Bambling On and On and On...

29 November, 2008

Month 5 and 6

Happy one-half year of life! I can totally picture you rolling your eyes and saying "Mah-uhm!" over the cheesiness of that line. Awesome.

This months post may be a tad longer than the previous ones because I am combining the last two months of your development into one post. It is all due to laziness and lack of motivation to write at month 5. Boo on me.. I know. Be grateful that I'm not combining months 5-7 (or longer).

Baby, there is no getting you to sit up or crawl. All you want to do is walk, walk, walk. Our backs are killing us! If we attempt to get you to sit and play, you'll squirm your way, or flop your way, into a horizontal position then look at us with desperation in your eyes "I must get up. I'm flat. Mom. Dad. Get me standing," and proceed to hyperventilate to make sure your point gets across. Over Thanksgiving, your grammy gave you a walker. Hooray! We put you in it only to find that you are still not tall enough to push yourself around. Nuts! At least I can push you around in the walker with my back flat to give myself some relief. I refuse to look like a hunchback before you can walk on your own.

You reached another milestone: feet! Yes, when you turned 5 months your feet became a part of your little reality and now you love looking at your toes. The sad part is that you are as flexible as your mom and dad, which means not so much. Although the idea of chewing on your toes is just too appealing, you can't quite seem to get them into your mouth. Instead, you'll grab and analyze your feet until we either put socks on them or Ollie enters the room.

Ah yes, Ollie. How you love that dog and how little he loves you back. It's a sad love story that currently has no happy ending. I hope his attitude towards you changes once you are mobile without parental help because right now you are nothing more than a nuisance to him. No matter how much you smile, laugh and squeal in delight when you just feel his presence, he would rather sit on your head and pretend that you never existed.

The other night our friends came over with their Corgi and we thought your head was going to explode. Ollie may get you to giggle, but Jasper leaves you in stitches. We aren't sure what it is about Jasper that makes you lose your mind, but you LOVE him. You refused to go to bed because you were laughing so hard at him. And then when the two dogs played together? Well, that was just the bees-knees. I had to hold you back because you were working your way over to join them (which would have been really bad parenting on our part). Needless to say, our reservations about Christmas Eve dinner with them have been squashed because now we know you'll just lose your mind again when you see Jasper and we'll have a happy baby in the evening. w00t!

I think our biggest achievement has been getting you to sleep without a swaddle. We started this a little before month 5, ended up with a rough patch at 5.5 months, but were able to come round again 1.5 weeks before month 6. It took us a weekend for you to get used to not being swaddled, but for some reason after about a week or so you just became a terror to put down. Feet and arms flailing, body wiggling this way and that. Dad couldn't handle it so he began swaddling you again, which sucked for me because my swaddles are terrible and it meant getting up every 3 hours to reswaddling your squirmy self. Finally... FINALLY... we agreed to no more swaddling and you learned to cuddle into the blankets we have in your crib. Now in the mornings you'll wake up, talking happily to yourself, checking out the animals on your blanket or just playing with your feet. We're hoping this new freedom will also encourage you to want to roll over from back to front or even explore the possibility of sitting up. But as we've already learned, we're not going to push you. We know you'll do what you want when you want.

This past month you also had your first plane ride where we traveled back in time another 2 hours (on top of the 1 hour jump back from Daylight Savings time). Honestly, you were a real trooper. Managed to sleep at night without much of a change in schedule (unlike mommy who lost her mind on Friday and Sunday) and you handled the car rides better than expected. You just weren't fond of the plane ride. OK.. so on the ride out there it was already late so I managed to quiet you down by presenting you with milk and you passed out on the boppy for 3+ hours. On the ride back, totally different story. You were up. You wanted to move and boy did you let everyone on the plane know it too! Of course, the passengers were kind to us by saying "She did great" and we were all "Uh-huh. So you're deaf right?" Because you are always wanting to be on the go, I'm kind of afraid to see what it will be like next Spring when we fly down to the Bahamas for our family get together. I have goosebumps just thinking about it.

Beginning with the trip out west a few weeks ago, you have also graced us with the arrival of a massive booty explosion every weekend. It's been pretty darned gross. I thought your newborn explosions were hardcore, but these are totally putting those to shame. The most recent one sent both your dad and I into convulsions. I had to stop him from cutting off your clothes and burning them. And since you are such a fidgety child, we were one step short from tying you to the changing table so we could get you somewhat cleaned up before throwing you into the tub. Honey, I don't know how you manage to hold that much in you because if I were you I know I would feel a lot more relaxed if I just let it go a little every day. Please, for the sake of your parents' sanity, please start pooping once a day. PLEASE.

Speaking of stinky, we know you have officially graduated from newborn to infant by the smell of your feet. Oh yes, those cute little appendages sent mommy into a spiral of delirium when I went to kiss your feet the other day. I had no idea you could produce such a stink outside of your poops. Guess this means we have to get on the ball and wash those little stinkers every day. Good lord my nose is still reeling from the shock.

Dad and I are both pleased to see that you are slowly learning how to entertain yourself. It provides us with some relief, although as I write this I looked over at you only to see you look back at me with the "Are you done yet?" face. For the 10-15 minutes of freedom you do provide, you can lie/sit with your toys and just babble to yourself, testing the taste and flexibility of each toy. Right now I'm watching you as you finally discovered the mirror on your gymini. You're on your side slapping your mouth open and closed, staring at yourself and testing how well the mirror could possibly bend. Yay for new discoveries!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home