My Five Month Old

My sweet Lucia Rose is five months today.  Although I do miss the tiny newborn she once was, I have to admit that this is the most fun stage so far.  We are starting to get a glimpse of her personality, and I have to say that she really is a sweet, happy, and loving baby girl.  She is just full of smiles and giggles from the time she wakes up in the morning until she goes down to sleep.  In fact, after I nursed her to sleep, she must have been having the sweetest baby dreams because she was smiling as I laid her down.  

Lulu continues to be such a happy baby and one rarely hears cries in our home.  The only exception is when she is tired.  She gets so fussy and rarely is able to fall asleep on her own.  She needs me to nurse her or rock her, and sometimes not even that helps.  She's had a lot of gas recently which seems to bother her most when she is laid flat on her back in her crib.  She's still in her swaddler and loves it!

One of Lucia's most adorable new tricks is playing with her feet.  She's always loved diaper changes and being on her changing table.  She was already my helper, lifting her feet up for me automatically once she's on the changing table, but now that she's discovered her feet, she loves holding them and playing with them and sticking them in her mouth.  They are a source of endless entertainment.  

She's also sitting up on her own.  Sometimes she still falls over on one side to another because she doesn't quite have her balance (or because she's reaching for a toy), but she has the back strength to hold herself up.  This is a fairly new development and I was surprised by how quickly she went from not able to sit up at all to being able to sit up on her own for long stretches of time.  There was only a day or two in between her being able to sit up for two seconds without falling and being able to sit up for two minutes without falling.

Lucia isn't crawling yet. She has been able to scoot herself in circles and a few times, I've laid her on her playmat, walked away to do laundry and come back and she's a foot off the playmat.  I can't figure out quite how she does it and she seems not to want me to because she never moves much when I'm watching.  Sneaky baby!

I thought Lulu was engaging with toys before, but that was nothing.  Now she seems quite bored without a toy in hand at all times.  Although it rarely has to be a "real" toy, a rubber spatula is just as good.  She has several toys that hang from her playmat or car seat handle and she loves to hold and suck on them, but could care less what they are - she just likes sucking on the handles.  She has a few favorite toys, including her "busy bee", her "fluffy ducky" and a very hungry caterpillar.  

Lulu's most surprising favorite plaything is a balloon.  We had a mylar balloon in our apartment that was left over from a graduation party for David a few weeks ago.  David put the string in her grasp in order to take a picture of her holding it and she loved it.  She loves to bounce it up and down and even knows to look up for it when she lets go of the string.  She even tries to put it in her mouth (well, she tries that with everything).

Sometimes I forget how intelligent Lucia is because she can't speak yet.  (While we're on the topic of speaking, no one can shut that girl up, she loves to jibber jabber her sweet baby squeals.)  David and I have noticed that she understands the word and sign for "milk" and will stop crying or fussing when I sign it to her if she is hungry.  I'm hoping that she'll be able to sign it herself sometime in the next few months.  We haven't been very good about remembering to use other signs, but we're trying.

My baby girl and I love to spend some quality mother-daughter time together, especially if it involved infant massage.  But I have to admit that she is still a Daddy's girl, and I'm sure she always will be.  The two of them have been spending more one-on-one time together since I started subbing a few times a week and I come home to her giggles as Daddy does silly acrobatic tricks with her.  He hold her upside down, he holds her up like a flying airplane, he dances around the room with her.  I honestly can't tell who loves it more.

I've missed Lucia more than I thought I would while working.  I know that I'm only missing a few hours with her here and there, but I'm so afraid I'm going to miss something big.  I enjoy substitute teaching and I am very grateful for the experience because it reminds me to value the time I have with my little girl, to enjoy all the little moments we have together.

Next month, Lulu will be six months old.  Half a year!  It seems like just yesterday she was nestled snugly inside my tummy and not long ago that David and I got married.  Oh how much has changed in less than two years.  Next week, Lucia will be there to watch Daddy graduate.  No doubt she'll have a smile on her face, my happy, bubbly baby.  

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