Ahead of the Curve

Alyssa had a checkup at the doctor's today and she's definitely ahead of the curve. She'll be 5 months old on May 5th and is growing like a weed. She's at the 89th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. She weighs 18.4 pounds and is 26.25 inches tall. Thanks to my department chair, we got a new car seat for her, since her current car seat only holds up to 22 pounds. The new car seat should work for her until she doesn't need a car seat anymore (it's a convertible that holds 5-65 pounds). I'm definitely excited to not have to buy one - they're expensive!

Alyssa started eating from a spoon last week. We've been putting it off because we're super busy, but I got curious and gave it a try. And she loved it. It took her a couple of times to get the hang of it, but eventually she took to it and was gulping down the cereal as fast as I could get it to her mouth. I'm not sure if she liked the cereal or wanted to chew on the spoon, but she sure wanted that thing in her mouth. The only thing that saved us was the kitchen towel that covered both her and the Bumbo - it saved an hour of cleanup and an outfit. It was a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself (it might have been my idea).

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...

Alyssa is growing up fast. Her new favorite pastimes are to lay on the floor and rolling back and forth, kicking her legs and waving her arms, scooting herself around in a circle on her back, and grabbing anything within arm's reach. She's becoming more mobile and inquisitive and I'm afraid our peace is slipping away quickly. She's already working hard on learning to crawl, pushing herself up onto her knees, so that's not too far away either.

She's outgrowing clothes faster than we can get them too. She's 4 1/2 months old and we think over 20 pounds (we haven't been to the doctor in a while, so we're not sure). She's getting taller and (I hate to say) pretty chunky, but she's a healthy and happy baby. I was giving her a bath last night and she wouldn't lay down on the reclining side of the tub like normal, so we moved over to the toddler side where she can sit up. She liked that because it let her splash even more (she loves getting mommy's shirt all wet during bath time).

We went to Utah for spring break the week before Easter so the rest of Mike's family could meet the baby. She was a big hit and I felt like I didn't see her much the whole week (except when she was crying or sleeping, of course) - everyone wanted their turn holding her. She wasn't too happy when we got home and no one was holding her all day.

Work has been pretty crazy for Mike and I recently. My hours seem to keep getting longer, and now I have class 2 nights a week. I feel like I'm running around all day working and my to-do list keeps getting longer. Mike's still working in special ed during the day and he's trying to get his real estate career going in the evenings and weekends, so he's super busy too. Thank heaven for babysitters.

In good news, Alyssa slept through the night last night for the first time!!!!! Hooray!!!!! She started fussing a little at 5:30 and when Mike said he hadn't gotten up with her, I realized what had happened. And I was so happy. I'm having a great day today.

Spring is Here!!!

...and it's a beautiful thing. Alyssa is experiencing her first heat wave, so we're busting out the cute summer dresses and she's loving it. We got our first picture of her smiling - she's been smiling for a month or so now, but only at faces and not for the camera. It's hard to capture that. Her smile is infectious and makes the world a better place.

Hungry Baby

Alyssa is always hungry. And she's gaining weight like crazy - she's a little chunker. So we contemplated this problem, talked to more experienced parents, and we think we came up with a solution: cereal. We're adding it into her bottles at night to help her eat less and hold her over and it's working really well. She's eating about 2 ounces less from her cereal-laden bottles, and waiting to eat an hour or two longer between bottles. Success! Only problem is, now she's even more cranky because she's constipated. Is there ever any end to baby crankiness?!?!?!

Alyssa turned 3 months old on Friday. She's taken to talking to inanimate objects, like the smiling lion attached to her bouncer. She jabbers loudly and shamelessly, for hours every day. She's very entertaining. She's teething, so she's drooling all over everything. She even drooled on her leg today (don't ask me how she did that). We're keeping a bib on her most of the time, so she doesn't soak through her clothes and make herself cold. We haven't see any teeth coming up yet, but they must be, because the teething tablets work miracles. She smiles all the time and it melts your heart. We've done our best to get a picture of her smiling, but she only smiles for her lion and for other people's smiles, not for the camera. We'll get one, one of these days, I hope.

