Peanut’s gustatory journey through various pureed produce items continues!  Since trying (and enjoying) sweet potatoes, she’s experienced applesauce, mashed banana, and pureed peas – all homemade by Mom (or sometimes Auntie Em, in the case of the mashed banana).  We’re trying to get a rainbow of colors into this girl, and it was time for something green – and for Peanut to embrace her English heritage.  Hence: mushy peas!

Ready?  Let’s whip up some pea puree!

This is an easy one to make, because it calls for frozen peas.  No prep, and they’re available all year ’round – score!  Start with about 2 1/2 cups of frozen organic peas, straight from the freezer.  (That’s just shy of one bag, but you can go hog wild and put the whole bag in if you’d like.)

Add about an inch of water to the bottom of a large saucepan, and drop the peas into a steamer basket.  Steam 5-7 minutes, until the peas are just warmed through, but still bright green.

Transfer peas to a food processor or high speed blender (I used my VitaMix with the usual great results).  Process until peas are the consistency your baby prefers, thinning as necessary with water, breast milk or formula.  (I used formula: Enfamil EnfaCare preemie formula, to be exact.)  This would also be a great time to add some chopped fresh mint or basil to the puree, if your baby is old enough for fresh herbs.  We’re not doing any seasonings yet, so I didn’t.

Portion puree into baby food containers: this recipe makes just about 12 ounces of pea puree, so I divided it into 12 servings of one ounce each (Peanut usually eats about half a serving before getting bored or grumpy) and transfer to fridge or freezer.  (The puree will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days; longer in the freezer.  For food safety’s sake, don’t leave it on the counter!  I like to keep the jars in the freezer and take one out for the next day around the time that Peanut gets her solid snack in the morning.  The peas can thaw overnight in the fridge and warm on the counter for about 20 minutes before baby eats.  Don’t heat them in the microwave – hot spots!  Ouch!)

Again, the crucial step: feed to the baby and make sure to get pictures of her little green beard.

Enjoy!

(Recipe adapted from Cooking for Baby.)

A few weeks ago, Peanut went on a fabulous adventure: her first trip into D.C., to see the cherry blossoms!  She was enthralled – trees are the hot new thing in our house right now – and we loved seeing her big eyes take in all the blossoms.  We hit the tail end of the peak, because unfortunately, the blossoms were at their best mid-week this year: not great for those of us who work for a living!  But we still managed to see some gorgeous sights, and of course, it was all new for Peanut.  Behold the cuteness:

Perfect day.

HOW old did you say I am?

Eight months, or six adjusted, feels like a big milestone.  Peanut seems to be growing into her personality more and more every day, and hubby and I feel like we’ve got a handle on this parenting thing – or at least, we’re beginning to.

What’s so funny, Mom?

We packed this month with adventures.  As flu season is winding down, we’re not quite as skittish about taking Peanut out on the town and introducing her to other people.  This month she visited her grandparents in upstate New York for Easter (an eventful trip), walked around the cherry blossoms in D.C. (look for a post with more pictures next week), went on her first hike, and went to her first restaurant.  Oh, and she visited Mom’s office and met both Mom and Dad’s coworkers – a busy month indeed.

Sit down, take a load off.

She’s also getting the hang of eating solid foods – so far she’s had sweet potatoes, applesauce, mashed banana, and peas.  She seems to be enjoying all the new flavors.  Or else she’s just enjoying spraying Mom and Auntie Em in the face with green saliva.

I am the dread pirate Greenbeard.

