She regularly rolls from back to tummy and sometimes manages to roll from tummy to back (because we have found her rolling into the oddest places, which means she must be able to, although we haven't witnessed it too much). She is enjoying being on her tummy more these days (playing nicely for awhile or watching us walk by), even when she would roll over during the night and struggle to figure out how to get back. Because of this, we have made the move from swaddling to blanket sleepers only. I was afraid it would be more difficult than it has proved, but the transition went seamlessly. She even manages to leave her pacifier alone, something she loves to pull out during the daytime and play with.
The baby swing was officially retired this month and the Excersaucer was brought out. She loves being able to see the comings and goings of the household even though her feet don't reach the bottom. She can work some of the toys on the Excersaucer and we leave other little rattle toys there too for her to pick up and chew. Yes, chew. Anything and everything is finding its way into that little mouth of hers. No teeth yet (too early I know) but that girl has got a bite on her. When she gums on our fingers, she really has some muscle behind it. Add some teeth and we will be in trouble!
She has also started eating a bit of rice cereal. It's a little early (well, probably normal for most babies but I am not wanting to push it) but I thought the skill of eating via spoon (and not pushing food out with her tongue) would be a good one to start working on. And let me just tell you, she continues the Kay Girl skill of being a champion eater. It only took her two bites to get the hang of it and she was off and running. And she never looked back! I have been trying to feed her a bit every night, but she is so voracious that I have to cut her off. The downside is that in the night a few times she has thrown up, and Elliott and I wonder if the cereal is the cause. I wonder too is maybe she is just eating too much. So we are tweaking the ritual to see if this the cereal is the culprit or if we need to look elsewhere.
She has been consistently napping twice a day for an hour (or more if I run the fan for background noise, but I am trying not to start that habit) and we have moved up her bedtime to about 6:30pm. She has been getting up more at night than she has in the past, but I know this is due to her newfound rolling mobility and the non-swaddling. The upside is that she is awfully good at putting herself back to sleep. If she cries out in the night, most of the time she just needs her pacifier put back in. Other times I pop it back in and rub her tummy a bit. She stares at me and is awake when I leave, but I don't hear another peep out of her. Best of all - I know that this is building good sleeping habits for the future (yeah us!)
Emma is really getting quite vocal - loudly telling us all about her day, telling us she is tired, telling us she would like to held now. I put her in church nursery for the first time last Sunday because she also likes to loudly flirt with people around us. It's a wee distracting during the sermon.
Piper too is doing well. Stubborn and strong-willed and headstrong and crazy and independent as ever. Did I mention independent? She must do everything herself. And if you don't let her she has an absolute meltdown and we have to start over. There can't even be a hint of lending a hand, she just won't have it. (I know that this will pay off in spades in about a year, but right now it can be a bit tiresome.) She loves to get dressed by herself, to do up her car seat buckles herself, to sit on the bench to eat her meals like her big sisters, even use the potty.
Yes folks, I said use the potty. She is doing better every single day. I have to admit, I have my hands full in other areas so that I haven't paid as much attention to this as I should. It is hard to follow her around and ask "do you need to go potty?" and watch the clock to see when the last time she went to the bathroom. So I just haven't. (I didn't potty-train the other girls until age 3, and then it was over within a weekend because they were ready. So I am not worrying about it at all.) But she still progresses. She will say "uh-oh, the pee-pee is coming" and we will rush to the potty. She's getting better at predicting it and we have been having more success each day (even when we are out running errands). Sometimes she will even go if we ask her if she needs to. Although she is promised jelly beans for a successful bathroom trip, that doesn't seem to be her motivation as she routinely forgets they are due her. I think she simply likes the pride of being a "big girl." (Which will work in our favor when push comes to shove.)
And then other days she digs in her heels and says no, she doesn't need to go potty and no, she isn't poopy - even though she stinks to high heaven. So we just take it one day at a time.
She also no longer sleeps with her soother (which makes lights and noises if you push a button, a great thing for her when she would wake in the middle of the night). The rechargeable batteries dies one day and I forgot to charge them up. That night she was so tired she never noticed that the soother wasn't working. So I purposely decided if she didn't notice, let's see what happens the next night. So on the second night she mentioned it. I made my apologies and told her I had forgotten to charge the batteries. On the third night I never heard a word about it and last night, after a week, I removed it from her bed railing and that is the end of the soother. Yeah! One less thing to have to wean her off of later in life.
Here's a couple of Piper-isms from awhile back, but I thought they were funny and I had forgotten to share them earlier:
You watchin' 'Ad Men? Oh, OK and off she wanders.
One day on the ride home from church Ava got in trouble with me for talking back of something. Piper was trying to keep up. What Ava do? (me answering) Oh she did? (turning to Ava) Ava, you do dat? Darn it!
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