Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

  I'm still trying to figure out how 8 months have gone by already, but as of 4:57 p.m. this evening, Keila will officially be 2/3 of a year old.
  Here's what's been going on with her lately:
 1. Lots of new sounds and 'talking'. She'll say MamaDaDadLalaGaaaGaaa and other babbles, but she reserves NaaaNaaa and NeNe for when she doesn't like something (ie prunes) or wants to go to bed.
 2. Speaking of bed, our hyperactive girl STILL doesn't like sleeping much. Our schedule is that she gets tired and goes to bed around 7:30...if we're lucky. Other nights, she somehow gets a second wind as she hits the crib mattress and starts waving her hands around and cooing like a mad monkey. I've tried letting her 'cry it out' (aka checking on her every 3, 5, then 10 minutes to see how she was doing)....all that led to was her becoming increasingly upset and scratching big gouges in her forehead. She tends to scratch at her head and ears when exhausted, poor girl. But seeing as I don't want a bloody, scarred up baby, that little move inadvertently trumped my attempt at a 'cry it out' solution. Back to square one!
 3. Keila is doing a bit better with tummy time but still not for more than 5 minutes (is that the same as last month? I'll have to check). Her arms are getting a lot stronger though, so maybe crawling is in the future? Or maybe just straight on to scooting or walking--in the past few days, she's been actively scooting backward. We have yet to figure out forward, maybe next week!
 4. Baby food is going ok; she's been grabbing at the spoon lately so feeding herself is also in the near future. So far no other 'reactive' foods besides bananas and possibly green peas. Zucchini and blueberries are favorites of the moment, although we introduced cinnamon a couple of days ago and that went over well, too. On Friday we're hitting up the local tofu shop, so she can try out some soft-style tofu over the weekend.
 5. Favorite activities now include waving the cats' toy fishing pole around for them to bat at; stealing the cats' toy mouse and attempting to eat it; attempting to eat just about anything she can get ahold of: and blowing raspberries. Oh, and she also loves singing and dancing. Lady Gaga is a biggie, but Neyo seems to be holding his own, too. Taylor Swift has yet to evoke much response. Sorry, Taylor.
 6. Keila has MASTERED the art of running around in her walker (much to Wasabi and Sushi's horror)! She can now go forward and back, even looks over her shoulder like a good little driver when backing up. I'm getting an idea of how busy she's going to keep me once she's more mobile: last night she had a great time throwing the recycling all over the kitchen floor. Nothing like the sound of plastic, metal, and glass rattling around to make for a happy baby.
  Finally, as a present to me today (or maybe just pure luck), Keila has actually gone down for a nap longer than 20 minutes this afternoon! We'll see how long this little miracle lasts, but in the meanwhile I think I'll try to put away our 5 loads of clean laundry that have taken over her nursery. Until next month.....