Our biggest challenge this month has been eating.  Peanut went on a hunger strike when we took her out of town for Easter, and bottles have been rocky ever since.  Sometimes, she’s hungry enough that she just chows down like the Peanut of old – but other days, the very sight of the bottle seems to fill her with some sort of unspeakable baby rage.  We’re pressing on as best we can and just trying to get as much formula into her little tummy as we can, but most bottles are battles these days.  We’ve tried introducing the sippy cup and she’s interested, but not always willing.  I even called her pediatrician and monopolized twenty minutes of the nurse’s time because I was starting to worry that she wasn’t gaining weight as fast as she had been.  (I’m told that it’s normal for growth to start to slow, and she doesn’t seem sick at all – she’s happy as a clam unless we’re trying to feed her – but I’m still watching like a Mommy hawk.)  We think that the continuing meal battles might be related to teething, so we’re offering a chilled teething ring, and Sophie the Giraffe has been pressed into service on quite a few occasions.

Feet taste way better than bottles, anyway.

Peanut at 8 Months

Adjusted Age: 6 months

Weight: 14 lbs, 1/2 oz

Clothing Size: 6 months in Carter’s and Little Me.  Other brands have been retired, as she’s too long for them in the torso.

Sleep: Still smooth sailing on that front!  She doesn’t want to nap in our arms anymore, which I know is good – she really should be in her crib – but I do miss the snuggly baby who used to fall asleep on me all the time.  She’s fallen asleep in my arms on maybe two or three occasions in the past month, and when she does I just cuddle in the rocker and enjoy every second before my conscience finally wins and I put her in her crib.  Bedtime is still a breeze, too.  In fact, I think Peanut has slept better than Mom or Dad this month: when we took her out of town for Easter, she slept in a pack ‘n play in our room and we barely caught a wink all night.  Girlfriend snores.

Likes: Still obsessed with Ezra, the dog.  She literally tries to climb out of our arms to get to him.  I don’t know how we’re going to entertain her when Ezra leaves next month (Auntie Em is headed to grad school, and we’re going to miss her like whoa).

Dislikes: Bottles.  We get an easy one every now and again, but most mealtimes are scream-fests these days and we rarely get her full portion into her tummy.  It’s definitely the bottle, because as soon as it disappears, the storm clouds clear and the sun comes out again.

Just don’t try to feed me, and we’ll be best friends forever.

Favorite Toys: At the moment, Peanut is kind of obsessed with this very loud giraffe thing that has ricochet-ing balls inside it, which she got from Nana for Valentine’s Day.  She stares at it, paws at it, and tries to get to it from halfway across the room.  I’m pretty sure that when she starts to crawl, this giraffe will be responsible.  We’ve named her Gigi, on the theory that all giraffes are French.

Milestones: We’ve got consonants!  Peanut has discovered a whole new alphabet of sounds she can make.  She’s done ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta, na-na-na-na-na, ma-ma-ma-ma-ma, and her favorite sound, da-da-da-da-da.  Hubby is thrilled and encouraging her to say da-da constantly… no matter how much I remind him that she just likes the sound right now, and she doesn’t associate “da-da” with him yet.  (She will soon, though, at this rate.  Ten times a day, I hear “DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!” and then “Yeah?”)  We’ve gotten into a little bit of a competition to see who she’ll actually acknowledge first: all day long, hubby is pointing to himself and saying “Da-da-da-da!” while I counter with “Ma-ma-ma-ma!” and we each try to out-shout the other.  Ezra thinks we’ve all gone completely insane.

Quirks: Peanut is really into faces these days.  Don’t pick her up – seriously, don’t – unless you want drool-covered little hands groping every inch of your face.  She also loves pictures of babies, especially her.  There’s no better way to cut off a fussy fit than to show her a picture or twelve of herself.

What can I say? I’m just really cute.

Bottle battles aside, it’s been a fun, adventure-filled month!  Next month, we’ll celebrate Mother’s Day and Peanut’s baptism.  Looking forward to more sunny strolls through Old Town and nearby nature trails, too.  Happy spring!

Well, Peanut’s first Easter was nowhere near as relaxing and low-key as her first Christmas was.  In fact, I’d say it was downright educational.

