Lina - 7 Months

Lina has learnt how to crawl.

It’s kind of a frog-jump, commando-style type of crawl. She looks really funny, but at least she can move around now. She was getting pretty frustrated for weeks.

So since then she’s been crawling everywhere, she’s getting into all kinds of trouble! Sucking on the bricks of the fireplace. Munching on the leaves and grass on the doormat. Tugging on the roll of toilet paper. Pulling the tv wire out of the wall. Shuffling through the pile of newspapers on the floor. Sucking on the shoelaces of my sneakers. Gnawing on the legs of our dinner table.

She practically mops the floor with her drool and the front of her tshirt. I probably should stop her from getting too dirty, but she seems to be having so much fun.

Lina - 6 Months

Lina has two teeth!!

Now it hurts like hell when she chomps on my finger. AND when I feed her with a rubbery spoon she bites on it so hard that we’re constantly in a tug-o-war during meal times.

I was actually anticipating the whole “teething stage” to be quite awful. Chris' mother said that Chris was a wonderful baby until he started teething… and then it all went to hell until he was… 12!

But in the end, Lina had a few grumbly hours over two days, which magically disappeared after a tiny bit of Baby Panadol. Breast feeding is still fine, so I might keep it up for a few more months.

Lina - 5.5 Months

Lina Almost 5 Months

Lina is almost 5 months old! She feels like she’s been in our lives forever!

Sleeping
Ever since Lina had the flu, she hasn’t been sleeping through the night. There was this delicious few weeks where she slept 9 to 10 hours straight. We’d put her to bed at 9pm and she’d wake up at 6am the next morning! But those days are long gone. For some reason she’ll wake up at 3am, or 2am, sometimes 4am for a late-night feed. Then again at 6am or 7am. Ugh. I’m grumpy all morning. We’ve been experimenting with all kinds of things. Putting her to sleep earlier. Waking her up for a play and feed before we go to bed. Not letting her sleep too much during the day. Tiring her out with some serious playtime before she goes to bed. But nothing seems to work. We’re going to try “doing nothing” next.

Food
Stuff Lina Has Eaten:
(1) Breastmilk
(2) Rice Cereal - It’s like mushy milk. she loves it!
(3) Apple - she only tasted it once. Judging by the look on her face, you’d have thought I fed her lemons. she couldn’t keep it down, so I skipped it and moved onto the next food.
(4) Pumpkin - Lina hates pumpkin! It’s hard work getting it into her mouth when she’s grumpy. But she’ll eat it when she’s hungry. It’s very cute to watch. I should take some pics.
(5) Carrot - I think Lina's not sure about this one. Maybe because it’s orange like the pumpkin. But she’ll scoff it anyway.

Growth
I haven’t weighed her recently, but I judging from our last weighing appointment, she should be about 6.4kgs. Which is waaay too much for me to carry for long periods of time.
Her eyes have stopped changing color. It’s kinda settled down to a light grey-brown/green. She’s definitely chubbier all over. But not at michelin or sumo status yet. We think she might be teething too! Eeep!

Development
She can roll over from her back to her front!
She can roll over with a string of toys in one hand!
She giggles and laughs at my bed-sock puppet shows.
She always goes for the green toys.
She can burp all by herself now.
The word “bath” makes her all excited.

Mother’s Day

It took a while for it to sink in.

I flipped through glossy catalogs that filled my letter box. Candles, pajamas, bath robes, bath oils, bath bombs, picture frames, perfumes, nail polish, underwear, food processors, microwaves, irons, cake mixers. Mother’s Day presents. It begins today.

I’m on the receiving end of catalog Mother’s Day shit. My kitchen cupboards are going to be filled with electrical appliances that I only use once a year. My shelves are going to be cluttered with porcelain ornaments from Target. The new bear-patterned pajamas will hang between the floral-patterned pajamas and the striped-patterned pajamas.

Oh I’m being such a wuss. Truth is, I’m in denial. I’m still trying to discover what it means (to me) to be a mom.

I have a feeling that, over time, I will succumb to the soppiness of Mother’s Day.

I know that because when Lina comes home with her first painting of My Mom… someone will be turning into a puddle of goo.

The Rolling Milestone

Lina rolled over this morning!

I plonked hher on the floor on her back. She gurgled happily and waved her feet in the air. I walked away for a few seconds to grab my cup of strawberry lemonade.

I came back to find her turned over wiggling like a wet fish on her belly.

*I’m so excited*

Next will be the crawling, then walking and then I’ll need to make the house child proof.

At The Supermarket

Lina is 3.5 months and has developed a vice like hand grip. Put something in her hand and you’ll never get it back! Fingers. Hair. Clothes. Toys. Ear rings.

Today I was in the supermarket aisle looking for soy sauce. I was carrying Lina on my hip. When I tried to walk away, I realized that Lina was holding onto something - a little old lady!

All three of us stood there politely, waiting for Lina to let go of her finger. It was a rather awkward 4 minutes.