My little girl took her first steps last night!

As was noted in posts yesterday, it was the anniversary of the Lincoln assassination and the sinking of the Titanic. Not a great date to be associated with but an easy one to remember.

Dear Josh

I had a date (New Year's Eve actually) so difficult to forget that one! But at least you have a happy thought to bring to mind when "your" date arrives.

The jury is still out IMO on taking "flash" photos of babies and young children - I only used to go for outdoor daylight ones for this reason. First trip to the park, he was noted by others as being "the newest walker on the block" as he strutted his stuff "Look at me!" Ahhh! Memories are made of this - definitely a Kodak moment - and many more to follow.

Is this your first, or am I teaching my grandmother how to suck eggs (as we say)?

Regards
Mo

Our first and only. We're already too old for this stuff! She was OK with flash photography until a friend of ours got out her professional equipment one day (MAJOR flash attachment) and ever since, Aimee clamps her eyes shut whenever she sees a camera.

They do keep you young and the cost of Zimmerframes is coming down all the time... (if only you can remember where you put the darn thing).

Seriously though (and this is a serious comment), what about a pair of Ray-bans so that Aimee (lovely name) knows that she can see the difference (dark / light), starting with outdoors, and thus knows that she doesn't need to be afraid of cameras? Just a thought.

Regards
Mo

She has a pair of sunglasses but she doesn't like having them on. We're working on it though, trying to get her to look at Daddy and not at the camera, praising her for keeping her eyes open, that sort of thing.

But she gets camera-shy and might have stopped "performing" if we'd whipped out the camera. We'll see what happens tonight.

Not Josh, but happily acknowledge your post - Scary and Lovely at the same time ...

IOW, best to start planning straight away, and move those shelves et al (like fast) "up the walls"... (Well, except for the beer (whatever) and aspirins which have to be kept at a handy level. Oops, forgot to add dictionary to the same shelf, so that one can look up what "sleep" means...

Regards
Mo

....keeping breakables out of reach has been a longtime practice. One thing I need to get on is attaching "anti-tipping" devices to our bookcases. I have them; just haven't put them in yet.

First cameras: What about getting Aimee a disposal proper camera (not a toy one), which are not expensive here, about $8 including processing?, so that she can see what the intention is* when you are pointing one at her (*if you're quick enough with the processing). Let her take her own photos of Mummy and Daddy (with something recognisable in the background, like garden swing or Wendy house). It's a recovery thing once the damage has been done, so just another idea, but from what you've said, you've got a bright kid there and I'll bet she will see what's meant to be going on.

The handy tip is regarding the "kiddie locks" that you get for cupboards. They tend not to work on refrigerators because of the vacuum effect which beats the kiddie-lock every time, so the handy tip is: If you have a refigerator which has the fixings to be left- or right-hand opening, just change the handle over, but not the actual door, thus the kiddie is pulling at the hinge side to no avail, whereas adults (preferably out of sight) can simply pull the door open at the correct side.

Josh, I'm probably approaching burn-out now (aren't you glad , but I wouldn't be surprised if others didn't have a few handy tips also...

Best wishes
Mo

We have a Polaroid somewhere. I could find it and see how hard it is to push the button. The results would be instant that way. We don't have a digital camera and even a cheap one is not in the budget right now. I don't know that she's ready to make the association between snapping pictures with a film camera and seeing them later in the day.

There are some cabinets that we let her play with; we don't want to make her feel like the whole house is off-limits. Others have locks on them. She's not strong enough yet to open the fridge but that's a good idea. We hope to be selling the house soon so I wouldn't want to do anything major that I'd have to undo.

If you can get hold of your Polaroid, have Aimee stand next to you while you walk around the garden taking (pretend) pictures so that she will see that this is "something that Dad does" (rather than something aimed at her). Then, when she's comfortable, you can take a proper picture of a big colourful object and show her the picture when it arrives. The "Dad does" (or Mum does) is a powerful concept. In terms of comprehension, mine was turning over pages of a book and looking at the pictures even before he could sit up by himself (less than 7 months), so best not to underestimate what children can take in at an early age.

Regards
Mo

Sounds like a good approach. She's big on imitating us these days. She's been "reading" to herself for around a year. She has a lot of her books memorized. She "reads" out loud and in between the babble you can hear things that are part of the text. She was even able to recite books we hadn't read to her in a very long time, which showed, as you said, that while it looked like she was just staring into space, she was absorbing like a little sponge.

What's that? I don't remember getting a lot of that when mine were babies:)I bet Josh has almost forgotten what it is too! Good thing that Babies are so precious and that Mom & Dad love them so much! Grandma & Grandpa too!
Glenda