Hubby and I had been talking about making a trip up to my parents’ place in upstate New York for months, but had been putting it off, first because Peanut was too little and hadn’t had her full course of preemie shots (hence, we stayed at home for Christmas) and then later because we both found ourselves unable to take a few days off from work in mid-March.  The stars finally aligned for Easter, so we headed north and learned an important lesson: Peanut is a very good, very easygoing baby when she’s in her comfort zone.  When she’s out of it… hunger strike.

We drove up to New York on Saturday morning and spent the afternoon relaxing at my parents’ house.  My grandmama and my aunt M came over, as did some close friends who wanted to see the baby.  (My high school BFF had already met her, the weekend after she was born, but she was in an isolette then and she’s a very different kid now.  Peanut loved seeing her Aunt J again.)  We colored Easter eggs – my mom made sure hubby, Peanut and I each had an egg of our own – and had a delicious dinner of homemade shrimp bisque and salad with strawberries and Burrata.

On Sunday morning, Peanut woke up to discover that the Easter Bunny had been by with two baskets for her.  (The sand pail is for the beach this summer – it came with a stuffed bunny, sippy cup, bubbles and a pinwheel, which the Easter Bunny delivered with Peanut’s Nana acting as middleman.  I put the white basket together on behalf of the Bunny and filled it with a carrot rattle, a sherbet-colored stuffed bunny from Auntie Em, and bunny-themed board books – The Runaway Bunny, Snow Rabbit Spring Rabbit, Peter Rabbit’s Easter Surprise, In My Meadow, and the insanely adorable Bunnies for Tea, recommended by Katie, who is a genius.)  Since Peanut was on an incredibly loud hunger strike – screaming at the very sight of her bottle and taking maybe half of her formula at each feeding – hubby and I skipped church to stay home with her.  It was the first time I’d ever missed church on Easter and I was sad, but Peanut couldn’t go and I knew she needed her mom.

For Easter dinner, my parents invited my other grandmother – so Peanut got to meet both of her great-grandmothers this weekend; how lucky is she? – and our family friends to share a feast.  We had a delicious cold spread with way too many of my favorite foods – smoked salmon, pickles, deviled eggs, fruit salad – and our friends brought an amazing cake to finish off the evening.  Peanut wore a cute little pink and green dress and tolerated getting passed around for awhile before melting down and spending the rest of the evening clinging to me.  (Not gonna lie, I don’t love the meltdowns but I do enjoy clingy baby.  It’s nice to be needed.)

I’m glad that we made the trip, especially because one of my grandmothers isn’t really up for traveling so if we want her to see Peanut, we have to go to her.  But I don’t think we’re going to be traveling again for awhile!  Peanut really didn’t appreciate being taken out of her element – and I think she really missed her Auntie Em, or at least, she missed the routine Auntie Em enforces with military precision – and it was a trying weekend for all three of us.  Still, we packed the weekend with lots of family time, and that’s what counts.  And when we got back to Virginia, the magnolia trees had burst into bloom.  It’s spring!

Well, the babyfood party is well underway, and we’re having so much fun.  Peanut is really enjoying the experiment – she has been having fun discovering some new flavors and textures, and I am having fun giving them to her.  So far, I’ve found it extremely easy to make her food.  It’s only been a few weeks, but we haven’t yet had to resort to prepared or packaged foods, and I’m thrilled about that.  There are some days when Peanut is less open to the experience than others, but that’s to be expected.  Still, I think I can say we’ve been very successful to this point.  (Finally, I can say that about something!)

Peanut’s first food was sweet potatoes.  I asked her pediatrician whether it was essential that we start with cereal grains, because I preferred not to if possible.  I didn’t believe there was much added nutrition in cereal grains, and the pediatrician confirmed that the only nutrition in baby cereal is iron, of which Peanut gets plenty through her preemie formula and vitamins.  Purees aren’t really about nutrition – they’re about introducing new flavors – and I don’t think grains taste like much if you don’t season them (which I wasn’t planning to do).  So I did some research online and in my new baby cookbooks to find a good vegetable to start Peanut on first, and after considering a few different options I settled on sweet potato.  So – are you ready?  Let’s whip up some sweet potato puree!

