Dear Katie,
What to say this month? Your personality is getting stronger and louder and more growly (yes, growl-y)... I think we're going to have our hands full with you. Is it possible there's a stronger, more stubborn, more opinionated person in this household than me? I think, perhaps, yes...
Having been on solids for over a month there's still nothing that makes you crazy happy - no little bird with her mouth wide open here. Most meals are spent with you fussing or groaning or (yes) growling your way through it. You are (marginally) happier if you have your own spoon to play with - and you shut the hell up if we give you something in the mesh feeder or a cookie or some other self-feeding/gnawing item. What with all this behaviour and your tendency to grab desperately at anything on my plate or within reaching distance while on my lap, my conclusion is this: I think you're D.O.N.E. with the baby food. Trust me kid - I can't wait I can just throw some things on your tray and let you go to town --- but I'm pretty sure you need to be eating the pureed stuff a bit longer. We'll see - I recently acquired a baby food mill and with that means you can start eating (or getting a taste of) what we're eating. Mmmmmmm!
I'd love to say that all this eating and nursing every couple of hours means you're busting out of your clothes - but nope. You're tiny. Alarmingly so, in fact - and so we will have another appointment with the doctor next week to check your weight again and see if you've managed to get back on the growth charts you so recently fell off of.
That being said - you don't LOOK small. You're still roly poly and have chunkamonk thighs - but the scale says what the scale says...
In other, happier news - you added a new skill this month. SITTING. You love to sit and pay with an assortment of toys around you. Rarely falling backwards anymore - I still put the pillow behind you just in case - but you'll sit without toppling for an hour at a time. This also means you're within licking distance of the dog - luckily you and Seamus are developing a lovely little bond - you protest his "kisses" far less than the washcloth cleaning your face after a meal.
The sleep - well, it's still up and down. We've done a bit of sleep training this month, because the hour long routine of rocking/walking/patting of the bum was getting a bit - tiresome - to say the least. And so you've cried far more than you or I or Daddy would like. It's not been fun. And you are STUBBORN. You fight sleep. You hate to see someone leave your room. You protest it all. LOUDLY. Oh Katie - please just learn to love sleep like the rest of us do. Because damn... I need to buy shares in cover up for the dark circles beneath my eyes.
We're going to be starting baby sign language class. I loved this with your sister and I think it would be a nice change for us to go to a class where there's other babies, instead of being carted around to 3 year old classes/groups. And you're already so interested whenever I'm signing to you - such a smart girl...
That is you my Kates - strong willed (already), stubborn (already), but still an absolute sweetheart that loves to flirt with Daddy, throws her arms up in the air and grunt/smile/grunt whenever I walk in the room, and smile while reachreachreaching for Maddie whenever she's near.
Just making yourself known... I get it. And love you for it.
Love,
Mommy
PS - the eye colour? Is still kind of changing - sometimes it's grey, often it's hazel, and sometimes (thankfully rarely) it's a light brown... Don't think it's decided just yet. But blue? Not even on the radar anymore...
