Amber's a stinker

So, for about a month now, Amber has been trying to stand/pull herself up on us.  She seems to think she can only use us though or maybe she just doesn't feel secure enough if we're not there to hold her if she wobbles too much.  And she does wobble.  She almost looks like she should have a hula hoop around her.  Probably just likes to dance like her dad.  I'm still trying to decide whether that right leg (the inverted-at-birth knee) is putting equal weight on it.  The right foot seems to want to be a step behind the left when she's standing.  A trip to the orthopod may be in order.

On Tuesday I started hearing 'nnn-da' here and there amongst the silly sounds.  When she cries a sad cry it's 'mmm-boo.'  So, she's having fun and says dad and when she's sad she says mom....  Sounds about right.  Yesterday, I was on my way out the door for work and she started to cry when I left the room.  When I came back she sighed and stopped screaming, but when I actually left after that she screamed.  All this while Daddy was holding her.  I guess she might like me around.  Either that or she was hungry and she thought she wasn't going to get anything if I left.

Amber has 2 teeth on the bottom now and I think she's working on some more because she's been biting toys and drooling and crying a lot again.  Not to mention waking up at 3 or 4 for no apparent reason, and even Daddy* can't get her back to sleep.  I end up having to feed her.  Not a good habit to form.  * When Amber was getting up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago, and I thought she was hungry so I would feed her, I was losing way too much sleep.  She didn't seem to eat when she would wake up later in the morning so we figured she'd just gotten herself on a weird schedule by habit.  Ken started getting up when she would stir and as soon as she would see him coming she jerked her head to the side and went back to sleep (that what she does when he puts her to bed at night)!  Problem solved!  I get to stay in bed and not wake too much and not lose an hour of sleep feeding her, and Ken gets to pop out of bed and right back in after re-swaddling her and only lose 5 minutes of sleep. 
This better start working again soon.  Right now we keep trying Daddy first and when all else fails I feed her.  So either teething or growth spurt in progress...

Along with trying to pull herself up, from a seated position she bops up and down like she's either going to stand up or go on her hands to crawl.  She'll reach way out to get a toy or something and sit back up, too, but she's never happy on all fours or on her tummy.  And the magic of the changing table has completely disappeared (used to make her chatty and happy- no more).  So she screams a lot when she's laying down.  Rolling from back to tummy and crawling are going to take a while.

I think my favorite and most recent milestone would be clapping (pat-a-cake)!  She'll almost do it on demand, too!  Just say 'yaaaaaaaaaay' and clap a few times and she'll clap, too :)