There are a few different possible ways to cook the sweet potatoes before you puree.  I checked out both of my cookbooks: one recommended chopping and steaming the potato, and the other recommended roasting.  Since I think roasting brings out flavors better, and I was not planning on putting any seasoning into the puree, I decided to roast.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and lay two extremely well-scrubbed, small-to-medium sized, sweet potatoes on a baking sheet.  Prick all over with a fork, then roast for 45-50 minutes, until cooked through.  (Times may vary, depending on your oven.)

Mmmmm, roasted deliciousness.  Using a serrated knife, slice each sweet potato lengthwise and scoop the flesh out with a spoon.  (The skin is for you, mama.)  Place the flesh into the bowl of a food processor or heavy-duty blender.  (I used my VitaMix with fantastic results – the silky puree is as smooth as store-bought.)

Puree until the potatoes reach the consistency your baby prefers, thinning as necessary with formula, breast milk or water – whatever you have handy.  (I used formula.)  Recipe adapted from The Baby and Toddler Cookbook, by Karen Ansel and Charity Ferreira.

Feed to your baby while giggling uncontrollably and snapping tons of pictures:

This recipe will make about twelve ounces of sweet potato puree, give or take (and depending on the size of the potatoes you use and how much liquid you add).  I divided the puree into one-ounce portions and froze them in Oxo Tot babyfood storage containers (pictured above).  We’ve been feeding Peanut around 8:30 each morning, and I take a new jar out of the freezer and place it into the fridge for the next day, at that time.  I like to leave the food out for about 20 minutes on the counter before giving it to Peanut, just to take the chill off, but I do not microwave it.  Microwaving can cause hot spots and burn baby’s mouth – ouchie!  If absolutely necessary, defrost by floating the closed jar in a cup of warm water – but the fridge is better.

Enjoy!

It’s my birthday! Yeah! Why am I not in your arms right now? UP! I said UP!

We’ve had another exciting month with Peanut.  I guess every month is exciting when you’re a baby, huh?

The biggest news… I can hardly hold it in, I’m so excited… is that Peanut has been consistently sleeping through the night.  (Oh, man, I hope I didn’t just jinx it.)  We had been waking Peanut up for a 1:00 a.m. dream feed for a couple of months, but once she hit twelve pounds her pediatrician decided she was ready to sleep through the night (and so were we).  We gradually reduced the amount she took in her dream feed until she got down to 50 ml, and then we eliminated the bottle altogether.  We expected a few shenanigans while she adjusted, but – knock wood – she got the message right away and has only woken up during the night once since.  It’s been about two weeks of pure bliss.  I’ve gone into her room a little bit before her 6:00 a.m. bottle and found her awake, just quietly sucking her thumb or examining her pajamas, leading me to believe that if she is waking up in the middle of the night, she’s self-soothing and falling back to sleep on her own.  Seriously.  Miracle.

I’m well-rested! Are you, Mommy? Don’t get used to it.

Bedtime has been going surprisingly well, too.  Peanut is going through a phase where she can’t really sleep if hubby and I are there – we’re apparently too cool and exciting.  (First time anyone, anywhere, has ever thought that about us.)  If she is in our arms or can see one of us, about 80% of the time, she thinks it’s playtime.  So our routine lately has been the following: I feed her the final bottle of the evening around 7:00 p.m., then I rock her until she’s drowsy, put her in her crib, and putter around her room quietly putting away laundry or cleaning up her toys – just so she knows I’m around if she needs me.  If she fusses, I soothe her in the crib and help her find her thumb to suck.  If not, I kiss her goodnight, tell her to call me if she needs anything, and tiptoe out of the room.  Most nights, that’s the last I hear from her as she just quietly plays in her crib and drops off to sleep within twenty minutes or so – leaving me with a long stretch of free time to read in the evenings, which you can believe I’m enjoying.  I’m not singing or dancing on rooftops about this development, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Peanut, it’s that she is unpredictable at bedtime.  We’ve had other stretches of good bedtime routines that have lulled me into believing we conquered the crib, only to regress in spectacular fashion.  I’m just appreciating it while it lasts.

