Life:
Harmony and I have been very busy, doing our own things. We still get to enjoy time together in the mornings and evenings though, and had a good time together last Sunday. We had dinner at my uncle's house, and a few of my relatives were there, including Aunty Mary from Montreal, who loved seeing Harmony. Harmony loved being the center of attention at the dinner table and was clapping her hands and trying to say "Yay!" so that everyone else would clap (she had them very well trained!).
Harmony is now eating daycare food, which is really helpful for me because now I only have to plan for one meal a day, not two. She still has a little homo milk with dinner, and I'll start replacing her formula with milk in about a month. She's getting really skilled at drinking from her cup, and at eating, and is even starting to experiment with trying to spoon food onto her spoon from a bowl!!! I think she understands the concept, but just doesn't have the dexterity for such a precise movement. We don't really think about it because we do it so often, but getting your food onto your spoon or fork requires a pretty complex set of movements.
Things are going ok with Harmony's dad. He is now taking her on a regular schedule, and is starting to clue in more and more on what to do as a parent. I find he still focuses a lot on play time, and leaves a lot of the actual parenting up to me (or his mother when they are over at his parents' place) , but hopefully he'll get the hang of it. If things go well, I will probably allow him a few days with her at Christmas time, maybe even a week if it seems like he's doing allright. It's tough though, because she has never been away from me very long, and Chris has never had her more than a day at a time (and not counting his time with her while she's sleeping, he's never had her more than 20 hours). Plus, I'm still so worried about her getting too used to having him around a lot. She's already formed a bond with him after only two months, and I know by the time he leaves again, she will be old enough to realize he is gone. She'll be 13 months when he leaves, and 15 months before he comes back again for a weekend, and 17 months before he comes back to town for more than that. Oh well, I guess we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
Harmony's Growth:
Harmony can walk!!! On Wednesday morning, she took a few steps by herself! It was kind of a bittersweet moment for me, not because I'm worried about having her walking, I think it'll be great, but because I missed the first few steps. :( :( :(. Her dad takes her Tuesday nights and Friday nights, and so he was there when she took those steps on Wedneday morning, on her 11 month birthday.
Harmony has also picked up a new word! During the past few weeks, she has really enjoyed walking around the apartment with her little push-walker. Everytime she bumps into something, I say "Uh-oh!" and then go turn her around so she can keep going. She'd been trying to copy my "Uh-oh" for a little while now, and now she can say it! It is the cutest thing! When she first said it, it was actually because she bumped into something, although now she practices it at other times where "Uh-oh" is not really something you would say. But that's ok, it's still kind of guess-work when it comes to whether or not Harmony means what she says. I know that she says "mama" in context, as well as "hi" and "baba" (for bottle), but for the other ones, I'm not sure.