7 Months

Seeing as I'm awake anyway, I might as well take the time to post. As always, the weeks have flown by and Aerin actually turned 8 months old on Tuesday. This would probably be a more tender look back at the month if she hadn't woken up at 3:15 this morning. Or if I'd been able to fall asleep after I put her back down.

So yeah. This adorable brat is 8 months old.

The big story of the last month is TEETH and MORE TEETH. She has total of four now, her two top left teeth having made a rather dramatic appearance a few weeks ago. She supposedly has two more lurking on the right side, waiting to pop at the most inconvenient time, I'm sure.

This month marked her very first (and hopefully last) nursing strike. One morning she woke up, nursed, and went to daycare, just like every other day, but when I went to feed her at 3:30 that afternoon, she absolutely refused to eat. She arched her back away from me and cried. At the time, I thought she was just tired and maybe hungry for the blueberries she hadn't eaten yet. So we got home and she still refused. She was clearly hungry, but she wouldn't even lie in my arms, much less latch on. She screamed, she scratched, she pinched, she pushed away, and she wouldn't eat. Todd was out of town, so finally, I just had to put her down in her crib so I could cook dinner for me and Micah. Aerin screamed the whole time; I mean screamed. And so went the rest of the evening. And the weekend. And the first two days of the next week. She wouldn't even take a bottle or a sippy. When Todd would hold her out to me, she would stiffen in midair, already pulling away just from my touch. I spent the entire time worried, upset, hurt, and just kind of pissed. When she finally latched on at 8 PM on the following Tuesday, my arms were covered in little black bruises and I had already promised her to a roving band of Gypsies.

Of course, she's fine now.

Jerk.

Her growth has slowed down a bit. She's still in 9 month outfits, although she fills them out a bit more. Her weight dropped during the nursing strike, so she's still holding at around 19 pounds. Since she's approaching the 22-pound weight limit in her Chicco carrier and Micah's nearly outgrown his car seat, we bought Micah a new car seat a few weeks ago and turned his old Roundabout around for Aerin to ride in. We're still using the baby carrier in my car, but she seems to enjoy the bigger seat in Todd's.

She's started eating more solid foods like Cheerios and puffs and has learned how to chew things pretty effectively. She loves yogurt and can drink water from a sippy (although she can’t quite hold it up yet). She still doesn't roll over (I KNOW), but she's got pretty good balance when it comes to sitting. She can also swipe a remote, water glass, or phone from a far greater range than you'd expect. Nothing within a good 3-foot radius is safe. She's also pushing up on her arms and acting like she's thinking about getting her legs tucked up under her. She's actually happy to play on her stomach these days, at least for a little while.

She's got a whole repertoire of noises now, from a happy little dadadadaDA to an imperious tuh and she straight-up GROWLS at us if we're not moving fast enough when getting her dinner together. Her teachers laugh at that one; she's their little feral baby.

She has started bouncing a lot when seated and loves the jumper at the daycare. When she's excited to see someone, she flaps her arms, squawks, and bounces up and down with pure, unrestrained joy. She has yet to meet a stranger and is still completely free with her smiles. We've been known to cut quite a swath through the grocery store, and no little old lady is safe from her charms.

See what I mean?

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Looking back:

 

When my bear was a real bear

One night last November, while tucking Micah into bed, I had the idea to tell him the story about the bear that broke into the candy shop in Gatlinburg. Micah has a stuffed black bear he sleeps with every night and I thought he'd get a kick out of hearing it. Three months later, and the story has become a fixture of his bedtime routine. It has to be told in a very precise way and no parts can be left out, although a few details have been added as it's gone on.

After telling it nearly every night for the last three months, it seems impossible that I'd ever forget how the story goes, but I'm pretty sure it will be overwritten at some point. So I'm writing it here. There's no punch line - this is just something I really really want to remember.

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Mommy, I want to talk about when my bear was a real bear.

Once upon a time, before you were born-

When I was in your tummy like Aerin?

Yes, when you were still in my big tummy, kicking around, Mommy and Daddy went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to visit some of Mommy's family. While we were there, your daddy found this bear. And even though you weren't born and we didn't know anything about you, he thought you'd like this bear. So Daddy bought it for you, and this was your first present from Daddy.

I love my bear, Mommy.

Well, in Gatlinburg, where this bear is from, there's a real bear that lives in a cave up on the mountain. And early one morning he woke up. So he-

Was the sun up?

No, it was still dark. He walked-

Were there cars on the road? And planes in the sky? And were people going on abentures?

It was really early. It was still dark, and there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky. Everyone was still asleep and no one was going on adventures.

Oh.

So he walked outside and he stretched and he realized he was HUNGRY. So he set off down the mountain. He walked down the hill and through the trees until he came to road that goes through Gatlinburg.

Were there cars on the road? Were people going to work?

No, it was too early. And as he walked down the road he sniffed. Then he smelled something VERY GOOD TO EAT. He looked in the window, and what did he see?

A CANDY STORE!

A candy store! So he raised up his big bear paw and he SMASHED the door in.

Smash!

The first thing he ate was some...

Taffy!

Then he ate some...

Candied apples!

And then he ate some...

Peanut brittle!

And then he ate some...

Rock candy!

And he ate and he ate and he munched and he munched. That bear ate so much, for so long, that the sun came up!