Why am I in this chair? Who are you? What is my name?

The other big news of the month is that we officially started solids!  Peanut has been eating sweet potato puree for about two weeks now and just moved on to Mom’s homemade applesauce.  I don’t want to say too much about it right now, since I have a big post planned for next week with lots of pictures and details.  For now, I’ll just tell you that it’s adorable and hilarious, and tease you with this picture (don’t worry, there are plenty more to come):

I can get messier.

It’s been a great month, but we’ve also had a challenge or two.  Daylight savings time messed Peanut up pretty good, which is to be expected, since it does a number on her parents as well.  Peanut had a few days of rejecting bottles, refusing naps, and shrieking at bedtime, all right around “spring forward.”  Add that to the fact that hubby and I both have trouble sleeping for a few days after a time shift, especially this one, and you have one exhausted family.  We’ve all adjusted by now.

We also had a couple of days of spotty weight gain this month, attributable to the time shift funk and to dropping the dream feed.  It always takes Peanut a few days to understand what’s going on when a feeding is dropped, and we went through the same thing when we eliminated her 3:00 a.m. feeding months ago.  We bump up her food during the day, but it takes her a little longer to get the message and start polishing off bigger bottles to make up for the feeding that was eliminated.  I always get jumpy when weight gain doesn’t happen as quickly as I think it should – even if I know that Peanut is not sick and there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for it – but for the past few days she’s been relatively good about finishing her bottles with a minimum of histrionics.  So I hope we’re over that particular hump.

I’m Irish, I have green pants, and I’m ready to party. Where’s my green formula?

Peanut at 7 Months:

Adjusted Age: 5 months.

Weight: 13 lbs, 4 oz

Clothing Size: 6 months, although she’s growing out of her wardrobe again.  She has an incredibly long torso, so her Carter’s clothes are still fitting well, since they seem to be cut for longer babies, but some of her other 6 month outfits are starting to pull in the shoulders.

Sleep: See above.  It’s great!  And now that I’ve said that, we’ll get slammed with a long spell of Gitmo-style sleep deprivation.

Likes: Auntie Em’s dog Ezra, who is thrilled that his love for Peanut is no longer unrequited.  She cranes her neck to get a look at him and giggles whenever she sees him.  Ezra is overjoyed.  He throws his toys up in the air, does little tricks, and generally busts his doggie butt trying to impress Peanut.  It’s hilarious.

Dislikes: Her boppy lounger.  She used to enjoy sitting in it to listen to stories, but no more.  It’s too reclined for her current attitude of must-see-the-world-and-be-involved-in-everything and she spends all her time trying to sit up.  (Her little baby abs are so toned with all those crunches.)  We have to sit her in our laps or lay her flat on her back for storytime now.  The in-between is no bueno.

Favorite Toys: We’ve been spending lots of time playing with her linking rings, at the suggestion of the occupational therapists in the NICU development clinic (she got the rings from Santa but we hadn’t used them much before).  She loves passing them from hand to hand and shaking them.  She’s also enjoying her O-ball, again because she can hold it with both hands, and a Fisher Price teething rattle that is shaped like an Elizabeth Taylor-style gigantic diamond ring.  I’m a little concerned about the precedent that sets.

My bling is bigger than Mommy’s.

Milestones: The biggest ones are sleeping through the night and eating solid foods!  We’re also working on sitting upright and creeping, and she’s made some progress toward both but she’s not quite there yet.  Next month, I’ll bet!

Quirks: We’ve started what I call the Stranger Danger phase, where Peanut freaks out at any adult who isn’t hubby, me, or Auntie Em.  And when I say freaks out, I mean freaks out.  We’ve had major meltdowns with “Silence of the Lambs” style screams both when her grandparents visited and tried to hold her (the horror!) and at the NICU development clinic when she sat on my lap facing away from me and could only see the (very friendly) occupational therapist.  I’m told that this is a good thing that she recognizes and prefers her caregivers over other adults, but man, is it ever loud.

