Discipline.....??

Now that she is completely mobile and getting into things, we've started disciplining. We are basically just telling her "no" and redirecting her when she plays with cords or does other dangerous things. I really don't think she gets it, but we've started doing it. The only book we really read on the subject of babies/kids is the American College of Pediatrics Birth-Age 5. It covers pretty much everything and their recommendations on all of the subjects.
They say seven months is usually the earliest that babies have the memory and cognitive skills to start to comprehend being told "no" (aka - the earlist form of discipline). It really is kind of confusing though, because they say both parents need to be very consistant (obviously) but then they say don't tell kids "no" over every little thing all the time or it will lose it's effect. Oh well, I think we are just going to do what seems right for us and our situation. That's pretty much what we have done so far in our little parenting journey and she's happy (most of the time) and thriving :)

Hmm, what else has she been up to...

Her favorite thing is to crawl over to the animals' water dish and try and dive in. This happens at least five times a day.

She can feed herself Cheerios/puffs quite well now.

There is a step up from the living room to the kitchen in Nick's parents' lake house which Gabi was obsessed with crawling up. The step isn't quite as high as a normal step, but she gave it a couple of tries and then crawled right up it a number of times!

Gabi is still mastering the skill of pulling herself up. She has done it a few times but isn't a pro yet. If her feet aren't in quite the right position she won't be able to get up all the way and boy does that make her angry! She'll give it about three good hard tries before she just loses it and has a meltdown. And definitely don't try and help her during her attempts or that meltdown will be instantaneous. We first learned this when she was beginning to feed herself dry cereal and now we've learned it again.

One sure way to get her attention is to build a little tower of blocks and she can't help but to knock it over asap. The same thing with shutting doors - any of her toys that have a door or lid to them she has to be sure it is shut at all times. If I open the lid up she'll crawl right over and shut it again (with a little frown on her face).

She continues to just love other babies and little kids. Even if she catches the sight of a baby on TV or sees a picture of herself on our wall she will just squeal and get so excited.

I've noticed that her little developmental victories seem to be short-lived. When she learned how to clap it was clapping allllll the time, and now she only does it on occasion. The same with talking - all we heard for about a week or two was "bababababa" and now her little voice has seemed to go back in it's shell a bit. I guess once she knows that she has mastered something she doens't have to do it all of the time :)

Inspecting her catapillar friend
Her pretty little shoes. She has a few pairs and I don't put them on her nearly enough....
I keep her baby play mat up because she loves to crawl up it...haha

Our very baby-unfriendly house is becoming a nuesance
Crawling and getting into things is her favorite passtime of the moment

Hmmm....figuring how she can get up there....

Gabrielle even did a nice little product placement for her Auntie Caresse :)

The two loves of my life

Nick, Gabrielle, and I are headed up to Alpena to my family's "reunion" this week, so I'll have lots of family pics to post when I get back!