Abbie has learned a new trick, and I think this may explain all the waking up and crying the past few nights--she was practicing. I'll let the video show you what she was practicing...
So Abbie's teething. I know I've said this many times before (well, I've at least though it), but this is it. She cried every half hour last night, chews the snot out of her fist and mine, and there's a waterfall coming out of her mouth. Needless to say, we haven't gotten alot of sleep the last couple nights. And Abbie is exhausted. She nearly passed out while I was holding her in my arms this morning, but when I put her down in her crib, she spent an hour and a half not falling asleep.
This is, of course, after a 2 week long cold, followed by a double ear infection (for which we are still taking antibiotics). I think we got 2 nights of good sleep before she started back up with the teething this time. And to add insult to injury this morning, she decided that for the first time in 4 months, she was going to wait until her diaper was off before peeing all over her last pair of clean pants. So after she didn't nap for one and a half hours, I just brought her downstairs in her sleepsack, so that her legs wouldn't get cold while her laundry is drying. So when I went to feed her some rice cereal, we got to fasten Abbie into her 3-point harnessed high chair somehow with a sleepsack on. Given the morning thusfar, I was not surprised to find out that mushy just wasn't her thing at the present time, and she didn't want to eat her cereal nicely. And she's always trying to grab for the bowl and the spoon, of course. So I decided, "to heck with it, let her have it."
The photos are on Flickr. Enjoy.
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/nov2008/pi2008117_238652.htm
Abbie is officially half a year old! So here's a little bit of an update on her latest antics:
She is trying REALLY hard to crawl. She's getting up on all fours and pushes off of her knees (sometimes her feet), and has just recently figured out that she needs to pick up her hands to get everything moving, too. But she just can't seem to get everything to work together yet. Not that she isn't getting around a bit, though. She rolls, scooches, and wobbles her way around the living room rug. I even found her underneath the piano bench the other day!
She's pretty much mastered sitting up now - the problem, however, is getting back down. 3 times last night, I woke up to a crying baby and found out she was sitting up in her crib and was stuck that way!
We also seem to have a budding musician, but I'm afraid she's leaning towards percussion instruments. She has a blast banging away on her little toy piano now (thanks Nanci!) and also likes to listen and watch someone drum on the floor with their hands.
Unfortunately, the last 2 weeks or so have been spent dealing with a bad cold, so her solid feedings were at a stand still for a while, but we did manage to try some sweet potato today. She didn't seem adverse to it, but there was definitely more on her hands and face than in her stomach. Hopefully, she'll get used to it and swallow more tomorrow. On the plus side, I found out how much I like pureed sweet potato (very tasty!). So leftovers won't be a problem.
Oh, and she also definitely found her voice and has discovered that she can get a response by using it. However, she's got the same sound for "I'm happy", "I'm frustrated", "I'm tired", and "I have a full diaper" so she doesn't always get the response she wants.
Due to her cold (and resulting double ear infection), she won't have her 6 month checkup until the day before Thanksgiving, so I don't have measurement updates for you. Oh, except that she's 17.5 lbs now (yikes!) and is firmly transitioned to the 6-12 month sized clothing. I've gotten quite a few questions on that, by the way: 6-12 month for winter, 12-18 month for spring/summer is probably what she's going to need.
And I promise to use brute force shortly if Marc doesn't get more photos up on Flickr soon.