Maggie's Fifth Month!

Ok, it was a crazy busy month and now we're nearly 10 days into the next, but I'm going to do my best for posterity's sake.

- Maggie's maybe ear infection from last month turned out to be the real deal.  After some antibiotics she was a much happier girl, although giving her three meds twice a day was a bit of a struggle for everyone involved.

- Maggie went from having rolled over to rolling over constantly.  She seems absolutely compelled to so do.  The shift was around the 20th after having seen Khloe roll over and some training time with Uncle Zach.  She now rolls over in her crib too and tends to sleep much longer when she has.

- Sleep, the elusive changeable thing.  Either I've forgotten or M just isn't finding a consistent rhythm as much as B did in sleep and other scheduling matters, but it may be a second child phenomenon as well.  So in her fourth month she started sleeping through the night.  Then she got sick and stopped.  Then we started her on solid foods and she started again.  Then she stopped again.  Wackiness continued to ensue.  Now, that the ear infection is better. She is up to routinely 8 hours, which is great, but not quite a full night really.  Also, when she falls asleep the first time and her one time waking up isn't very consistent.  Basically, M tends to be consistently inconsistent. Oh, and randomly most of the month she slept best sans PJs.  My kids continue to be opposed to wearing clothes, which is odd.

-She loves her butterfly mobile and will quietly "talk" to it at length in the morning.  It had to be raised though as Brent caught her with a death grip on a Butterfly one day.

- Sitting up - at the very end of last month and start of this she has begun tentatively sitting up.  She can't pull herself into sitting up, but can at times sit up straight for significant periods with no support or falling over so I'm calling it. 

- The love affair with her giraffe continues, but she now wants to chew on everything all the time.  Her second favorite is this dino-noodle toy she got for Christmas from the Korenaks.  (Today, I swear she's teething, but really who knows).

- At her Dr. appointment on the 31st (for her antibiotics) she weighed 19lb 11oz fully clothed.  It continues to blow my mind.  Sometimes it is a little sad as she has all these awesome clothes people have given her that are are for completely the wrong season.  Oddly, people thought it would be Spring/Summer before she was in 9 or 12 month clothes.  I'm sure we'll find good homes for what we don't get to wear, but still.... so many pretty things...

- LOVES her big brother.  He will do little hand motions for her or sing and she'll just smill and laugh.  He's pretty nuts about her too.  He checks on her alot and is pretty confused when we don't check on her and she is fussing (we're working on the putting herself to sleep thing).

- She started a new childcare arrangement on the 4th.  We LOVE Ms. Maureen and so does Maggie.  Weirdly, she doesn't eat much when she is there, but does an awesome job of napping and playing.  I didn't tell Maureen that we'd still been holding M to put her to sleeps for naps so she just set her down with a paci at naptime and M put herself to sleep.  Hmmm... the little trickster.  So now that we're on to her tricks we're working on doing it more here too. She is a champ at naptimes, but less good at night.

- Speakign of pacis, remember last month when I said she didn't use them anymore? Apparently, she does now that she can breath.  About 50-60% of the time she uses them when putting herself to sleep.  Perhaps she wasn't using them before because she couldn't breath out of her nose for most of December? Still sucks on fingers and thumbs though so not sure where she'll ultimately end up.

- We cannot find socks that fit properly, but overall she is starting on 12 month clothes.  She got a new hat this month that I love. She also got her first party dresses from Baby Gap for Christmas and was adorable:) She also got her first tutu, handmade by Sarah!

- Eating - she still mostly subsists on formula and takes about 4-6oz at a time.  In the morning she has oatmeal, sometimes with some apple sauce in it.  Otherwise, she's trying sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut squash, bananas, apple sauce, and rice cereal.  We haven't tried too many things largely as I'm making the baby food again and there isn't as much good produce in the winter.  She is more interested in her food of late so we may start adding more variety.

-She still talks and grunts alot.

- Not having problems in the car seat during daylight hours generally, but nighttime and oddly trips back from the farm remain problematic.

- She LOVES kisses.  She will smile and giggle if you make kissing noises at her and even more so if you kiss her little neck.  I love it.

- Daddy has started calling her Baby Lady, which is adorable.  My normal nicknames remain Magpie, Maggster, Precious little Maggie/Magpie, bitty sister and probably others I'm not thinking of now.

- This month she started using John's jumperoo and seems to really enjoy it.

- M is an intense little girl.  She just goes after things (like chewing on her giraffe) with such focus and vigor.  It is crazy, and a tiny bit fascinating

-She experienced her first snow (snug in her bear suit).  She didn't seem too interested.

- It was her first Christmas as well. She got lots of presents, but as expected liked the paper the most:)

I think that's about the highlights.  I'm sure there is something I'm forgetting.  I'll try to be more timely next month so we don't have such overlap.  Thanks little Maggie for being our snuggly, laughing, little girl joy.