A Girl Named River: nursery

River turned 5 months yesterday. I can hardly believe it. She has definitely come a long way from being a newborn. People tell you that it goes fast and you believe them, but yet you still don't until it happens to you.

She has lots of toys and she seems to be learning something new every day.

On Tuesday she transferred over to her "big girl" car seat. The infant carrier was getting too tight for my little butterball and since we drive an hour each way to school she needs to be comfortable. She seems to really like it now that we have it adjusted properly. For the first day she would fall asleep and her head would fall forward and she would wake up pretty cranky.

She has a jumpster that we put her in every few days while we are making dinner. She loves to bounce! This has been really neat for her too because it brings her up to the same level as the cats who she then has lengthy discussions with while jumping up and down.

Yesterday we got her a walker. She really likes it. She hasn't figured out how to move around in it yet but she only had a half an hour to try so this could take a few days.

She is growing out of her clothes at an alarming rate. I try to plan out what she will be wearing the next morning to school the night before. Lately I get up to dress her and everything is a tight squeeze. I had to move her into the 6-9 month range.

We still do "Naked Time". Technically she isn't naked most of the time but it allows her to really get to know her toes. When you have a winter baby it is so hard to get opportunities to let her hang out in a onesie and play. We take her upstairs to her nursery where it is warm, strip her down and let her have a ball. This is the perfect chance for blowing on the belly and eating the aforementioned juicy thighs that are keeping me with my girlish figure. This is also the time set aside for "Tummy Time". In the beginning she dreaded it and would get upset almost immediately. But we have been persistent and I think it is paying off. She can almost flip over by herself. She can hold her body weight up on her hands and arms for a few seconds and she definitely sees the toys lying around her and is motivated to go after them. She has picked up the swimming motion needed to start crawling and as soon as she can conquer her own body weight I think we are going to have a hard time keeping up with her.

River with her best friend Carter during "Naked Time".

Her hair is starting to thicken up and get darker. We don't know if she will be brunette, auburn or even blonde when the sun gets to it here soon. Her feet are still tiny. She still wears number one's although in a few weeks I think she will need to go to number two's. Number one's are for 0-3 months and yet she is in 6-9 month clothing. What is up with the whole baby sizing system? She really isn't that big as far as babies go. She was in the 75 percentile when she had her last doctors appointment but clothes are a total mystery to me.

She is also almost out of her size 2 diapers. They are rated to 18 pounds but they are already starting to get tight around her (juicy thighs) legs. We will need to go to Cruisers as soon as she runs out of the batch of Swaddlers we have now. They start at 16 pounds. Can you believe she is almost 16 pounds!

Did I ever mention that she loves to have her diaper changed? I hope that never goes away. Once again I think it is the whole almost naked part that she really likes. We have the changing pad on our dresser in the bedroom right by the window. (Rob actually pulls the shades sometimes to protect her from what he calls "pervs" from watching the peep show.) She immediately puts her legs in the air. It is so funny looking.

"I'm ready for my diaper change now Mr. Demille."

Dont you love the kitty outfit? Want to hear something funny? When my Aunt Kim and Aunt Shei gave me this outfit last summer at our family reunion I actually told them that she would have to come home in this outfit. I remember Kim telling me that she would probably be a little too small to wear it that soon. This is a 6-9 month outfit. That means 16-20 lbs. What is wrong with me? Do I have some warped concept of weight or something?! Can you imagine me trying to get this baby, and 5lb., 13 oz. baby at the time, home in this?

Thanks to Kim and Shei for the kitty outfit. It is awesome.

Well, that is all for this weeks Milestones report. Maybe the next time I post I can report that she finally has a tooth. She seems to be working on one. I can't see anything yet but you can feel a difference down under the gums. She is drooling incessantly and will actually soak the whole front of a sleeper even with a bib on. She has those little bumps on her chin and the runny nose too. Don't even get me started on nighttime sleep. Fingers crossed.