Five months old, with a tooth!

Guess who got a tooth before she turned 5 months old? Okay, you probably got it.  As Vivian was chewing on my finger last week, I suddenly realized there was something sharp in there. (Needless to say, no more chewing on mommy's fingers! I guess she'll have to figure it out for her own fingers, too). For the record, it was Apr 20, bottom front left. And the adjacent tooth seems to be close to the surface now.

She is rolling over a lot from front to back, although sometimes she still gets stuck. I read an old blog post to Dave about how Mae used her arm straight up in the air to roll over and Vivian must have been listening because, from that day on, she started doing the same thing. I think she can roll both ways but I'm not sure.  And she's trying to go back to front; she either grabs her feet and flops to the side or arches her head back and tries to use the straight arm, but so far she hasn't made it.

I was recalling how Mae went from being an easy-going baby to dissatisfied when she learned how to move; it was like she hadn't known what she was missing and, once she had the idea of getting around, was frustrated by not being able to. It seems like Vivian is going through something similar with sitting. She isn't stable enough to sit by herself for more than a few seconds but she is no longer happy to lie on her back and play with toys.  (At one time, that was the only thing that would make her happy!).  It might be that she wants to sit up, but she also seem much more aware of others' presence in the room. If I leave her in the playgym and try to cook dinner, she has a very annoying squeal that works very well to get me to change her situation. We bought an exersaucer at the twins' club sale last weekend, so hopefully that will help!

4 months old!

Vivian was 4 months old at the end of March. She was weighed and measured at the doctor's and passed with flying colors-- at over 16 lbs she is a big chunk of baby! We are thankful (as always) that she has grown so well with no health problems. Her immunizations caused fussiness for a few days but that just served to remind us how well she's doing otherwise.

She has settled in many ways-- her nighttime sleep has improved, short naps seem to be giving way to longer ones, she's sleeping in her crib instead of the cradle, she'll put up with the 'front pack' (even fell asleep in it one evening thanks to Dave's vigorous swaying) and she's drinking from the bottle well (most of the time). Bedtime is easy now and she's mostly happy during the day as long as someone is paying attention to her. She's smiling a lot and acts like she wants to laugh but no sound is coming out yet.

Her developmental accomplishment of the week is grabbing her feet. Just the right one at the moment, and they aren't in her mouth yet, but those abs are definitely getting stronger! She has been experimenting with different sounds; for a few days she gave up cooing in favor of blowing raspberries and spitting. Right now she is fake-coughing (or else she has allergies and I'm unsympathetic?!)

And I've realized I failed to mention one of her most consistent traits-- she is the easiest baby to burp! Sit her upright or place her on your shoulders and it comes right up.