Lena at 6 Months

Lena,
You're half a year old! I can't believe it! The last three months have flown by. I realized when I've gone to write these monthly blog entries the last three months, you have been cranky and I've tried to not harp on the crankiness that's happening at the moment. What do you have against the 16th of the month? ;)  You measured 28 inches in length (>99th percentile) and 16 pounds 11 ounces heavy (70th percentile) at your 6 month check-up.  You're so tall!

At 6 months, you:

-Are so smart. I know every parent thinks their kid is a genius, but the doctor confirmed it at your 6 month check up when you were doing things that usually don't develop until around 9 months. Examples are: pushing objects away if you don't want them ("ok, I guess you're not hungry!" is a common phrase heard in our house), flirting with yourself in the mirror (you literally push me away to get a better look), and trying to drink from cups.

-You've backed off of eating solids. You like to play with the food and the spoon but don't really eat the food. So we're not pushing it. We retry weekly.

-You mastered sitting up on Sunday, two days shy of your half-birthday. You push up on your side and then up to sitting. Now, you sit up all the time. You're pretty good. (It reminds me of mastering an arm balance in yoga. Often, its a lot easier than it looks, as long as you know how to set it up and where to put your arms and trunk -a little core strength doesn't hurt, either). Occasionally, you fall over and start crying, but you'll get better. With your new found strength, I've excitedly begun putting you in the seat of the cart at the store. I've been REALLY looking forward to this, as your car seat takes up so much room and the carrier is awkward to grocery shop with. Now, I may be putting you back in the carrier. You want to grab everything and put it in your mouth. Yesterday, we played a game where I'd take something off the shelf, you're shove it in your mouth, I'd take it back and put it in the cart, and you'd start screaming. Repeat. So, I carried you and pushed the cart. Sigh.

-Which reminds me, you get so mad when I take things from you. You're very curious now and hear the word "no" so often that you're actually starting to know what it means. Yesterday, you were obsessed with playing with the fireplace screen. Each time you went over there, I'd tell you no and you'd stop and turn around to play with your toys. If course, you tested this a couple times, but you're learning some boundaries

-Give me hugs and kisses (but not on demand). The other morning I was holding you and you were facing out. You spin around, there your arms around my neck, and squeezed. Now you do it often and sometimes add an open mouth kiss. I love it. You also have begun reaching your arms out to me when you want to be held.

-Still haven't had those pesky teeth break through. I think it'll be like the cart - I'll be eager for it to happen and once they're here I'll miss the way it was before.

-Are really grabby and pinchy. When nursing, you love to take your bottom arm, reach around, and pinch my loose arm skin. Repeat. OUCH. Other favorite places to grab is skin on my face and neck. (Despite the picture I'm painting, I don't have loose skin hanging on my face and neck...)

 It started off good...

 But you don't sit still for long these days...

 Suddenly mom is pretty interesting!

 Thankfully dad's always on hand during these pictures to make sure you don't fall off the chair.

 But that doesn't mean you don't try.

 Cute stuff.

 Back on the chair.  Success!

Some Recent Videos

Disclaimer: I wrote this post in February!
Lena's getting so big!  I look at her 1 month and 2 month pictures and can't believe how much she's changed.  Last night I was holding her on the couch and I had a thought - I feel like she's getting so big (I haven't weighed her in a couple weeks but she's probably around 13 pounds), but people have babies not that much smaller than her!  Granted, it's rare, but it's not unheard of to know someone who had an 11 or 12 pound baby.  Even though I had a C-Section and didn't have to think about all the "baggage" that would go with delivering an 11 or 12 pound baby vaginally, just the thought of carrying around a baby that size...no thanks.

 

Lena's Merry Christmas message (12/25/13, 2 months old)

"If you're happy and you know it" giggles  (1/23/13, 3 months old)

 

Dad making Lena giggle (1/24/13, 3 months old)

 

Lena noises (1/23/13, 3 months old)

 

 

Lena nursing in her sleep at Dad's hockey game (1/19/13, 3 months old)

 

Lena in Oregon (1/17/13, 3 months old)

 

Lena smiles (February 2013, 3.5 months old)



Crawling and Sleeping

Lena is officially crawling! About a week ago she started a very slow, intermittent army crawl. Last night we were playing on the rug and she crawled towards the rattle I was teasing her with. Then, she crawled towards my flip flops, grabbed one, and tried to stick it in her mouth. I should explain: her "crawl" looks a lot like someone dying of thirst in the desert and reaching for water - but she moves forward. Her left arm is slumped down, pinned to the ground and she reaches with her right side and arm. Over the course of the evening though, she started getting up on all fours and ramping up, so typical crawling should follow soon.

