Carrrrots!

I think I’ve got a food snob on my hands. But it’s okay; she’s being raised by a food snob. Ever since Leah has been eating (all of three weeks), I’ve noticed she’s kind of picky not about what she eats, but how it’s prepared. For instance, I’ve made her sweet potatoes two different ways. The first time I just boiled them like I do normal potatoes. I figured it was easier than baking them for an hour, even though the internet told me baking them really brings out the flavor. She ate them okay, and I figured she really enjoyed them… until I baked her one the next time. That’s when I got help with the spoon, “mmm” sounds, and her almost finishing her entire bowl. Apparently she can tell a difference. I did the same thing with her newest food – carrots! And I think it’s safe to say she has a new favorite food! The carrots were going in a down faster than I could keep up, and when she was finished they were spread from her toes to her forehead. I’m not sure how that happens. Oh wait, I know how it happens. She flails, insists on grabbing the spoon, turns sideways, kicks, laughs at her dad, sneezes with a mouthful, and arches her back as far as she can. Dinnertime is just one more thing that solidifies the fact that nothing is easy with Leah.

Here we sit, week 21. Wait a minute, we’re not sitting. We’re rolling, squirming, inching, standing, and jumping. However, Leah did sit up on her own for the very first time last week. I swear she is too strong for her own good. It has only happened once, but my mouth was too the floor. I quickly learned, after trying to reenact it, that Leah has to be in charge – and I can’t help. If she does it on her own she concentrates and really steadies herself. If I try to sit her up she throws herself all over the place and topples over. She likes to sit up with me helping her. I usually surround her with toys and she will grab them and of course eat them one by one, then throw them to the side. She has such a strong core, I try to tell her if she would just sit still she could be doing it on her own. But she doesn’t listen. And something tells me she will never sit still. She is trying desperately to crawl. She can push herself so far up, sometimes I think she will just take off. She can get her knees up under her belly and she can put her chest way up off the ground – just not together. One of these days she will put it all together and then we will really be in for it. Kyle said he thinks she’ll be doing it in three weeks, and I don’t think that’s too far-fetched. We shall see. Until then, she will roll. She is rolling everywhere now. She has made it all over the house. She is rolling into walls, the entertainment center, the couches, her jumperoo, the tile floor, and her basket of toys. It’s pretty ridiculous. When she does roll into something that she can’t roll over or through she just opens wide and tries to chew it down. No object is too big. Although yesterday it got a little dangerous. I came back from the kitchen to have her halfway across the floor and eating the computer cord! Time to babyproof – she is out of control.

We’ve learned not to be surprised by her; she continues to break “rules” one by one. I try to tell her she’s missing out on her babyhood – but she doesn’t seem to care. Something about her in week 21 just looks different. Even Kyle said she looks different. I can’t really put a finger on it – I suppose she’s just changing like I’m sure she will a million more times. She’s looking rounder (thank you sweet potatoes and carrots), and taller, and less baby like, and of course cuter. She’s also feeling different – like a cement block. She’s a dense little thing. I’m not sure if she’s more muscle or fat. With her rounder and taller figure in full force, we had another clean out the closet day. Each time they get more depressing. Some of these things she only wore once! And I specifically remember buying some of it “big” thinking it would last us through the winter. Or at least until January. No such luck – I put her in one of her “big” outfits this weekend and she was ready for the flood. Kyle made some comment about how I’m always buying her clothes because I think they’re “so cute.” I quickly corrected him. Yes, I buy her things that I think are cute (duh), but I’m in the store in the first place because she is growing at the speed of light. I don’t want all the other babies to make fun of her because her pants go to her ankles.

She is working very hard on her third, and I just noticed yesterday… fourth tooth. We can see and feel them, finally. It just has to break through the skin (gums?). C’mon, teeth! If this one is like the last two, we will probably see it like this for a few more days before it actually comes through. And these few more days will be difficult on all of us – but we have Tylenol to help us through. She likes to help me with the Tylenol now. She knows exactly what it is and gets excited, opens wide, and grabs the dropper. Sometimes I think I’m overmedicating, but then I try not to use it and she screams. I’ll take the medicine over the screaming, please and thank you. I pray that when she gets these two, we will get a break for a while. It is so very exhausting. She will cry out of nowhere, not sleep well, only want to be held, and chew and drool on everything. I’ve heard that the two tops ones are some of the hardest and most painful. Yikes. I will need a massage by the end of it… or a stiff drink. And I told Leah I would take her out to get some sort of prize. Something tells me she will pick something she can chew on. The only thing easier with these teeth is the fact that she is finally able to hold her own teething toys! With the first two, she was too little to figure out how to keep them in her mouth so either Kyle or I had to constantly hold them in her mouth. She is getting really good at doing it herself now, thank goodness. There is a reason babies shouldn’t get teeth until six months… it’s so they can hold their own toys in their mouths!

Her newest tricks of week 21 consist of making all sorts of new noises, sleeping exclusively on her belly, and biting her toes. I’m a little bit jealous of her flexibility. She can get her feet in her mouth with no effort at all. One more thing to chew on, yay! Except last week she bit her toe and then cried… sooo, she hasn’t put them in there too much after that. It was both hilarious and sad. Naptime or nighttime, I always find her on her belly now. And I am so thankful. I know the SIDS people say back is best, and it was in the beginning, but she is strong enough now to control her head and neck so I don’t worry about her. Plus, I cannot stand over her bed all night and flip her back over everytime she rolls onto her belly. She is sleeping longer for naps thanks to her belly and that makes for one happy mama.

Her favorite toys of this week are her ocean mat that has dangling toys that she can reach, her puppy Koda, her “tactile sounds” fishies, her book that sounds like paper crinkling, aaand her dad. He’s the best toy of all these days. She laughs and smiles if he just looks at her, meanwhile I have to go through a whole song and dance to get a giggle. It’s completely unfair, but cute. She also has an obsession with his face that’s pretty adorable. I don’t know if it’s the whiskers or what, but she is always touching and inspecting his face! She also has taken quite an interest in the remote. She can spot it from anywhere, stares it down, and then whines until we give it to her. I’ve joked about getting her her very own for Christmas, and the more obsessed she gets with it, the more that joke turns into a serious thought. And of course, she still loves her books. Brown Bear will always be her favorite, but we’ve incorporated Jamberry, Twas the Night Before Christmas, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom which she is really starting to enjoy.

This coming Saturday I can finally enroll her in swimming lessons! I am so excited. I bought her a swimsuit before she was born planning on putting her in lessons in January. I knew she would be six months in January, so I bought her a six month suit – logical, huh? However, I put that suit on her and it was way to snug. It pulled down to the middle of her chest, and left marks over her shoulders. Thankfully, she got a 12 month swimsuit as a baby shower gift from her grandma, so I decided to put that one on her to see if it would work. It fit perfectly. I don’t know if you’ve looked lately, but swimsuits are kind of hard to find these days so I’m happy to have at least one she can wear for her lessons. Kyle refuses to call them lessons though, so he’s come up with “water playtime.” He doesn’t believe she’ll actually learn how to swim. I, on the other hand, am fully expecting her to come out of them swimming without assistance.

She will be five months old in a week, can you believe it? She seems much older to you, too, doesn't she? Please, lets keep the five months between us, and let her think she is twelve.