Shiner

My husband and I have eased into an experiential learning model of parenting that just came naturally to us. I guess from our own growing up years, we learned that children have to experience certain hazzards in order to understand the need to avoid those in the future. Either that, or we just realized that there was no way we could keep up with our very active child in order to keep her away from every possible fall or bump. She leaves us wondering where they find those children who sit quietly and play with the toys in front of them. Do they really exist? Or do they just sedate those toddlers and babies who are on sitcoms on TV?

In the course of learning to pull up and walk along furniture, Olivia has had her fair share of bumps and bruises. They are usually pretty minor since we've removed most of the hard-edged furniture from the play space in our living room. But as active as she is, we'd have to bubble-wrap the entire living room and remove most of her hard plastic toys to keep her from all bruises. I can't tell you how many times she's been bobbing her head to the music on her stand-up keyboard and then whacked her head on that same keyboard because she got a little to wild with the head bobbing.

Anyway, yesterday I walked into the kitchen to put away the dishes. Since our living space is pretty open and flows from one room to the next, Olivia usually crawls after me, through the dining room and into the kitchen, and then she likes to stand up and hold onto my legs until I pick her up again. Occasionally, she'll get distracted by the dining room chairs, and I glanced over to see her standing up and holding onto one of them. "No, Olivia, don't climb. Come here." She has, in the past, tried to climb the vertical slats on the back of the chair, but she knows the word "No" and usually will abandon the idea of climbing and examine the tablecloth or something for a few minutes.

I heard a WHAP and looked over. She had pulled the chair down on top of herself. It took her a second to react, but when she did...OH BOY. It was one of those breathless type of cries when a baby is REALLY upset, one where she was sobbing and all like "Mommy, how could you let that mean old chair attack me? Did you see what happened? Did you?" Of course, babies have very short memories, so five minutes later, she was playing happily again. She was left with a shiner above her right eye, though.

"See my bruise? Also, here's a shot of my teeth coming in on top."


"The chair attacked me, honest."


Now that we've entered the glorious realm of 8 months, Olivia is enjoying eating more food with her hands. The homemade baby food site recommended cutting soft-cooked foods into small pieces and letting her eat with her hands. It also lists some new foods she can have, including broccoli.

I didn't really think Olivia would enjoy broccoli. She does love to eat with her hands, though. So, we gave it a try.


She LOVED the broccoli (and little pieces of green beans too). Of course, we had to hose her and her high chair down after this little episode, but she thoroughly enjoyed her eating experience.