Dear Lexi,
As I am typing out my notes for this month, it is shocking to realize how much we did and how much you changed in just 30 short days! You are growing into quite an entertaining and smily little girl and brought SO many favorite moments and memories to me this month.
Favorite moments
Throughout all of last month and this month, you’ve really strengthened your core and are very stable sitting up by yourself. On a regular basis you’ll be sitting and playing with your toys and get so excited you rock your entire body front to back, wave your arms all over the place, kick your legs (not an easy thing to do while sitting) smile to your ears and sparkle your big ocean blue eyes.You melt my heart every time.
This month you also started lifting your arms up towards me when you want to be picked up. Very rarely can I resist your snuggles and hugs. It sounds strange to say out loud, but this small gesture brings an incredible amount of self-worth and gratification. I’m not sure why this makes me feel more ‘worthy’ than other actions, but for some reason it does.
Another favorite moment of the month was the affection you’ve grown towards your stuffed giraffe. We started putting a couple of stuff animals in your crib to help lengthen your nap time and it has really worked. Upon laying you down in your crib we put giraffee into your arms as you roll over and it seems to really comfort you. We’ve tried other animals, but you have a strong preference for giraffee. Sometimes the love you have for it is too much to handle. So sweet!
This month you built up your pipes girlfriend! You’ve become the little speedster in rolling over to your tummy and are this close to crawling. You often get on all fours and rock back and forth. You’ll even move your legs, but haven’t quite figured out that you need to move your hands forward too. As you’re moving around, you often put yourself into the push-up position. Your arms are extended and you balance on your toes and will do downward dog but you never move.
As you’ve gotten older, you’ve become less and less cuddly. You’re often squirming around and rarely fall asleep in our arms, so I was pretty nervous to take you on an airplane by myself, which is a whole other story, but to my delight you were an angel and snuggled and slept on my chest for the entire trip. I tried to soak up all the snuggles and sweetness of the moment because I know there are fewer and fewer of them in the future.
Another fun thing to watch this month was your ability to play with toys. One day I sat you in front of your toys so I could get dinner ready and heard all this banging and clanging and found you had taken the top off your shape blocks and were smacking two of them together. And this development only escalated throughout the month. You would take rings off and smack the tower of your blocks over, you would grab the balls out of the bouncing hippo, push buttons on your tool box and so much more. It is so fun to watch your brain develop and your discovery of cause and effect.
You officially learned how to jump this month. We put you in the Johnny Jumper and you go crazy jumping around. Your legs are hopping before they’re even touching the ground. I love to watch how happy and proud you are that you can jump. Your little gummy grin is too priceless.
Nuts and bolts of the month:
Eating: This month was a bit interesting on the eating front. I got mastitis again and noticed a good decrease in my milk supply. My right side eventually came back to where it was, but my left side continues to produce about 2 oz less per feeding than previously. So now, I would say I’m producing just enough for you each each day. Solid food consumption has also been a little spotty. The month started out strong eating just about anything we put in front of you: bananas, applesauce, squash, sweet potatoes, green beens, pears, peaches, blueberries. But near the end of the month, you didn’t want sweet potatoes or really much of any kind of solid food.
Sleeping: Throughout the entire month, you’ve been getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 to eat, and fall right back asleep. This was pretty out of the norm for you so I started nursing you on both sides before you went to sleep and the last few nights you haven’t gotten up early so we’ll see if that does the trick.
Naps: Your naps have gotten a little better over the month and will usually nap three times a day, with at least one of them being one+ hours. We still put you down awake, and you usually cry for 5-10 min before falling asleep.
Vacations: This month we took two vacations that were back to back. Grandma and Grandpa B rented a cabin near Brainard for the week. Auntie Sheila flew home and Uncle Joe and Auntie Angie all went up there for the week. You were a show-stopper and provided lots of entertainment for everyone. And I think everyone loved to spend so much time with you too. You went on your first boat ride and saw your first campfire. The weather was pretty nice for us but the rest of the spring had been so cold, we didn’t take you swimming in the lake. You also HATED your lifejacket, so that made things a little interesting. We spent a lot of time in the cubbie of the boat so you didn’t have to wear your lifejacket and spared everyone else 8-hours of screaming.
A couple days after the cabin we headed to Colorado. Daddy drove there and you and I flew. It was your first time on an airplane so I was a little nervous how you would do, but overall you were a champ! And Kris and John just loved meeting you and watching you explore their house.
Other notes:
- You developed a small heat rash on your back but it quickly disappeared with some Cortizone cream.
- You love splashing around in your ‘crabby’ pool (and it beats the laundry basket “pool” I was using for awhile).
- You love being outside. If you’re really upset or even just kind of fussy, I can take you outside to look at the grass, the trees and the flowers and you instantly mellow out.
- Your first tooth popped through and you were so well behaved we didn’t even notice it was there.
- You LOVE to crawl over our legs and will always choose that over your toys if Daddy or I are sitting playing with you.
- You discovered how to make clicking noises with your mouth and did that for 3 straight days! If you were awake and not eating, you were clicking.
- You love to grab my hair and eat it if it is down. And now when I remove it from your death-grip and move it to the other side, you follow it and reach and grab it on that side. Smart little girl you are! It is so fun to watch the progress your brain is making as you piece these cause and effect situations together.
- The bald spot on the back of your head is starting to grow in now that you sleep on your stomach.
- We celebrated Daddy’s birthday and first Father’s Day.
- You’re not pulling yourself up on anything yet, but if we stand you up along the couch, you’ll stay there and bang your hands on it, and have even attempted to move from the ottoman to the couch by yourself.
Thank you for another wonderful month my little love bug. You are so happy and fun to be around and watch grow.
Love,
Mom
Peanut Smiles 