I heard you had PRESENTS for me? PRESENTS?!?!?!

Half a year.  Half.  A.  Year.  Half a year?!  How has this tiny little sprite been with us for half a year?  In some ways, I feel as though she’s still brand new (and she pretty much is).  In other ways, I feel as though she’s been here forever (I can’t really remember life before her, after all).

This is my college ID picture. Animal prints are fashun.

Aside from the mind-blowing fact that Peanut is six months old, this month has been pretty peaceful.  She continues to grow and change at staggering speeds.  Watching her play has been the best part of my month, because you can really see her little baby brain at work these days.  Play has become much more intentional as she uses all of her senses to explore and learn.  She’ll hold up her blanket, study it, put it down, taste it, rub it on her face, and the cycle will start all over again.  I’d love to know what kind of conclusions she’s drawing when she does this.  She behaves the same way with her favorite toys: alternates between studying them very methodically and jamming them in her mouth.  It’s adorable, and it’s also just really, really fascinating to watch her learn and explore.  So interesting to think about the fact that we all learned to interact with our world in this way.

If I stare at this lamb long enough, it will turn into candy.

I also think – and this might just be wishful thinking, but I believe it’s for real – that she’s already becoming a tiny reader.  She shows amazing patience for books and will happily sit in the Boppy lounger through quite a few stories, especially if she has a toy to gnaw on at the same time.  She’ll look very intently at the book while I read – especially if there are illustrations of babies or children in it.  My Reading Mom heart sings, and I hope she continues to love story time as much as I do!

Mommy, put the camera away. We were just getting to the good part.

As for our baby care arrangements, we’re still SO happy to have Auntie Em caring for Peanut while I’m at work.  Peanut is madly in love with her aunt, and the feeling is mutual (no surprises there).  I’ll admit, I was a little nervous about the idea of introducing a third adult into the house – no matter who it was.  It’s not an in-law thing; I have great relationships with all of my in-laws, and E is someone with whom I would want to be friends even if I wasn’t married to her brother.  But hubby and I both have the tendency to be recluses, especially when it comes to our house – we like to escape the rest of the world and we are both quite protective of our space and privacy.  I often run out of patience with “hostessing” when we have houseguests – even close friends or family members, no matter how much I love them.  Eventually, entertaining takes it out of me and I crave alone time.  So I did wonder whether I would be able to deal with having another person around all the time, and I’m SO glad to report that it’s been much easier than I could ever have foreseen.  E has slipped right into our lives and after six weeks it almost feels as if she’s always lived with us.  She’s an easy roommate – eats whatever I put in front of her, helps with cooking and cleaning (even though I wouldn’t ask her to do so – she’s just considerate that way), picks up my books from the library if she happens to be going there anyway, and is happy to do her own thing in the evenings or on weekends, both to let us have family time and – I think – for her own sanity’s sake as well.  She went out of town to visit some friends last weekend and it felt strange to be without her for a few days.  On top of just enjoying E’s company, it means so much to me that Peanut is getting this special bonding time with her aunt.  I really believe that they will always have an extra-special relationship, which will in large part be due to the fact that they’ve been able to spend so much time together during Peanut’s early life.  We’re so lucky!

Does this shirt make me look adorable? It does, right?

