Saturday, April 14, 2007

Recent developments

It's very cool to see how Melina's little mind is developing. She's gotten to the point where we can sort of have conversations. Like yesterday, she kept dropping her stuffed baby condor (which she calls her baby chicken) on the ground. I asked her, "Why are you dropping your baby chicken on the ground?" And she said, "bounce!" She wanted to see if it would bounce. (It wouldn't.) And now I can explain things to her, like the fact that you need to put on shoes before you go outside, and those shoes need to be tied. It's like a veil is gradually lifting as she grows more and more aware and articulate.

On the sleep front, we're in another "training" phase. Recently she's started waking up and wanting us to sing to her endlessly (her current favorite is Frere Jacques). Jeff is the one who usually get stuck with this duty, so it was his idea that we should sleep in the basement for a while so Melina gets used to us not being in what is basically the same room as her. When she wakes up, he goes up and lets her know that we're around, but doesn't stay. After a few nights of this, she didn't wake up at all last night. Let's hope it sticks. Soon we will be moving her into her own room, which should be interesting.

On the chicken front, I've been putting the girls out every day that it's not pouring rain, and bringing them in at night. They seem to enjoy it. Today they ate their first slug. Hooray! I think next week I'll put them out for good. At that point they will be five, six, and seven weeks old, and I think they can handle it. I might put a lightbulb out there to keep them warm too.

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