On a related note, we're baby proofing the rest of the house this weekend. "The rest of the house?" you ask? Many cupboards already have baby locks on them to keep the dogs out.

The start of Lena crawling seems to directly coincide with her sleep improving. The last two nights, she's slept from 9:15 pm to 4:45 am. I get up, bring her in bed, nurse lying down, and she sleeps until 6:30 am (sadly, I do not). It's also been a lot easier to transition her to her crib, which tells me she's sleeping harder.

Here's a video of Lena impersonating someone with a gunshot wound. Also, check out her wild hair! It's turned wavy/curly in some places and straight in others. It curls right at her cowlick, exaggerating her bald spot.

Happy Birthday Papa

Dear Dad,

You would have been 63 years old today.  Last week when I was in the birthday card section buying Mike a card from Lena, I happened upon a card that would have been perfect for me to give to you.  I nearly started crying in Aisle 5 at Walgreens.  In hindsight, I should have just bought the card anyway.  We're both not phone people, but I could always count on you calling me on my birthday and me calling you on yours.  I'd give anything to call your old number and hear your voice on the other end (though, as a consolation, I do get to hear mom's voice at that number, which I am also very fond of).  Though I am happy and have a good life, I've come to the realization that I'll never feel whole again; there will always be a part of my heart missing now that you're gone.  When we lose one of the many loves of our lives, it doesn't hurt less, you just notice the hurt less often. 

You would have loved Lena.  She's so sweet and happy.  I like to think you were the first person who got to meet her, even before Mike and I.  You were certainly the first grandparent to know you had a new grandchild on the way.  The day you died, during her goodbye, my cousin Erin asked you to kiss our babies' cheeks and give them dimples.  I had to smile last month when one little, subtle dimple showed up on the upper left side of Lena's smile. 

It is such a gift to look at Lena and see your big, beautiful blue eyes. 

Miss you and love you.

 

 

 

The next blog over

When reviewing my blog post this morning, for fun I hit "Next Blog."  Blogger took me to a blog entirely dedicated to a girl's 19 year old cat.  I wasn't aware a 19 year old cat was active enough to fill up an entire blog, but I'll be damned! 

And then I realized my blog is the equivalent of hers, just with a different subject!  To each their own :)

No more pint glasses

A couple weeks ago our friends Ben and Megan from OIMB stopped in Berkeley for the afternoon on their road trip from San Diego to Oregon. They like good beer so we went to the Pyramid Brewery for an early dinner. Lena is very clingy lately and likes me to hold her most of the time we're together. So, at restaurants she sits on my lap.

This has worked well in the past. I usually give her a toy, throw her on my knee, and eat with my right hand. Until Pyramid. With her recent increase in awareness and intelligence, she tries to grab everything. Especially if I'm trying to put it in my own mouth. So, naturally, she was very interested in my beer. I rarely drink and a beer sounded refreshing. They served it in an abnormal pint glass that was skinny on the bottom and abruptly bulbous at the top. Lena kept trying to grab for it so I pushed it up and over. After a few minutes, I looked down at the happy hour card on the table and Lena saw her opportunity. She lunged at the drink. Being top-heavy, the beer tipped right over...and broke all over the table. Luckily, my reflexes were quick enough to grab her and scoot back, so she didn't cut herself on the glass. But my lap (and Lena's stuffed animal) soaked up the entire beer.

Lesson learned.

As an aside, the staff at Pyramid were really gracious and even replaced my beer for free.

 

Pets!

Lena discovered our pets - especially the cats. I'm sure this is correlated with her obsession to touch and grab things, because her favorite pet is our fluffy long-haired cat, Jasper. And shockingly - he's really tolerant with her. He's a diva and I expected him to be very cranky, but so far he usually lets her lay on him and even grab his fur. If he gets annoyed, he doesn't hiss, he just jumps off the bed.

When a cat walks in the room, she'll put her arms out and get excited. (I've noticed many babies react this way. is it because they're more stuffed animal sized?) With the dogs, she mainly just watches them. In sure she'll get more interested when she's mobile (which is just around the corner .