就给你。＂宝宝急得发出一长串的音节，最后说出的就是＂妈＂这个音。当时宝宝也发出过ba, na, 等音节。但后来有段时间＂说话＂比较少。六个月左右开始＂说话＂又多起来，ba, da, wa, yi, qi, mei, 等音常说。但象今天这样对着爸爸叫＂爸爸＂还是第一次。

First day of Spring and my daughter's first tooth

I have wanted to start blogging (again) since I became pregnant, which was more than a year ago. And everyday since my daugher was born, I wanted to do this. And finally, today, the guilt was so much that I did start.

Today is March 20, 2009, the first day of spring, one day before my daughter turns 7 months. Last night I put my daughter to sleep around 8:15. When I went to bed at 0:30 (which technically is today), my daughter woke up. This does not happen that often (thank God) - about once a week. After trying to put her back to sleep again for 2 hours, it occurred to me that she might have made another breakthrough. And just like that, I discovered that she had cut her first tooth! I had to admit that I didn't check her mouth every day, when I did a couple of days ago and it was not there yet (though very close).

She finally went back to sleep again at 3:30 am. This morning, when my baby sitter came, she told me the same discovery she made yesterday, which she forgot to tell me yesterday. So I'm now comfortable to put her milestone of cutting first tooth at March 19, 2009.

First tooth, first day of spring, turning 7 months, - and so this becomes the beginning of my blog about my daughter and my life as her mother.