5 1/2 months old

Claire is already 5 1/2 months old. It's crazy how fast it's going.

She's done really well this month with all the things we've been doing-- driving to California and back (15 hour trips each way), and then going camping (sort of). She's becoming really coordinated with all her movements and loves to shove things in her mouth and teethe them. She loves all her "big" toys (bouncy chair, exersaucer, swing) and she loves to chew and all of them.

I have been feeding Claire solids for about a month now. Each week is a new flavor. First week was rice cereal. Second week was peas. Third week was sweet potatoes. Fourth week has been carrots. She seems to like all of them. She'll eat just a little under a jar of the veggies in one sitting (the little jars...stage 1). She loves to feel the texture of the food in her mouth and moves her tongue all around. She also likes to stick her fingers or fist in her mouth while eating her food. It makes for a messy time!

Her current favorite "toy" is the baby wipes bags. The ones from Costco that come in a disposable plastic bag thingie. When the bag is empty, I usually give it to Claire to play with. She loves it because it's crunchy and noisy. She also likes to play with bottles. Any kind, really, but mostly she likes to eye the water bottles sitting around and reach for them.

Now that her two bottom teeth are through (did I mention they came in at the same time?!) I have a feeling she's working on some bigger teeth. I think her "head cold" is linked to the teething. She's been starting to super drool like crazy again. I keep checking her upper gums to see if I can see any white under the gums, but nothing so far. Just really swollen looking.

Claire has her 6 month check up on August 12th, so I'll update after that one. She doesn't seem to be getting chunkier, but she's still big. I think she's probably growing in length too. Which is good. Stretch out those rolls!!

Oh, and I forgot to mention, about a week and a half after she first rolled over from front to back, she did it the other way too--back to front. She will still wake up in the middle of the night on her back (she sleeps on her tummy) and whine a bit until I come in a flip her back over. She'll figure out how to do that soon by herself. She actually did it today already during her first nap. She was put down for a nap and flipped on her back. She whined and yelled for about 10 minutes and then was quiet. So I went and checked on her and I found she was on her tummy again. Good girl.

The girls sharing a room is still going well. Generally I like to put Claire down to bed first, but a lot of the times they both go down at the same time, which is between 8 and 8:30. I would love, someday, to get them both to go down at 7:00...but that means that they will probably wake up early too. Ugh. Sacrifices, eh?

Claire still sleeps anywhere from 8-10 hours a night, consistantly waking up between 6 and 6:30 to eat. After I feed her, we both take a mini nap until 8:00 or 8:30 when Paige wakes up. She also takes about 2 or 3 naps a day. I'm not as strict with Claire and her nap times as I was with Paige. It's not that I don't like strict nap times, but it's not as easy being that strict with the second baby. Usually Claire will sleep about an hour for her first nap (or 30-45 minutes), sometimes 2 hours for her second nap (although that time is getting shorter and shorter as she's getting older), and then an hour or 30-45 minutes for her third nap before bed time. It's nice, but it also can get really confining during the day juggling both girls naps. That's also why sometimes I don't push for Claire's naps...so that I am able to get out during the day!

Paige is doing okay lately. She's in a really sassy mood a lot of the times. I know it's mostly to do with Claire in our lives now. And I know it has a lot to do with her age too. I hear the terrible two's last well into 3 years old. I'm learning this as I'm going along, by the way. How come I didn't hear of this before? Paige is becoming even more independant and stubborn, wanting to do everything herself when and where she pleases. I try not to let her get away with sassing me around, but at the same time I don't want her to not learn to do things herself. I just want her to have a good attitude about it. I feel like I need to start reading parenting books about now. Sometimes I feel really helpless when it comes to disciplining her because it seems like nothing gets through to her. My mom suggested reading Sheparding a Child's Heart. I need to see about getting myself a copy.

Aside from Paige's attitude, she's doing pretty well. She's already grown 3/4 of an inch in a month in a half! She's going to be tall! I did this little height predictor thingie that my friend Lisa showed me (http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/child-height-predictor?scid=pcbulletin_20080527:3&pe=foVwkO) and it says that Paige will end up being my height (or so) which is 5'7" (and a half ;)). So that will be so weird!

Anyways, that's about it for now. I'll try and remember to be better at posting in the future :)