7.5-month Update

Wowza, so much has changed since the last update!  Shall I do this in list-form?  Lists are good.

Item 1- Piper's aversion to solids.

Piper no longer has an aversion to solids.  We ended up switching from rice cereal to oatmeal, because honestly, rice cereal is a tasteless, colorless, godless mush of misery.  The oatmeal was a total game-changer.  We also landed on a brand that we've become pretty loyal to, called HAPPY BABY.  Who doesn't like a happy baby?  Piper likes all of the fruit/veggie combos, and we've recently tried the sweet potato puffs for some finger food practice.  She can successfully pick them up individually and put them in her mouth (though she does get sidetracked wanting to be Master of the Puffs- picking up every single one on the tray, hoarding them in one hand).  Adrian shared cantaloupe with her yesterday, and she was digging that. Still working on fleshing out some homemade recipes with the Baby Bullet (an easy food processor for blending/milling).  Neeeeed moooore tiiiiiiime.

Item 2- Piper's toothlessness.

Piper has teeth!!!!  Piper has her two bottom-center teeth.  The first one became visible about 2 weeks ago, with the second following a few days later. This is cute.  It's really really cute for some reason.  They're just teeth, but they are tiny teeth!  ("Things that are cute now that will be questionable in 15 years"). See also: Piper's farts (toots), and Piper's toes.

Item 3- Piper's scooting.
Piper technically still scoots on her face, but she now lifts up her midsection and attempts to feel the flow of motion.  By that, I mean that she lifts up her midsection and then scoots on her face.  Or gets frustrated and rolls to her back, poking her lips out in dissatisfaction.  We'll keep working on it, but the advice I've been continually getting is, "when she's ready to move, she'll move".  Bouncing, however, is something she both enjoys and excels at.

Item 4- Piper's birdwatching, kissing and coughing habits.
Piper loves birds.  I ask her where the birdies are, and she looks up to the trees.  She makes sounds and kicks and waves her arms around when she sees them hopping about in the yard.  I'm assuming this reaction stems from a place of curiosity and excitement, and it's not her way of saying "GET OFF MY LAWN AND STOP POOPING ON THE CAR, WINGED BEASTS", though we don't know for certain.  My humble interpretation is that currently my daughter enjoys listening to and watching birds.  She also likes planting slobbery kisses on the lips of her favorite individuals (she responds to "kisses" and "besos").  And the coughing phenomenon is apparently common, though I've never heard of it before: Piper fake-coughs to get reactions from people.  We've all caught on now, and so we mimic the fake-cough back to her, which she finds delightful.

Adrian just came home today with a baby pool, so that's going to be a hoot.  We go back to VA next week for a much-needed family/friends visit.  Good vibes, good times! aaand here are some photos:

This is what we call Command Center Cool.

Aunt Alanna's La Reina Fiesta Reception! Lots going on. Hard to focus.

Less photos, more tamales. Come on, Mom.

Couch tubing.

Couch flying-saucering.

Camera shy, these little teeth! But probably the greatest photo of all time.

Another tough day at the office. La Reina de la Underpants.

Solids, Liquids and lots of Gas

Piper doesn't like her solid food.  Well, let me back up.  She kind of likes solid foods.  On some days.  At first, she loved the whole concept and ate impressively well.  Now, it's a crap shoot.  It gets my hopes up, one day thinking she's into the sweet potatoes (hooray! this is working!) and the next day witnessing a fuss a la Veruca Salt, and the next day after that, waiting with the spoon while the excitement of "smearing designs into the highchair tray" wears off.  I like smearing designs into the highchair tray just as much as the next person, but I like food more.  We assume that eventually she'll get used to the tastes and textures, and hopefully start to look forward to the squash and cereal, not just the thrill of sitting up high enough to see what we're doing on the stove and countertops (excitement pictured below)..

So THAT'S what you guys do up here! This is AWESOME! Now get me something to chew on!

Much better.

Which brings me to teething..  No tooth in sight yet, but all the systems are a-go (whatever that means). Piper tries to put items larger than her head all the way into her mouth to gnaw on them, and inevitably gets frustrated that they don't fit.  It's funny to watch (see below).

Perhaps if I turn it around, flip it over,  and tilt it the other way.. 

We continue to notice her contentment being outdoors.  San Antonio is beautiful, and not yet 100 degrees, so we are outside often. She's incredibly observant, and will stop any activity to turn her attention to a bird in the yard or a passerby.  Overall, she's a playful and talkative little person, but spends many moments throughout the day studying situations in a surprisingly quiet focus.

What up, birds?

What up, flowers?

In motion news, Piper sits up 95% on her own, gets into crawling position, and has mastered a form of scooting that gets her from one end of the blanket to the other, though unfortunately she scoots on her face.  Ahh, we love her.  Here are some random photos:

Red block, prepare to be slobbered!

Oh, Mom.

Dad chat!

Had an awesome visit with Nonna last week! 

Soooo, we found out that Piper is extremely photogenic.

Oh, come ON!

