Friday, February 18, 2011

5

We're 5 months into this crazy journey. Five months of smiles, cries, wiggles and love.

You are finally out of 0-3 clothes. Like last week. I'll admit, I'm having a hard time saying goodbye to a few of my favorite outfits. Even though you're just moving up you have been putting on the pudge. At 4 months you got rubber band wrists and in the past few days your ankles have joined the party.

But underneath you are all muscle. You've always been strong, but your dad and I are realizing more and more how much trouble we're in for once you coordinate your arms and knees. Your teachers, grandma and anyone that has the pleasure of holding you gets a taste of your strength. Lunging out of our arms towards a toy, the TV, or even the daily activity sheet at child care is your favorite ways to display this strength. Most of the time you seem to understand this gravity thing and you grab on to a shirt or my hair to keep from falling.

On the movement front you're a bit of a tease. I've watched your turn from front to back and back to front. Multiple times on a variety of surfaces. But once you've done it once or twice you go on a strike for a while. I don't think you let your grandma see either in the week she was here. The one thing that will reliably get you roll is the TV. Two weeks ago you were sitting on my lap and got bored with looking at me. You craned your neck to double check that the tv was on and rolled off of my lap and into your stomach, chin propped on your arms to watch a bit of the news.

When it comes to sleep, the teasing becomes a bit of an annoyance. You sleep like a dream on your tummy. It's third to on me (like you are now) and with me. Once I know you can reliably flip yourself back and forth I'll let you sleep however you wind up. Until then I keep putting you on your back or side and you keep waking up. a lot. so much that I may have been too sleep deprived to write about your 4th month.

until this week where we got sick (and therefore weak) you've been sleeping in your crib. in short spurts, but there. all of our tactics (bed time routine, sound machine, the into the crib dance, holding your for 2 or 20 minutes after you fall out...)have failed us. you seem to understand when we're on the brink though. inexplicably you'll give us night with 3 hour stretches and we suddenly feel human again. if you're reading this as a teen I'd like to reinforce that last part. sleeping in 2-3 stretches of three hours puts us over the moon. because all of the other nights are so much shorter. good thing you're cute.

honestly, i wish we had a king bed so we could all pile in. but we don't. and your dad is scared you would never leave.

when you're awake and not tired you're an absolute dream. you love your toys as much as you have always loved people. you are still a total flirt. in your whole life there has only been one person who you wouldn't light up for- a waitress at a breakfast spot.

we're excited about you starting solids. and crawling. and continuing to see the little boy you will become.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Loosing Time

Twice in the past week I've lost my place in the space/time continuum.

The first was an epic fail as a daughter. My mom has a late January birthday. She was born in 1950, so it's always really easy math. Subtract 50 and you're all good. So one morning when I was feeling particularly on top of things I call my mom and ask how she feels about her approaching milestone birthday. She doesn't really celebrate birthdays, but there's something to be said for turning 60. Unless you turned 60 the year before and your idiot daughter can't remember that it's 2011.

The second instance also involves my mom. Hubby has a work trip so she's going to fly out for some grandbaby lovin and general daughter saving. The only hiccup in this plan is that my mom is a neat freak. She's in the 'my house looks like a museum camp' where my household is more of 'lived in' variety. Really lived in. It was like that before the sleep deprived, baby lovin, working full time state that is our life now...

So I made a plan to get things to the my mom can tolerate them point. Cleaning last weekend before my husband had friends over, a few minutes in each room in the evenings, the following weekend to dust/vacuum/mop, and then just keeping things maintained before she arrives the following Sunday. Except that middle weekend doesn't so much exist. My brain just created a weekend to get stuff done.

yeah