This has been a big girl week for the little miss. She has had lots of adventures with food. Friday, her teacher told me she was interested in one of her friend's snacks. So, we bought some puffs to get started with finger foods. She thinks they are great and gets excited any time I shake the cannister. She usually has them with her 3pm bottle for an afternoon snack. So far, she has had sweet potato and blueberry/purple sweet potato flavors. You know how she loves a sweet tatie! She also added some new foods to her menu: peas, green beans, blueberries, cheese, pasta, yogurt and mango... she's been trying some of these since 34/35 weeks, but she actually eats them now and likes them. Other than sweet potatoes, there is nothing she goes crazy for, but she doesn't turn up her nose at anything either. She's pretty easy to please, which is nice, since I'm cooking all of her food. Right now, she is very excited to feed herself, so anything I can cook really soft and break into small pieces for her is a hit.
Helen Claire loves to wave!!! It is her favorite thing to do. Her teachers tell me that she waves all the time at school, and she actually does it at appropriate times, not just at random. She also says hey, and I'm pretty sure she knows what she is saying now, because she seems to say it when it makes sense. She is going to be a talker I think. If she is awake, she is jabbering. She squeals at Jordan and at her toys. She "talks" while she plays with her kitchen and babbles to me and Jonathan if we are playing with her. We are going to have our hands full when she starts actually talking, but I can't wait. She was a trendsetter this week at school. Jonathan put a bow in her hair one morning when he got her dressed, and so we kept doing it. Sure enough, one of her friends had a bow a couple days later. Little fashionista!
Helen Claire learned to peek. It is one of my favorite things she does so far. She has been caught peeking around the kitchen wall to find me. She will peek around her toys to look for the dog or peek over her bowl, or around her kitchen. It is seriously so cute. She makes this reallly curious little face- precious. I tried to get it on camera, but it's not nearly as cute as in person. She also learned another trick this week. Helen Claire can make a clicking noise now. She puts her tounge on the roof of her mouth and makes a little clicking noise. We do it with her, and she mimics us- so funny. Sleep. Oh sweet sleep. Since she is over the stomach bug, Helen Claire has been sleeping all night!!! Down by 8:00, not up again til 6:00. WAHOO! We have had a few minutes of crying every night, but nothing major, no heartbreaking, you abandoned me kind of crying, and after that, she is out like a light. I want to be able to look back if I ever have another baby and remind myself that she did this in her own time. After reading every book I could get my hands on, and doing everything to a T, she still did it when she was ready. It just goes to show that babies are all different. I also want to remember that after our "perfect" week of sleep training, then 2 months of being on again off again sick, our schedule got pretty messed up. There were times when I thought I would have to rock/nurse HC to sleep forever. But, I needed to cut her some slack. She was sick, and things did get better and get back on track when she was well. If you somehow stumbled across this blog and are a new mom yourself, don't despair over the sleep issues. You don't stink at motherhood because your baby is 6 weeks old and doesn't sleep through the night. Your baby needs you. Those books aren't for every baby, so enjoy your baby while he/she is tiny and don't worry about it. Things do get better, then eventually, they get all screwed up again, then the process repeats. I truly believe it's a cycle. Don't beat yourself up about it. (and just for the record, I need to read this to myself over and over again, too).
Two things I am obsessed over this week:
1. That dimple chin. My goodness, it is going to get me in trouble. Why is that little peach pit so darn cute?
2. Her eyes. They are like little newborn kitten eyes- slightly blue, almost grey. Lord help me, it is so hard to say no to those little chinkypens. (Super shout-out to Becky Abernathy for this picture. It's one of the sneak peeks from her most recent shoot in the Watch Me Grow series. I never can get her eye color right in pics, but Becky nailed it).
With all the good things she is doing, there has also been a big challenge in the last couple of weeks. Our usually happy girl has developed quite a temper. She has been having fits, and she is an extreme little girl. She is like Jonathan- either reallly happy or fighting mad, not much in between. She even laughs while crying and throwing a fit! Her biggest triggers are paper (see video and pictures below for proof), 
having things taken away (think hairbrushes, tissues, anything she should not put in her mouth), and having to lie down for a diaper/clothes change. Jonathan and I are definitely from the school of thought that children should be disciplined at an early age. By discipline, I don't mean spanking her (not yet, anyway), but I do mean teaching her what is appropriate and what is off limits- think more guidance than correction. We also want to value who she is and her personality. I want to help her show the best parts of her heart, so I'm on a mission and have ordered some new books this week.
This one is on my wish list, so it's coming up next... 
If you have other suggestions, please feel free to leave me a comment. I have also had another first in parenting this week. Helen Claire does not crawl yet. She also refuses to roll over, even though I know she can and have seen her do it. She just chooses not to. Anyway, she has been sitting up for a long time and hit that milestone fairly early. Crawling, however, is a diferent story. Three other girls at daycare crawl, and one of them is a month younger than HC. Another one is two months older, so I never worried about that. I have had to really examine my heart this week. I do NOT want to be a pushy, overbearing parent who expects too much. I have never been a first child, but I do read a lot about first children, because now I have one. Parents can be really hard on first children and expect them to be perfect, and most of those expectations are for self-fulfilling purposes. There have been moments when I want to have crawling sessions with HC and force her to learn to crawl, but I've restrained myself. She'll get there someday, and then I'm sure I'll long for the days when she was still :)
Overall, this was a great week. I still can't believe how fast it is going- are you tired of hearing me say that yet?
See you next week!
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