Just wanted to give some perspective here. Look how much Eliza has grown. First picture = little E at 10 days old. Second picture = Eliza in same chair, 5 months old (22 weeks, to be precise). I can’t believe how much she has grown and changed in so little time.
Last week we got to hang out with my friend Bridgette and her daughter Amelia, just 2 months younger than Eliza. They drove from Atlanta to visit us at Nana’s house in LaFayette. It was great to see them! The girls were very interested in each other at first, with lots of smiles and reaching out. But then they needed feeding, naps, etc. I guess “play dates” won’t make any sense until they’re a little older! But more importantly, it was good for the mommies to reconnect.
Thanks to Nana for this awesome picture.
Eliza is 5 months old today. She can roll over, eats “real” food, tries very hard to sit up on her own, loves to stand up with support, and loves being sung/talked to. She’s a little attached to mom and dad right now, which means she gets a tad upset when we leave her sight. But in general, she is a happy baby. Still curious about everything and everyone she sees. She absolutely adores going all over the mountain: shopping, to lunch with friends, to get coffee, walking around campus, even department meetings are fun for her. 5 months old! The time is flying.
So my first Mother’s Day was tainted by the fact that I had to “work” (Sewanee always has its graduation on Mother’s Day). No matter. It was still amazing to wake up and know that I, too, am a mother now. Still a bit surreal.
Eliza couldn’t pick out my gifts, but Dad did an awesome job. A beautiful cedar trunk to put her keepsakes in, something I hope to pass down to her. A “peanut” charm for my bracelet, since that’s what we called her before we knew she was a girl. And a brand new coffee maker to help take the sting out of early mommy mornings.
Here’s how we know Eliza is teething:
Overall, our verdict is that this teething thing sucks (pun intended). I understand that it’s necessary, but it’s hard on poor little babies who have no idea why this is happening to them. Can’t wait to see a little tooth pop up, though. Problem is…it could be a month or two of this before we see any results!
Eliza is outgrowing all her baby seats. As you can see, she’s trying desperately to sit up. So…even though she is strapped into this cushy, soft, vibrating seat , she is trying to get out of it. She has several little “chairs” but they all recline, so she isn’t fond of them anymore. She wants to sit straight up and see the world. No chilling out for little Eliza! Are you kidding? There’s too much to see and do!
We gave Eliza avocado for the first time yesterday. She was skeptical but ate quite a bit, despite the look of confusion on her face. We’ll try again today.
In other news, we’re having some tough sleep issues. The little monkey has learned to roll over onto her belly, which means the swaddle is no longer effective or safe. Yet it is hard for her to settle down without being swaddled. She is also rolling onto her tummy and waking herself up in the middle of the night. She doesn’t know how to roll onto her back yet, so she either screams for one of us to help or sometimes will eventually settle down and stay on her belly to sleep. Not the safest thing in the world, we realize. So…”sleeping through the night” is a distant memory. But hopefully we’ll get there again.
IMG_2811.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.
Eliza just learned how to roll over all by herself, from back to front. It’s the culmination of weeks of serious effort, but now she’s doing it like it’s no big deal. I caught her doing it in the crib this morning while she was supposed to be taking a nap. Now that she can, it’s literally all she wants to do. You put her on her back to play and in three seconds she’s over on her front. Over and over again. Ten or so rounds of this and she gets exhausted and cries because she needs to rest. Poor thing doesn’t know her limits yet. But she knows rolling is a lot of fun!!!
Eliza took her first bite of food today! Mushy rice cereal, mixed with formula…yum! We weren’t sure if she’d know what to do, but she saw the spoon coming, opened her mouth wide, rolled it around, and swallowed. Turns out she is great at eating (just like mom and dad!). She seemed to really dig it.
