girltalk

So Emma’s newest thing is to coo and talk continually to anyone or anything that will listen. Including the bouncy chair toys, me, John, the change table painting, the Winnie the Pooh mobile, or the TV. Yes, Emma watches TV. I’m in the Pirates of Penzance next month so I’ve been brushing up on choreography by watching the CBC’s recording of the 1985 Stratford Festival of Canada version. It’s really good (even if the hairdos are out of date) and its choreography is what our play is based on. So I’ll sit and nurse Emma while watching it, then lay her down, and she’ll happily watch the screen and listen to the music, sometimes singing along. Since I was in rehearsals while I was pregnant, I’m positive she recognizes the music. Once I figure out how to upload video, I’ll get some clips up of her.

So now we have a really good girltalk thing happening. I make silly faces, sing, dance, shake my head and generally act crazy and she stares at me, purses her lips, and lets forth a stream of coo-liscous babble that would melt anyone’s heart…

And I think she laughed yesterday. Or it was the beginning of learning to laugh. I suppose she has to learn to talk more first, and use her vocal chords in other ways than crying before she can laugh. She smiled really big at me last night and let out a cough that sounded like a “ha!”

She’s been sleeping really well at night. I think the key is that at her before bedtime feed I burp her really well and give her gas drops. Then I dreamfeed her (sometimes not, depends on what’s happening) around 11 or 12, and she usually sleeps until 4:30 or later. Then when she wakes, I feed her again and instead of her going to have playtime with Dad downstairs, she goes back to bed for a few more hours. It’s been working so far. The other day when she woke at 8am, I brought her into be with me and we slept on and off until noon! Now that was a treat 🙂