Growing Girl

Someone reminded me recently that, amidst all these posts about the holidays, and the disappoinment of humanity, and all the other rants, that it might be nice to check in and see how The Roslynator is doing.

In a nutshell? She's fan-fucking-tastic! I sort of shiver when I look back at the last Rozzle post, where I bitched about how loud she cries and basically wondered when it would all end. And, true to the promises of parents FAR more experienced than I...it has (for the most part) ended. Our newly-minted 5-month old is an absolute joy to be around, crying/whining gently when she's tired or occasionally getting pissy with a toy, but otherwise is the World's Best Baby. (Certainly no offense to Her Bad Mother, or Madtown Mama, or Feral Mom, or all the OTHER folks out there who think that THEIR babies are the best. They are, too!)

Some highlights of the past few weeks, in no particular order:

1) She has really learned how to play, and looks forward to playtime with obvious enthusiasm. In fact, she quite literally got bored with the toys she's had since birth, prompting Miss Tessmacher and I to make a pre-Yule shopping trip over Thanksgiving weekend to get Roz some fill-in-the-gap toys until she's buried in gifts from The Grandparents. She's ga-ga for all the dangly things on her Baby Einstein playmat (not our purchase, but heaven help us, she loves it!), Mr. Bun is a fun new addition with his crinkly ears and Happy-Apple-chiming torso (remember the Happy Apple???), and she still loves Mr. Moon.


2) She's eating! I mean, not just drinking from the tit...actual honest-to-goodness EATING. It became apparent to us that she was ready to try something other than breastmilk when she - literally! - tore the wine glass from my hand and proceeded to try to help herself (see Example A). She didn't get any down, but we've moved to giving her sips of water from a glass, and bananas for breakfast and avocado(e)s at dinner weren't far behind. Just tonight I boiled a sweet potato(e) and she snarked down a healthy portion. The bad news? Yep, you parents guessed it: we're starting to get actual SHIT in the diapers, as opposed to a relatively harmless (and odorless!) mustard paste.


3) Vaccinations suck. She had her big 4-month dose yesterday (we're a little late), and those trusting eyes of hers filled with tears when the first needle hit. She zonked out for quite awhile when we got home, but today she's running her first low-grade fever and is generally whimpery and not her usual self. I discovered that it isn't all that vulgar to use a rectal thermometer: y'know, before you actually USE one, you think you have to jam 5-6 inches of the thing up her poop-chute (or at least, that's what I thought). Turns out, it's a LOT easier than that. At 100.8˚F, the nurse wasn't even worried when we called; she said that a fever is VERY common (her emphasis) after the shots, and to keep giving Roz her Tylenol.


4) Sleeping through the night RULES! Roslyn first pulled this one on us a few weeks ago, and she has been steadily impressing us with repeat performances. It's certainly not EVERY night, but lately it has been more nights than not. We put her down between 6:30 and 7:00, and she gets Tess up to eat at 6:15 the next morning...you can almost set your clock by her. THEN, most importantly, she goes BACK to sleep for an hour or more, which is nice since Tess & I are on winter break and we can "sleep in" until almost 8:00 some mornings!



So, in all, this whole "having a baby" thing is pretty fuckin' neato. I think we'll keep her! If I don't post again until after the holidays, please: be well, and enjoy time together. And, while you're at it, ponder this: what ARE the twelve days of Christmas, anyway? 'Cause think about it: you've got Christmas and Christmas Eve, New Year's and New Year's eve...THEN what? Okay, okay, Boxing Day, that's five...oh, and of course there's two Saturdays and two Sundays in there, that makes nine...where do you get TWELVE?!?

Peace.