A Very Merry Half-Birthday

Piper is 6 months old! She has been with us for a whole half of a year, a half whole year, a half year, wholly! Whoa! Pretty unbelievable how much she has changed (or totally believable, because that's what babies do). I swear she looks different in photos from last week, so it really blows my mind to look back at photos from her first week, like this one:

And from her first 24 hours:

She was so tiny and slow and delicate. And currently she is adventurous and wiggly and slobbery and doing stuff like this:

These days she entertains herself with massive amounts of gurgling, spitting, toe-grabbing, toy-shaking, toy-eating, ninja rolling, and bird/cat/dog/people/car watching. She also loves pulling glasses off of mommy and daddy's faces, sipping cold water from mommy's glass, and licking pieces of apple. And she loves chanting this:

And she looks ravishing in her sunhat.

In closing, here are some photos from last Saturday (it was cold and rainy, so acrobatics in the den seemed like a great way to pass the time).

The Great Outdoors

Due to the current heatwave, Piper has been spending some major time at various San Antonio outdoor sweet-spots, including but not limited to: the SA Zoo, Woodward Island and Park, and her own rockin' front porch swing. She loves being outside! We went for a walk around the neighborhood at dusk today, trying out the front-facing option on the stroller. She was digging being able to check everything out- cats, birds, flowers, my face periodically jumping into view to ask her if she saw the cat or bird or flower. Okay, now here are some photos!

photo by mom, using the "randomly point and click" method

porch swingin' it up

serious conversations happen at the park

favorite book, Go Dog. Go!

these dogs and all their senseless going.. 

mornings are hilarious

classic Piper: rolling, rattling, talking, polka-dotting

So.. are you absolutely sure I can face forward like this?

Alright, let's do it. Follow that cat.

5 Months/ All the Women Who Independent, Throw Your Hands Up At Me

Ahh, Destiny's Child.. I bet you independent ladies still laugh at your moms' jokes. That must be nice for them. Guess who recently decided that she's too cool for Mom? Honestly, I do some ridiculous crap to make my daughter laugh. And I don't expect her to always think it's hilarious when I pop in and out of her line of vision with exaggerated facial expressions, reciting excerpts from Go Dog. Go!, but come on! You are 5 months old, Piper! Is that the new 13? Lately, she's such a tough crowd- far too clever for repeat jokes. What was funny today will not be funny tomorrow. Tomorrow, the "boom boom boom" dance will be lucky to induce a glance in my general direction. This afternoon, Piper was straight-up embarrassed of (and for) me. My exact words to Adrian were, "Piper's being weird today. I think she hates me." Then bathtime happened, and we were on the same team again- Team Big Splash! It's pretty exclusive. There are songs... many songs.

Moving on..  so Piper turned 5 months on February 13th! It's pretty amazing how much she's developed in the past month. I want to beam back to the pediatrician's office at her 4-month appointment and tell myself that everything's going to be fine. I had so many questions that seemed to answer themselves in the past few weeks. Yes, Piper will get back on a regular pooping schedule. Yes, Piper will be rolling and flipping around like a wee ninja.Yes, Piper will be fine if she rolls over whilst sleeping. No, Piper probably won't match up to the zillions of baby articles and charts and graphs that people make, because she is a person and has to learn and experience the world on her own terms. Her OWN terms. Miss Independent Woman prefers to hold the book herself, thank you very much, and then taste it. Hey, we all have to find out what books taste like at some point.

She is also discovering crawl-ready-positions: butt in the air, legs pushing out, aaaand face-plant. Ok, pick face up, lift head high, push upper body up, aaaaand Piper Yoga! Yea, we're working on coordinating upper and lower body- both are incredibly strong, individually. Until then, it's lots of Downward-Facing Dog, and such. On the jibberish front, Piper's pretty chatty. She understands some basics, like her name, and "hello", and she knows when I say "1...2...", something is going to happen on "3" (like her shirt goes over her head, etc). And she still says "Mum Mum", and it's absolutely sweet as pie. Lots of spit-generating fart noises, too.

Tooth Watch 2012: Nothing Yet!

Busy January / Rolling Over and Over / Day 4 of Cereal / KABOOM! You've been photo-bombed

Slacker update alert! Photos only. I will get back to proper updates next post. And the next post will be soon. SOON!

 

I will be flipped over in 2 seconds. Dare you to blink.

So cute. Nonna and Nugget.

This lady? She's ok.

You eat your spaghetti. I prefer this.

And this.

At Nonna's house, being happy. With a happy red toy. Happy!

Piper is distracted. Nonna is STOKED!

Cousin Dan took some awesome family photos. Piper is pooping.

At the park today. Working on my gums. Hung out with some geese. Word.

And now three Piper videos: (1) talking like a baby velociraptor, (2) acting out the scene from Hook where the little boy says "Oh THERE you are, Peter!" followed by wiping slobber on Adrian's face, and (3) the first day of eating solids, taking that lukewarm rice mush like a champ (starting veggies this weekend).