Xiaoniu 小妞

The little one has been surprising us with some different behavior both good and bad lately. This week she has had her ups and downs when it comes to mood. Some days she’s an angel that only wants to play, smile and is eager to be with anybody and everybody. Some days (like yesterday) she’s a fuss-bucket that wants one thing and one thing only, and it is your job to figure what it is.

Yesterday, she wanted mommy. Sue didn’t believe me; she thought I was just trying to pawn the baby off on to her. Wrong. That little one was so damn happy last night after spending a lot of time with mommy it was unbelievable.

Emelia’s newest ability is sitting up on her own. Every day we spend some time together with her on my lap. This week she’s started to show that she can hold herself up fairly well once you get her into that position. The more time that she does it the better she gets. Emelia is learning what it takes to stay up and what not to do.

At times she does flop over, but she’s starting to get better at pulling herself up. It’s easiest when she bends forward. She can just pop back up, but the trick is not to go too far back, lest you fall over backwards. We take it for granted, but she is just learning this as she goes.

This morning she did her best ever. She sat on my lap while I talked to her waiting for the time to leave the house. Emelia occupied herself by playing with my tie. Flipping and flopping it around. Then she started to tug the wide part. When she started to tug on the narrow part I had to stop her. I wasn’t ready to be straggled to death by a 5 month old.

Her other new habit is trying to pull your hand to her mouth. She’s sneaky though. She waits until you have something in your hand that you don’t want her to have and then she grabs you/it and pulls it in. She’s quick too. Her coordination and skill are improving very quickly so grabbing you and pulling you in is easy work.

Food is her favorite target, but cups full of liquids are not out of the question. She’s also becoming much more interested in our food when we eat. She’s nearing 6 months so she’s definitely ready for moving onto “solid” foods. Wednesday night I decided to give Emelia her first taste of rice cereal. She took to eating like a fish takes to water. She was a natural. I fed her a bit all by myself with her on my leg. After a while it became apparent that that would not work. She got to grabby and also started to blow raspberries with cereal in her mouth. Those two things do not lend themselves to keeping the house and everybody in it clean. Sue helped out finish eating.

Yesterday afternoon we gave her another bit of cereal. Just like the first one she started out okay, but progressed to blowing it out and then finally getting upset and refused to eat. We stopped, but will try again later. I plan to try rice cereal for a week and then move onto oat cereal and finally barley cereal. Some babies like only one of the three so we need to see what she likes best.

Emelia’s jumperoo is turning into a favorite toy, although, she doesn’t stay in it for long. She just spends a few minutes elated at the freedom it gives her, jumping up and down, but eventually it wears thin and she gets bored or something. At least it gives us a few seconds of break. Putting her into her bouncer is no longer an option. You strap her down and she pulls herself over and tries to pull herself out of the straps. It’s comical, yet very scary to watch. She’s also good at pulling herself out of her carrier unless strapped in.

With being able to get out of things and her ability to roll over easily crawling and/or walking are not far off. Time to get those baby proofing things out and installed. Trouble is brewing.