Forty Weeks!

 

Weight: Between 16 and a half and 17 pounds.

  
Sleep: It's been over a full week since we HAVEN'T gotten a full night of sleep in… woohoo! Girlfriend is sleepin' through the night like it's her job now… and it feels glorious. We do ask each other in the morning if she cried at some point -- because I do think she does most nights, but never long enough to fully wake us and have us really consider getting up to soothe her. Yahoo!

Medical Issues: Still dealing with a nasty cold that we can't seem to shake. She has it and so do I -- it's now morphed into this awful stuffy nose with a terrible sounding cough. Regardless, they tell us to just keep on keepin' on and not worry unless she develops a fever, rash or a distaste for eating. And so far, none of the above are happening.

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and three to six month jammies!

Socialite!: Hanging out with daycare friends and grandmas and grandpas!

Diet: Lizzie has always had a healthy appetite for "real" food, but she's really ramping her appetite up in all arenas lately -- pretty sure we've hit a growth spurt! Girlfriend has suddenly gone from always drinking four ounce bottles (if that! Sometimes just two or three ounces!) to drinking full-on eight-ouncers! She doesn't have those every time, but at leasttwice a day, with a few other four ounce bottles sprinkled throughout otherwise. 

This week, we tried pulled pork, beef meatballs and chicken meatballs for the first time, and we were a mega-fan of all of the above! I do think we finally saw our limit with regard to the 'heat' factor -- not the temperature, but the spice-level. I make a homemade marinara for Andy to go with our chicken Parmesan mozzarella stuffed meatballs that he  loves because it's got quite the hot-kick to it. Anyway, I decided that since Lizzie likes buffalo chicken, she might possibly like that marinara sauce, too. I did think that she might not, but I figured we might as well give it a try. Anyway, tried it, we did. And cried, she did! It was definitely too spicy. Poor baby was crying and holding her tongue! So we got rid of that sauce and switched it out for the sauce that I had originally made for her. She was much happier then :)

Baby Gear Love: This week, our favorite gear is pens. Yes, pens. As in, the pens you write with. Girlfriend always wants to hold on to one if she sees it. Of course the rule is that she can only have one if she's standing with our help or if she's sitting -- no accident danger here! She loves to hit them against anything and everything -- I think to explore what sounds they make and how they react with each other.

Weird. But she loves it. I think there's that element of "thrill" from knowing she's really not supposed to have it :)

Crying: Lizzie is such a happy babe. She only cries when she's hungry or tired.

Mommy News: We've had conferences two nights this week, so I haven't gotten to spend as much time with my girl as I'd like! Regardless, she's a trooper and stayed up past her bedtime to be part of my welcoming committee on Tuesday night. When I opened the door to the house, girlfriend was standing in Daddy's lap, her arms alternating between pumping up and down excitedly and clapping enthusiastically :) I need that kind of a welcoming everywhere I go! It's even sweeter when it's from her :)

 

Milestones: We've finally started to babble "bababas"! We got home from daycare yesterday and three "ba" sounds came out in a slow progression… and it was like someone flipped a switch, and she didn't stop all night. SO cute!! Andy and I just looked at each other and giggled all throughout supper while she babbled :) So sweet. I can only imagine what we'll do when she starts saying words, or "mama" and "dada"!

And I'm totally going to brag now, but seriously: girlfriend has incredible fine motor skills. Her movements are so purposeful when eating, it's just amazing. I truly can't believe how accurate and precise her pincer grasp and other small movements are. Hooray for Baby Led Weaning!

I think I noticed today that she's beginning to understand how to walk along next to things. I definitely also watched her stand, unassisted, for at least five seconds today, without wobbling (yes, five seconds seems like not a long time… but when she's never done it before, it feels like an eternity)! We may end up with a walker before we wind up with a crawler... However, she is starting to roll as her method of travel. Just tonight, she rolled from the living room into the middle of the kitchen (which is quite a ways) pretty darn fast. Ruh roh... :)