A few new things

New thing 1: Sleep position

Sophia has been sleeping better these days (these nights, I guess). She has been waking up in the middle of the night still, but after a few minutes of crying she will put herself to sleep again. We haven't needed a night feeding in three days - here's crossing her fingers. She is getting better at going to sleep, as well. We'll put her down then leave her room right away, and she'll cry a bit but she does manage to put herself to sleep.

The other day, however, there was a new sleeping thing. Sophia was crying in the middle of the night, and it morphed into "daddy-daddy-daddy-daddy." This usually means she won't go back to sleep without a bit of a drink or a cuddle so in I went. I was only a little surprised to discover that she wasn't in the bed - she has from time to time gotten out of her bed and knocked on the door to get out of the room in the morning. But as I looked around I became increasingly confused - she was nowhere to be seen, and still I could hear the plaintive "daddy-daddy-daddy." "Sophie?" I said, looking behind the chair. Nothing. Then I noticed that "daddy-daddy-daddy" was actually coming from the bed, so I looked around, behind, then under...

Sophia had wedged herself under the bed.

and seemed to be stuck.

I'm not sure how she got there, but there she was. I fished her out and put her back to sleep, and she hasn't been caught under the bed since.

New thing 2: Carry

Since she was young, Sophia has been good at going down stairs backwards, and didn't seem too resentful that us big people could seem to fly downstairs forwards, while she couldn't even see where she was going. Recently, she has become a little braver with the stairs, and we have been walking holding her hand more, so naturally she is starting to try to go down stairs in the forward direction. The first few times she did it (with our help) were OK, but then one day she took a tumble down the stairs (only 2 stairs to the landing, and carpeted) but since then she has been more cautious. She has learned how to use the handrails, and can make it down stairs with some regularity, but she often chooses not to - if a parent is there, she would rather be carried. She'll try one step, then look up and you, hold her arms out, tilt her head adorably and say "Cawwy?" You try to resist. You say "No, honey, you can do it. Come on down the stairs!" Then she'll start to try one more step, balk, and look at you with eyes the size of dinner plates and say

"Cawwy?"

and you're done. Carry you do.

New thing 3: Letter H

Sophia has been more and more aware of the alphabet and written words these days. She has always loved books and always looks at them right-side up. We have been going through the alphabet with more skill (see a previous post with video of the alphabet) and she regularly fills in letters. Her favorite is this. We say "LMNO" and she says, with a big grin "PEEEE!" She is even starting to refer to letters she sees in a book or on a sign as "ABC?" So she is starting to make the connection between spoken and written English.

I had a magazine open the other day, just flipping through, and Sophia, unprompted, looked at the page and said "Aitch!" I was confused, but then noticed that one of the drop-caps that begins a paragraph was indeed a big letter "H". Now this is potentially a major breakthrough many years ahead of her development. So I said "Where?" and she pointed right at the "H" and said "Aitch!" Unbelievable. I showed Mommy. Mommy was also flabbergasted. We flipped to another page, pointed at another letter (an "A") and said "What's that, Sophia?" and she said...

"Aitch"

(damn, we whispered under our breath)

"And this, what's this?" we say, pointing at a "T"

"Aitch"

Oh well, it must mean something, but I guess she's not reading quite yet...