In short, life with a baby is a lot of work, but it's totally worth it.

So. Tired.

Mike and I miss sleeping. A lot. Alyssa's teething, and so she's super cranky and won't sleep anymore. Before this teething stuff, she would sleep 6 hours at a time. We loved that. Now, she's up every hour and will only take an ounce or two at most, if she eats at all. We take turns getting up, but it's still too much to handle sometimes. We're so dead by Friday we can't think straight. My students must have started thinking I've gone insane because of my mood swings. I'm gonna go take a cat nap. :/

Trading Up

Alyssa is growing like a weed. She's eating like crazy and growing a pound a day, it seems. The bassinet we've had her in keeps getting smaller and smaller, and harder and harder to get her out of. So this week we traded up to more rooms sleeping quarters for her. We set up the playpen, which has a crib attachment. Now it makes her look really small. But that's probably a good thing - she looks like a Buddha baby when she's sitting up.

This is one active baby. Here she is practicing her "walking." It's just standing, really. She only naps an hour or two a day, but she sleeps like a rock at night. She's usually up twice each night to suck down another bottle, so Mike and I trade off to preserve our precious sleep. This morning, she decided it was time to get up at 4:30. She sucked down a bottle and was back in bed by 5:00. Since my alarm was set for 5:30, I figured I should just stay up - it'll be harder to wake up if I go back to bed for a half hour. I have a meeting with some other teachers after school, so it's gonna be a long day. Here's to going to bed early on a Friday night! Man, I really am becoming a boring old married person.

After all that hard work walking, standing, sitting up, kicking, and batting at the bouncer elephants, it's time to relax. Daddy loves to cuddle, so in the evening he sits on his "man island" (aka the lazy boy) and cuddles with two of his ladies (the dog is a girl too), while his main squeeze is usually working on the couch writing a lesson plan. Lesson planning NEVER ends. EVER. Ok, maybe in June, but we have a whole bunch of weeks to get through before that comes. Hooray for only 80 more days of school after today!!!

Diaper Ratings and Nature (Not Nurture)

When they say a diaper only holds 12 pounds, it only holds 12 pounds and no more. Of poo, that is.

Alyssa's growing like a weed, so she's starting to eat a lot more at each feeding. Several weeks ago, she was only eating 2-3 oz at a throw, but now it's more like 6-7 oz. We should be buying stock in the formula company - that stuff goes fast!

Because she's eating more, guess what else she's doing more. Yessir, she's pooping more. A LOT more. She used to poop like a lady (even though she's never farted like one), but now it's becoming ridiculous. I didn't really know what parents were talking about when they said a "diaper blowout," but I am now intimately aware of what that means. Alyssa had one last night AND this morning. I'm gonna start putting extra clothes on her and keeping multiple extra outfits in the diaper bag. Holy mackerel!

In non-poopy news, Alyssa has discovered the elephants and lion that hang in front of her when she's in her bouncer. She's figured out that if she kicks and moves around, she slides down closer to them, and then can punch and bat at them with her hand. She will do this for hours, faithfully batting at the smiling blue elephant, possibly taking after her biological father, who is a professional fighter (like a punching bag?). We definitely didn't teach her to do that. So far, nature's winning and nurture's trying to catch up.

We are currently enjoying a 4-day weekend. Yesterday, the ladies in the family, as well as David (who's 3), went for a drive and went out to lunch at Marie Callendar's. It was fun to have a girls day out with all of us. We haven't hung out together without our menfolk in quite some time. Today, Mike, Alyssa, and I are going on a surprise early Valentine's outing. Mike won't tell me what it is, and Alyssa can't talk yet (I'm sure Mike's told her), so I'm the only one in the dark. All I know is it's a picnic. It's a lovely day outside, so it should be great. I'm looking forward to it.