Totally Talia (and Friends)

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the post you have all been waiting for. It is a post, long in coming, about the sweet, talented, and cuddly Talia Rose. Without any further ado, I give you Talia!



Talia's Hobbies

Rolling Over: Talia has been capable of rolling over since around two months. Now she is able to roll over intentionally back to tummy and occasionally tummy to back. If there is something on her side that she wants to get to, she can often turn over onto her side. Sometimes she gets overzealous and ends up on her tummy. On Thursday I had to try several times to change her. She was on the ground and I had managed to take off her old outfit. As I reached down with her new outfit she rolled onto her tummy. I returned her to her back. Again, I reached down with her new clothes and she rolled over. I returned her to her back. By now I was laughing. Third time is the charm, right? Wrong, she rolled over again. I finally decided to hold her down on the approach (which I could have done earlier, but I was enjoying our little game).

Trying to Move: Talia is becoming increasingly interested in moving. As mentioned above, she has learned to roll to her side to face or reach an object on her side. She has also discovered that she can push herself along the slick surface of the changing table to face her singing bears. Talia, on her back, pushes with her legs until her head is touching the bear, or until her head bangs on the wood table and she cries. Her she is trying to see her bears.



Occasionally we take pity on her and let her watch her bears from her tummy.



Tummy Time: Since she was about a month old, Talia has not liked tummy time (unless it was on Mommy or Daddy). She has begun to not mind tummy time for short periods of time. I will admit that I have not been very good about making her have time on her stomach. One major concern was the inevitable spit up, first on the blanket, then all over the face. I am going to make a concerted effort to allow her time to build her arm strength.



Talia's Stats

Her Baby Blues: It appears that Talia's eye color may be changing. The silver center of her eyes seems to be warming to a gold. The majority of her iris is still decidedly blue. Her rims are almost navy. A change would not be a surprise to either of her green eyed parents, but the jury is still out.

Percentiles: Talia went to the doctor on Friday (more on that later). She is in the 97th percentile on length. Her weight puts her at the 92nd percentile. The doctor was also impressed by her strength and sturdiness on her feet.

Skin: Talia has been diagnosed with eczema. Now that we have a diagnosis for her incessant itching, we can be proactive. No more baby body wash for Talia (it is drying). Talia gets the more pricey Aveeno moisturizing body wash with no fragrance. The doctor told me to lather her up. Eucerin is her lotion of choice. For really irritated areas we are to use a topical steroid. During an outbreak her doctor encouraged us to give her Benadryl. Her skin is already looking better.

Clothes: I finally caved. Jon had been encouraging me to do so for a while. We finally broke out her nine month clothes and put away much of her six month clothes. Now she is wearing clothes marked for children more than twice her age. Most of her 12 month outfits are intended for summer. Part of me hopes that she curtails her rapid growth. Here she is in one of her nine month dresses:



Solids: Talia has been given her doctor's permission to begin eating solids. She can try grains from now until 6 months. Her doctor wants her to wait on fruits and vegetables because they could inflame her eczema. We are not in a big hurry to give her solids. We might give it a try after the busy holidays.

Talia's Events

Shots: No more short-lived shriek, Talia was crying for several minutes after her shots. The good news: Her memory is developing. The bad news: There are some things worth forgetting. She was very fussy for the rest of the day. She would not nap for more than 20 minutes and had bouts of crying that were inconsolable. Talia developed a low grade fever so we gave her Tylenol. She settled down enough to go to sleep around 6:15 and did not want to be roused until 7:00 the next morning. On Saturday she seemed fine. We headed to Vacaville to visit friends (more to follow). After a few minutes of being her usually pleasant self, she began to fuss. Her head was warm and moist and the thermometer confirmed that she had developed another fever. Poor girl. She didn't have much fun with her friends after that.

Modeling: Nothing new here. As is the case with most first-time parents, our daughter is frequently memorialized in our memory card (it is not accurate to say "on film" these days). She has three beautiful holiday dresses. One is pictured above. Here is one from Auntie Angie:



Grandma T. made Talia this dress and bonnet:



Visiting Friends: We had the privilege of visiting with some of our college friend; Elizabeth, Ryan and Kristi, and Peter and Sarah. There were three babies (and one on the way). Talia lay around, Anna crawled around, and Tate walked around. Here is Anna, Sarah, and Talia:



Since Talia was feeling ill, she didn't get too much playing time. Here are her friends covering for her:



So, consider yourselves caught up!