Five month checkup
I have been fairly silent here recently. Playing a part in that are keeping up with Ella and being swamped at work, but inertia is huge too. So I'm going to try a JFWI approach for the next month. No matter how banal, silly or stupid, I'm posting something every day, even if it's just a list of singers whose voices drive me batty.
Enough of that, let's catch up with Ella. She turned five months old yesterday. She's just a fantastic baby. Her default mood is happy, and she's been alert since a very early age -- it's one of the first things nurses at Magee said about her and people continue to say about her. She eats great and has only been been fussy with the bottle once or twice. It's also put our first-timer minds at ease that not only has she grown like a weed (more below), she's started nearly all her milestones early: smiling, sitting up, rolling, following moving stuff with her eyes, all these tiny little motor skills that become so huge for a few months.
I haven't been around many babies, but I have the feeling that if other babies were like her, more people would have more babies. The days where she is fussy for an extended period of time can be counted on one (maybe two) hands. And when she is crying for no reason and demanding to be held in varying positions for hours at a time (like about a week and a half ago) Barb and I shake our heads and wonder how people deal with constantly cranky babies. I have no real theories on how she came to be this way, that would be silly. I'm just thankful. (Well, one theory, about which all I'll say is: 8th Continent soymilk, if you ever want to have a "We fueled the happiest baby ever" promotion, give us a ring.)
Ella is still big. She's in 6/9- or 12-month clothes right now. At her four month checkup she got her measurements: still at or above the 97% for her weight, height and head. (Also at her four month checkup was her second round of shots, for which she was perfect.) If her weight was 90+ and her height 50-, we might have something to be worried about. As it is, the doctors (and books) say she'll start showing more of her permanent body type around 9-12 months, at which time she should be wearing womens petite size 4 or so.
She absolutely loves people. (And cats.) When we go to church, to a
restaurant, out on a walk or just out on the front porch, she's
beaming and smiling. We went up the street to the Memorial Day parade
this morning, and afterward visited Fredo's Deli on Potomac. She sat
in Jamie-the-sandwich-lady's lap for 20 minutes, just smiling and
giggling, looking up at her like they'd been best friends for
weeks. Even Mark, no suck-up
to babies, remarked that her
happy pictures
weren't staged.
As for stuff I've learned... well, I need to have something to write about for my JFWI month....