I can’t believe I forgot to mention this in my earlier blog posts, but Josie took her first unassisted steps last Friday. (I blame it on my current strep-like disease) We were at a playdate of neighborhood kids and she just let go, stood, took a step, stood some more and then fell over! Two other mom’s confirmed that I didn’t just imagine it. She has since taken a couple of steps in a row. Our neighbor Gideon age 8 months motivated that first step. She still doesn’t even come close to crawling or pushing up on her hands and knees. But she loves to stand and so we got her this new toy shown below that she can practice standing with. We also picked up a rug for the living room and got rid of the coffee table in anticipation of her falling more as she morphs into the mobile world.

One exciting activity we had going for the past few weeks is that we had our house stained. It had been a long time coming and required negotiations with the upstairs neighbors over 3 years. So now if you come to visit, no longer can you look for the three brown houses in a row and see us in the middle one. They’ve painted theirs and so have we!

 

Josie has been having a rough week and therefore so have I. Lots of fussing, maybe teething, maybe growing, maybe the yeast infection she’s now lucky enough to have from the antibiotics? I also am now sick yet again with a sore throat and congestion. Last weekend we had a fun trip out, need to post on that too, but for now, here’s some cute photos!

We’ve seen a number of similarities between Josie and her uncle Javi at times. For instance we’ve been told that Javi was an exceedingly active child and walked early. Josie is already practicing walking across the room after a cat with us just holding her hands. She also likes to just let go of our hands, despite the fact that she can’t actually stand up by herself for more than a few seconds. She also heedlessly walks off of steps, counters, and tables without noticing the edge. While I do believe Javi has mastered the idea of edges and drop-offs, he still seems to be a bit accident prone. See a video of Josie lunging off the edge of things at my dad’s blog.

On a more positive note, Josie also greatly enjoys music, from banging her cups together or on a pot, to ‘helping’ her daddy play the guitar. Uncle Javi is actually a professional in this area, so we’ll happily watch her pick up his talent!

Well here’s a title I wasn’t looking forward to writing, but Josie has unfortunately come down with her first ear infection. The previous colds didn’t seem to clear out fast enough and so she has an infection in her right ear and can’t hear anything. It was diagnosed on Thursday and hopefully she’s feeling better now but her sleep is still awful. That’s actually how we figured out there was a problem in the first place as she didn’t have a fever, but she suddenly refused to be put down in her crib at night and insisted on staying in bed with us. She was also waking up more often at night. During the day she was fine which was annoyingly perplexing, thankfully the doc has a device that unequivocally tests the ear drum’s ability to vibrate (no vibration = infection) and didn’t rely on outward symptoms. She is not a fan of the ammoxicillan, neither am I since I have to force it into her now. In theory by now she should have relief and she slept well on Saturday night, but last night was a wreck for no clear reason that sleeping in our bed didn’t even help.

Yesterday Josie turned 5 months old! We* had double chocolate coconut cake to celebrate! (* we does not include Josie) The lit candle was a real highlight for her.  At this point Josie is showing off more and more of her personality each day. She is very stubborn when she wants something, but has typical baby concentration abilities and can be distracted away from certain things. She loves people and animals and is very social. Stacking cups and triangular checkerboard blocks are still her favorite toys. Books are mainly for eating currently. I have taken to making up new stories to go along with the pictures as I’m a little bored of the same ones again and again.

Physically she’s very strong! She can sit up now for long periods of time by herself without toppling over, although we have to sit her up. If you give her your hands and hold them steady, she can usually pull herself up to a standing position which pleases her greatly. Now she also likes to walk while you hold her hands and she can make it across the room (often to a cat). She seems like she might sort-of get the idea of being gentle with the kitties, but they are very patient as she tries to grab them.

We’re looking forward to her hitting the big 6 month mark so we can start the doctor-approved solid foods. I’m sure there will be lots of fun pictures of that next month. She sits with us for meals and has her own spoon, bowl, and cup which generally keeps her occupied but she’s dying to get in on the eating action. I gave her a bowl last week with a little water in it and she perfectly picked it up and poured it all into her mouth. Then she made a face of ‘eww what is that!’ and dribbled it all out. I will continue to work on her cup drinking skills this month.

Sadly (for me) she’s still awake twice a night (at least) although she seems to be moving her bedtime and wake-up time earlier. She wakes up precisely when the teething relief stuff wears off. Nothing is really consistent in that arena though but continued change. She sleeps on her stomach sometimes now of her own accord. She is still teething like the dickens, with the drool and the fussiness, and little white dots are appearing all over her gums hinting at what is to come but no real teeth have made their appearance!

I think I want some consistency to these monthly posts so let’s cover a few short basic questions:

• Size/weight: 9 month size, around 14 lbs 4 oz, don’t know height at the moment.
• Favorite food: breastmilk
• Favorite toy: stacking cups
• Favorite activity: standing, watching her parents dance like fools
• Sleeping: wakes up twice a night, 9:30 bedtime, 6-8am wakeup
• New skill: sitting upright, pushing on you when you hold her to signal she wants to face forward
• Teeth: small dots in gums, none yet
• Vocalizations: dinosaur-like growls, real laughs, raspberries

Since Josie has refused the bottles rather vehemently I’m shopping around some for sippy cups to see if those might be acceptable sooner rather than later. Found an interesting post on the subject with regard to BPA-free ones since I don’t yet have much experience. I thought others might find it food for thought too!