And were there cars on the street? And planes in the sky? And were people going on abentures?

YES! There were cars on the road and planes in the sky and people were going on adventures and they were going to work. And when the two little old ladies who were supposed to open the candy store to sell candy to people got there, they saw the door all smashed in. They looked inside and..."AAAAAAAH! THERE'S A BEAR IN THERE!" So they ran back outside and they called the police.

And while everyone was outside waiting on the police, that bear snuck out the back door and ran off, back down the road and back up the hill and back through the trees and into his cave. WHEW!

And they never caught him.

Mommy? When my bear was a nice bear…he shared some of his taffy.

Now with pictures

Yesterday I conned Todd into helping me get some belated 6-month portraits of Aerin. Just pretend these were included with the last post.

6 Months

Weight: 17 pounds

Height: 28.5 inches (above the 99th percentile, folks, while Micah holds steady in the 50th)

Head Circumference: 42.5 cm

As of December 21, Aerin is six months old. Today, she's been with us for 206 days. The time is sliding by faster than I can keep up. One minute I was holding a wrinkled, sleepy newborn, the next a happy little roly-poly howler monkey. Some days I feel just completely bewildered by the whole thing.

Round about the middle of December, Aerin sprouted her two bottom teeth. This was followed by several days of misery as they finished cutting through, but now she's back to all smiles. She's also started biting when she nurses. She keeps it up, I guarantee baby's first word will be "SONOFABITCHowowowletgoletgoletgoGETITOFF."

Last Wednesday morning, I decided to try her on some cereal again. Unlike a month ago, this time she practically climbed up out of the seat trying to get to the spoon. Since then, she's been wolfing down two to three solid meals each day. So far we've tried rice, oatmeal, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, cinnamon, and prunes. I'm pretty sure she packed on another couple pounds in just the last week. My back says so anyway.

At Christmas and New Year's, Aerin was sitting propped up in corner of the sofa. The next Tuesday, she started sitting up unsupported at daycare. By Saturday, this was happening:

She still doesn't roll over, but she's done with lying down anyway. The play gym is no longer acceptable entertainment. She wants to be UP and DOING. Micah has recently learned several important lessons on putting down treasured items within the baby's reach. And girl can snag an unattended cell phone, remote control, or baby monitor in the blink of an eye.

She's still sleeping through the night. I'm almost afraid to put that out there, but it's true. Since six weeks, she's slept nearly every night from 9:30 until 6 or 7. In the last three days, we've managed to get her down by 8:45 each night; I go in at 7 AM and wake her up. I freely admit this is NOT due to anything we did or didn't do. I'm sure if she was my first baby, I'd be obnoxiously smug about it, but she's not and I know better. She sleeps because she is an awesome baby. Period. I also freely acknowledge it could change at any moment. The baby giveth and she taketh away.

Half a year old. Rock on, little girl.

Christmas Roundup

Aw, crap. It happened again.

I swear I just blinked and POOF there went the entire month of December. I don't even know, man.

So! Christmas!

We made a big deal out of Christmas lights this year. We went out several times just to see decorations around our town. For myself, I am generally opposed to inflatables and other holiday tchotchkes on the lawn, but we sure had fun finding them in other yards. Then one night, we saw a light-up crane. The next weekend, we had to buy one. I'm concerned it may be a gateway to a blow-up reindeer the size of the house, but it was Micah's favorite decoration EVER.

Late one Thursday evening, we made an impromptu trip to see the Galaxy of Lights at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. Although he seemed underwhelmed at the time, Micah enjoyed it enough to ask about it repeatedly for the several weeks. Of particular interest were all the lighted planes, helicopters, and rockets on the way in.

Then there were the daycare Christmas programs. Aerin tried to eat the jingle bells and succeeded in eating the tissue paper. Micah, despite having loudly practiced every song for weeks on end, refused to sing and instead kept running over to hide next to us.

This year, we hosted Todd's mother's family for their annual get together, and we hosted Christmas for my parents (my granddad was supposed to come too, but got sick at the last minute). Since we had guests, we decorated a lot this year. And I loved it.

And Christmas Eve...oh, I can't even tell you how special it was. After bathtime, we watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Snowman. Micah was actually laughing out loud, he loved it so much. When that was over, we scattered reindeer food in the back yard and carefully selected cookies for Santa. Todd read The Polar Express and I read The Christmas Story and Silent Night. Then all of us sang Silent Night together and we took Micah up to bed. I can't describe what exactly made it so perfect, but it was.

I never expected how much I would enjoy being the parent of a small child at Christmas.

Of course, then we spent the next THREE HOURS assembling toys. Another thing I never expected? How much WORK it is being the parent of a small child at Christmas.

All Micah asked for from Santa was a pretty castle (his words) and cars for its parking lot. And Santa delivered.

Santa also included an un-asked-for train set. We tried to tell Micah the engine would go around the track on its own, but he wanted to push it.

Among a whole list of awesome gifts, there was also the play kitchen from Papa and Melissa. I'm expecting many, many years of play out of this one.

Oh, and my Aunt Anne sent Aerin a Santa suit. Behold!

It was strange to be the ones hosting Christmas and putting together toys for Christmas morning, but it was also a lot of fun. Give us a couple of years to recover, and we'll be ready to do it again.