TEETH!

Or I should say, TOOTH! Elsie has just popped the first tooth all the way through her little sore gums. It’s tiny but sharp and I hope it comes in the rest of the way with less trouble.

She woke up from her afternoon nap in a mood to kill. Crying and inconsolable. It wasn’t until I noticed the bit of blood from her gums that I realized what had happened, then it was teething gel, tablets and them the big guns…Motrin. After all that and a quick watch of a baby video (bad mom) all was right.

I know I’m going to be up tonight with additional medicine. I hope she wakes up feeling better…otherwise we might not make it through.

Sometimes, I just want to go back to the gavage tube

Elise — you’re driving your dear ol’da batty.  When you’re hungry and crying for food and immediately start playing with the bottle nipple with your tongue and letting it all dribble out your mouth — well, in my book, you also lose the right to get all mad and start screaming when I take the bottle away.  Yeah, at the ripe old age of almost 7 months, I know that’s a tough lesson to learn, but, the alternative is even less pretty.

I know I need to be careful about wanting you kids to grow up too fast, but the day you are done with bottles, just can’t come soon enough. Stella, the wonder eater, is starting to pick up some of your tricks.

At least you got yourself down for a nap without a pacifier.  That’s the next habit that needs to be broken..

Da Da Da

I like to tease Elise about being the lazy baby. She’s happy to be propped somewhere with a toy in reach or happy to lay on her back and bat at a jingle bug for quite sometime. But really she’s working on some hard skills.

Elsie is working on making noise. Right now she has “da” down pat. It’s da da da ah-da all da-y long. If you repeat her sounds she gets so excited! It’s like having a conversation…and you “get” her.

She laughs and squeals and pitches her voice at different levels. She’ll go from a coo to an ear-popping screech just for the fun of it. And in reality, it is fun to listen to her talk.

Six Months and Still Kickin’

Elise, along with Stella, turned six months last week. In the madness that was our week (we had various *grand*parents in from Sunday to Thursday) we managed to get the girls in to see the Doc for their six month check-up and vaccinations.

Elise’s current stats:

Height–25 1/8″

Weight–15#8oz

Head Circumference–16 5/8″

She’s about 25th percentile for everything…in other words: perfect. I’m glad to note that Elsie is closing the gap on Stella in weight. At their four month appointment Stella was exactly one pound heavier than Elsie. Now Elsie is 14 oz less. I now they are totally different babies, but I worry about Elsie being too small.

In any case, Dr. Don was very pleased with how both girls are doing. Elsie is warming up to solids. They now get two meals a day and while she won’t open at the mere sight of a puree laden spoon, she does give it a shot and after a few bites she gets into it. With the exception of the puree apples, she hasn’t turned her nose up at anything. She loved the peas we had the other day. The peas caused her to give me the “You’re not shoving food fast enough Mom” grump. That’s one grump I can totally live with.

Elsie is working very hard on tuning her fine motor skills. She’s not so interested in rolling anymore but she has become toy obsessed. She wants to pinch, pull, poke and taste every object that comes her way.  She is loving the small rattles…as long as one part fits into her mouth! Today I found new balls (!) for the girls. They are lightweight plastic and constructed to be open spheres. Very easy to hold for babies. These have little shakers embedded into the design. Elsie was transfixed and that makes me smile. Because I so totally need another excuse to buy baby toys. ;)

Food Check

Elise does not like apples. I have determined that this is why she’s been off her cereal for a couple of days now. Pure puree apples bring on the gag reflex.

She does like bananas…so back to smooshing them up for breakfast.

Keeping up with the … sister

Elise was rolled over from her back for a bit of tummy time.  With her arm still mostly under her, she pushed up with the other and naturally rolled over to her back. And she beamed up with a glowing smile.

Huh, well, maybe that was just a fluke.

So, I plopped her back down on the tummy without the one arm tucked under and she struggled this time, but she eventually got herself over the hum.

Stella’s been doing this for a few weeks now.  Peer pressure…