Stinkerbell’s name is now almost always Stinky, and I think this one is going to stick because not only is she, well, stinky a lot of the time, but she’s also a total stinker, too. Inquisitive, pigheaded, temperamental, charming, engaging, and ridiculously cute–that’s my girl!

She spent quite a while before she turned three months trying very hard to talk, imitating us and making noises to get us to say favorite words. (”Hi!” meant, of course, “hi,” and “Guhguh,” together, meant she wanted to hear us say “good girl.”) But now she’s mostly lost interest and had concentrated on grasping, standing, bouncing, etc. She’s pretty much stuck to two signs that she uses well (”milk” and “pacifier”), but a lot of that is fine motorskills–that is, a total lack of them. She can play 20 questions pretty well. Depending on her mood, “yes” is either an excited arm-flap or crying, so if we ask “Do you want…?” and go down the list of usual suspects (milk, diaper, pacifier, sleep, hugs, Daddy, Mommy), she’ll respond to the one that she’s wanting. She’s tried to do “potty”, but it’s too hard to distinguish it from “milk.” She also follows one instruction–”Come to (Mommy, Daddy, me, whoever).” Sometimes, she’ll cry when she leans across, but she still leans! Good girl.

The Bear said his first word at seven months, his first two-word combination at ten, and his first long sentence at nearly fourteen. I’m not sure that Stinky will speak that soon, since she seems to have lost most of her interest as long as he can make herself understood. Her most common spound now, though she babbles, it “Hoohooooooooo.” My owl-baby!

She has discovered how to manipulate things with her hands now. She batted almost immediately, but at 2 mo, she could grasps the object of her desire pretty quickly. Now, she can reach for, grasp, and lift things, though she often has to use the arm opposite to help. She LOVES chewing things, which makes me uneasy since the Bear was such a non-chewer. I’m going to have to be really careful of his Legos and other toys now! I also hope she doesn’t do things like pull the safety outlet covers out of the outlets–the Bear left the outlets alone once I removed the covers (AKA “wall toys,” to him), but I don’t think she would. She does not have the skill that she wants to with this whole object manipulations thing, so at times, she’ll start sobbing in frustration as she’s trying to make something do what she wants, and even if I know what it is, having Mommy do it does NOT help because SHE wants to do it, all by herself. The walker is actually a favorite toy right now because of that. She can paddle around in it when she wants to, but mainly, she loves how close the tray brings things to her hands. (She barely tolerates tummy time and shows very little interest in crawling. She wants to WALK, darn it. The Bear, at the same age, worked with ferocious concentration at crawling–and he learned to walk slightly late, at 14 months! Stinky might skip crawling entirely, the way my mother did.

She’s not a terribly cuddly baby. The Bear would just melt into a boneless mass of contentment in your arms. Stinky is all about DOING things. Being talked to, eating, playing, go-go-going, always. She won’t rest her head against your chest. She’s always looking around and is an unapologetic out-facing baby.

I’m pretty sure that Sinky has my muscle condition, which is why she’s so incredibly strong. (We jokingly call her “superbaby.”) If we hold onto her hands just enough to balance, she can walk bearing her own weight. She can stand while holding onto an object. This week, she even pulled up once, using her arms over my arm to get to her feet–and this from a full sitting position, not leaning forward at all. She’s now hit every developmental milestone for 7 months except sitting without support, though she can almostalmost do that, and it’s mostly an issue of confidence rather than skill. She even waves goodbye when other people wave first. She stands pretty firmly while holding onto something at chest-height. She’ll steal something she wants out of your hand (even if she does usually drop it because its to heavy), and she’ll lean over to gently touch an item of interest if you support her hips. Where did my newborn go????

Bath time continues to be…interesting. At her bath on her 3-week birthday, she sprang into a standing position when I rocked her forward to wash he back. Talk about terrifying! Here I was, holding a screaming, furious baby (all open mouth, squeezed eyes, and red, red face), standing on these impossibly skinny legs and literally stomping up and down while I’m desperately trying to keep her from flinging her sudsy, slippery body out of the baby tub. That scared me badly enough that I bathed her in the big tub with me for a while, but then she got so where she mostly liked baths as long as I kept her from startling herself. (This is easier now, but it used to be that she’d startle at a molecule of air.) Even if she gets upset now, a stern “No!” when she tries to stand makes her settle down.

Stinky believes that sleep is for chumps. Chumps, I tell you! The Bear sleeps 10-12 hours a day, and the days are becoming more and more frequent that she sleeps less than he does. Not fair!!!! I NEED those naps, even if she doesn’t, but these days, one 15-minute nap and one hour long nap are the absolute most I can hope for, and some days it’s only one 5-to-15 minute nap. The good thing, though, is that she’s now sleeping in her crib–and will asked to be put down! First, she eats like crazy for about an hour. Then she cries very softly and makes a “paci” sign. Then she sucks it and either her eyes slide shut and she cries softly some more or she looks imploringly at me with huge eyes. A question of “Sleep?” is met with a single, weak wiggle, and she goes down–in her own crib! Hooray! It took the Bear, who was a total snuggle baby, six months to start the night in his crib, but she prefers it. She prefers to finish it in my bed, still, but as she sleeps longer and longer, that will become less of an issue.

When she does take a couple of really long naps–like and hour and a half–that means I’m in trouble at night. She’ll go down, sure, but she’ll be up with the roosters, crowing and talking and giggling and pawing at me to play with her. Stinky LOVES mornings. NOT MY BABY. While Bear and I are lurching around like zombies, she’s having the time of her life, laughing and playing. She’s usually a lot more mellow in the evenings.

She loves watching dancing and being danced with–of course! What baby wouldn’t? And she has the advantage of a constantly dancing Daddy!

The most surprising thing she’s come up with recently, though, is that she’s insanely jealous of the Bear. She was in her walker, happily playing with her toys when the Bear climbed onto my lap for snuggles. With a cry out outrage, she dropped the toy and flung herself over to me, her arms desperately reaching for me. Um, yeah. That needs to end about yesterday! It was hilarious, though.

I do hope she’s a really early walker. She’ll be so happy to investigate her world under the power of her own steam!