Vivian is 5 months!

Where does the time go?  It is amazing to me that the months have flown by so quickly!  Here we are already into June and Vivian is already 5 months old.  So far, she is still everyone’s sweetheart.  She is not much of a crier though she still exerts her will.  She will smile for anyone which is really fun.

This month has been a little more difficult in the sleep department.  After all of our (five) trips since she was born, this last trip really messed up her schedule.  So I’m thinking that traveling with a 4-month old (or older) has much more impact than the first three months on an infant.  We’ve been working on getting on a better schedule but it’s been a lot more work than it was before. Once she goes to bed (at night) she will sleep for at least six hours and sometimes eight, but she is crazy hard to get to nap now.  Though skipping naps is not an option because she gets even more fussy and is absolutely impossible to get to sleep the next time you try to lay her down because she’s so overtired she’s inconsolable. 

We’ve moved on in the eating department to do more solid foods.  Christian has been the one to decide what she will have so now on top of baby cereal (rice being her favorite) she’s now had avocados and peas (because they are green, Christians favorite color and therefore his favorite foods).  Her appetite is getting larger and probably her stomach because her feedings are getting farther apart.   This is when I enjoy feeding babies more—when you don’t have to feed them all the time.

Vivian is now too big for the sink.  I know it’s weird that we’ve never bathed a baby in a baby tub but we didn’t have enough counter space for one with Christian to get one and we never thought about it with her.  So, she’s been taking sink baths.  Now that she’s outgrown the sink, she has graduated to the shower…which means that Jared gets to wash her because I’m too awkward and nervous to shower with a baby.  She doesn’t seem to mind the water that much though she looks perturbed at me for taking her picture in the shower.  This photo illustrates two reasons why I’d like to move from our apartment… the showerhead is pretty low and barely above my head and you can see how low it is for Jared.  Number two reason is there is nowhere to move in this shower…it is the smallest one that I’ve ever been in yet (you try it nine-months pregnant and you’ll really feel the walls caving in on you).

I just love watching babies grow.  It is so much fun to see how and when they gain various skills.  One baby talent that is adorable to me is how they play with their toes!

As stated in my previous post…Vivian loves to look at books.  She’s pretty serious about it too.  I love how intent her expression is in this picture as we’re reading our nightly stories.

Besides being intelligent, Vivian is getting nice and strong.  I’m sure that any day she will be sitting up.  Her tummy time is going very well.  She is spending more and more time on the floor.  Since she can roll so well and always ends up off of her small play gym, I made her a larger play mat (I have more info on my craft blog ) it coordinates with the colors of my living room so that I don’t feel like my grown-up space is being overrun by a toy store.  She seems to really like it.

One giant difference between the first and second baby is that you just can’t have as much control over some things.  Christian didn’t watch T.V. his first year but Vivian gets to watch select shows on PBS kids and Playhouse Disney with Christian a few days a week when I need to get something done and I need them (at least Christian out of my hair).  At least they are spending the time bonding.  It’s pretty cute to see how interested she can be.Christian is still absolutely loving his sister…. He is such a great help this second time of having a baby has really been a lot easier than the first.  I do sometimes feel a little sad that I don’t get to give her as much undivided attention as Christian got.  I guess it’s a trade-off because she does get attention from more people than Christian got in a way (though we don’t have Marian upstairs so it could be more even).

      I’m so pleased with my two sweethearts!  They really are the joy of my life.  I’m so grateful I get to be the mother of these sweet spirits.