Baby firsts

Well, here's another entry finally. A lot has been going on. Soccer has started for N. E has taken up the clarinet and we are still in search of a violin and piano teacher for N and D. I am hoping to simplify as much as possible and either find a college student in town with a car who can come to our home and teach, or to take the kids to a local music store for lessons all at once with 3 different instruments. Wonder how lucky I will get there. A has started preschool and seems to like it for the most part. She gets so bored at home with me sometimes, so it's a welcome break 2 days a week (for both of us). She complained for the first time about going the other morning, but went when I told her she had to. I always hate it when they figure out it's not an option and they must go to school. It's a long battle for the rest of their childhood after that day.

The Baby has had many firsts of her own in the past few months as well. I should be better about recording right when they happen, but hey- I have 5 children! Not to mention that I still don't feel quite settled in our new place yet. Organizing things just the way I want takes me a while, and if it's not something that effects every day living- I procrastinate. But I digress-- E has 2 lower teeth now (those popped up around 6 months of age). She bites on occasion and I howl and scare her to death. We are learning to deal. I sometimes call her barracuda baby. Then at 7 months she began to crawl and our lives have taken a whole new turn as she gets into about everything she shouldn't and has recently even put her finger in a fan. It was nice of her to wait until things were mostly unpacked first though. Then around the same time (7mo), she gave her first wave to a friend of mine leaving the house. It was so unexpected for me! I checked in with a pediatrician who told me that they don't usually do that until 9-10 months, so I am fairly certain that she is a communications genius! This has sparked my interest in teaching her baby signs. A has already shown great interest in signing (making up her own hand signals for various things), so she has been a good tutor for me. She gets out the small book I bought and does the signs for this or that to me. Whoever put that book together was thinking because even a preschooler can know what the signs are for since there are pictures of say a cat on the cat signing page, etc. A knows a lot of signs now! Anyways I am rather impatient and thought that possibly I would give up too soon without seeing fast results with the Baby, but after only a month of signing to her she has now picked up 2 signs. I thought my eyes were deceiving me at first but she has done it too many times now this week for me to argue with her. She does the sign for milk and a funny version of cracker that reminds me of a rapper. I guess it's just as I suspected-genius...