Clara will be six months old tomorrow!
Yesterday was her first day of swimming “class.” We arrived at the
pool surrounded by other parents and their babies waiting for class to
begin. We were worried she might be fussy because she has a habit
lately of taking a nap around 6 PM (yes, we know this is very late
and probably contributes to her later bedtime of 8:30 PM, but when a
baby is sleepy, forcing her to stay awake doesn’t seem like a good
idea either). She was so calm, quietly studying the others around her
and staring at the pool. When it was time to get into the pool with
her daddy, she remained the same way while other babies next to her
were loudly protesting their pool time. She was mighty surprised the
first time her head was underwater (for just a few seconds with the
help of the instructor). I wish I had a video camera with me to have
taped it. Her eyes lit up when the instructor gave her an Elmo bath
toy to play with in the pool. (We’ll have to get an elmo doll at some
point, she a big fan).
Now that she can sit up for several minutes on her own, she enjoys
playing more. She doesn’t need anything fancy, a plastic spoon and
empty taco box will do. She is slowly getting accustomed to rice
cereal (mixed with half-strength pear juice as recommended by her
pediatrician), I think tonight we’ll try pured sweet potatoes.
Turns out the lactose-free formula we were using was discontinued, so
we did a trial of the regular stuff she use to use and things are
going okay despite introducing lactose (she gets 2 to 6 oz
supplementation while I’m away).
This weekend we had fun recreating a baby photo of Jason’s. He
doesn’t have very many baby pics but we do have a copy of one when he
was about Clara’s age. We purchased an outfit to closely match his,
when you see them side by side, the resemblance is quite evident!
Given how much she likes watching our dog, Picaso, she may be ready
for the nearby zoo sometime soon. Maybe next month?
She has yet to learn to roll from her stomach to her back, but no
longer wakes up crying when she accidentally rolls on her stomach.
She continues to sleep through the night about 10 to 11 hours on
average with a couple of brief naps ranging from 30 minutes to 2
hours. We haven’t given her much “potty time” because she doesn’t
have stools very often (even before we started the rice cereal), but
we’ll have to get back into that routine so she can be comfortable
someday when she is ready to use it on a regular basis.
Her weight hasn’t changed in almost 1 month (about 17.5 lbs) so I’m
hoping things are okay when we see the pediatrician next week for her
shots.