Okay, enough rhapsodizing.  It’s been an amazing month, but we’ve had our share of challenges, too.  For one thing, I’m still adjusting to being back at work.  It’s nice to see my colleagues again, to contribute to the family income again, and to wear earrings again, but the missing-the-baby thing hasn’t really improved.  The biggest challenge, however, continues to be bedtime.  We’re still plodding along with the pediatrician-prescribed 7:00 p.m. bedtime, and Peanut absolutely hates it.  She’ll happily eat her bedtime bottle, but when the lights go off and the cuddling begins, she immediately screws up her little face into a pout, and the situation rapidly deteriorates from there.  Many nights, we BOTH end up in tears.  Once she finally falls asleep, she’s good about staying asleep (most of the time), but the process of getting there is extremely trying.  Hubby is in favor of throwing the routine out the window, because it seems to be an exercise in frustration for all of us.  We’ve had some limited success with tag-teaming her in the evenings, but it’s an exhausting routine and no one ends up happy at the end of the night.  And then there are the nights where she drops off easily, without a single complaint, leading us to believe she’s taunting us the rest of the time.  (I kid, I kid, I know she’s not trying to mess with us.  But it IS difficult to carry a 12-pound baby up and down the upstairs foyer for two hours while she screams in your ear, especially when you know she’s perfectly capable of soothing and going to sleep.)  We’ll be talking to the pediatrician at her next appointment about whether there are any changes we can make to the routine to make it less painful for all three of us.

I thought we discussed this bedtime idea you had and decided it was stupid.

And that’s our month in a nutshell.  A few bedtime meltdowns, but WAY more fun, stories, playtime and cuddles.  I can’t complain.

Peanut at 6 Months:

Adjusted Age: 4 months.

Weight: 12 lbs, 3.5 oz

Height: ~23 in

Clothing Size: 6 months, as soon as everyone’s had the chance to see her in their favorite 3 month outfit one last time.

Sleep: Once she goes down for the night, she’s usually good about sleeping until her 1:00 bottle, and then again until her 6:00 bottle – although lately I’ve gone in her room a little bit early in the morning, only to discover her quietly playing in her crib, which tells me that she’s working hard on the art of self-soothing.  (Yay!)  There have been a few instances in which she’s called for a parent to comfort her in the middle of the night (or to play – girlfriend is already hosting slumber parties) but she’s usually an angel once she’s actually asleep.  Bedtime itself is an epic struggle – see above – and we just try to hang on tight each evening until we can fall onto the pillow ourselves.

Likes: Story time with Mommy, Daddy or Auntie Em; gnawing on Sophie the Giraffe (those ears are a particular delicacy); the jangling pig dangling from her bouncy seat; her own hands, especially her left thumb, which is extra delicious; playing Peek-a-Boo with Mommy and Daddy; singing along to Pooh songs with Mommy (cutest thing ever).

Dislikes: Bedtime.  Oh, that nasty bedtime.

Confusing: After six weeks of living with him, Peanut has only recently realized that Auntie Em has a dog.  Ezra has loved Peanut since the beginning, but she didn’t register his existence until now.  When she does take notice of him, which isn’t often, it’s usually to give Auntie Em a look that plainly says, “Did you know this got in the house?”

Favorite Toys: Her Madeline rag doll, who is getting a yarny rat’s nest on top of her head from having her hair sucked and chewed; Sophie the Giraffe; Bright Starts elephant (crinkly ears are too cool for words).

Milestones: Her latest skill is razzing, or “motorboating,” as Auntie Em calls it.  (She does sound like a little outboard motor.)  We’re excited, because it’s an important step toward verbalization, and it’s also freaking adorable.  And juicy.  Especially when she does it with a mouthful of formula.  We’ve all been sprayed in the face several times.

Quirks: This kid has a set of lungs that you wouldn’t believe.  (You’re welcome for the betamethasone, Peanut.)  Recently, she discovered that she can shriek and she gleefully added that skill to her verbal repertoire.  They’re not shrieks of distress, just particularly loud, high-pitched vocalizations that she likes to sprinkle into the little baby conversations she conducts all day long (with herself, Mommy, Daddy, Auntie Em, her toys, her blankets, the ceiling grate, etc.) and they are SO. FREAKING. LOUD.  Especially when you get blasted right in the eardrum.  It’s too cute to complain about, though, even when you go temporarily deaf.

I have places to go. Just you wait…