Five Months

This is how I like Santa, lifeless and with a fence between us.

What do you mean hurry up? I will pick the tree that speaks to me.

Oh, no trees here? I really I thought I heard something.

That's the one guys.

BaBa, need help? I would love to climb on top of the van.

We would have liked to have a day of leisure to celebrate Family Day but that was not possible. We had to cram five days (3 days of Thanksgiving weekend that we lost plus this weekend) into two and it was not easy. We got almost everything done and that is quite a task with a very active and demanding 20-month old underfoot. Baby S chipped in and managed to take a 30-minute power nap while I was working downstairs with the music blaring and P was steam cleaning upstairs. Our apologies to whomever wrote the report that stated that Baby S is a sound sleeper. We have been making fun of that since we met her.

Baby S said her first English word, "duck," on August 13. Talk about a special birthday present for her Mama. Why Duck? Who knows. Now she can say duck, up, down, Mama, BaBa, go, backpack, map, dog, hi, bye-bye, nana (banana), yeah, mo (more), poop, ear, eye, tiger, good girl and BaBa vroom vroom (asking when P is going to arrive in his car).

She can do the signs (ASL) for more (got that one down in China), drink, up, down, poop, milk, cookie, no (totally our fault, ugh) help, please and sorry.

Baby S can point to her nose, mouth, tongue, ears, eyes, ombligo (navel) and cachetes (cheeks).

She does not whimper as much throughout the night but still sleeps perpendicular to us. This means that one of us gets her head buried into our side and the other gets kicked. At least she alternates who gets what.

Baby S does not eat as much as she did initially and is beginning to turn down certain foods. Her grandpa was concerned that she'd be morbidly obese by her second birthday, but we always knew that she would self-regulate. Now that she knows that food is always available, we are beginning to work on behavioral issues. Recently, she decided that one of her favorites, spaghetti with sausage, would not do that night. She wanted something else (can't recall what right now) and kept rejecting her food and crying. It was difficult to do, but we kept presenting her dinner. She eventually fell asleep and guess what appeared in the form of breakfast? She took two bites, and opted for the stubborn route. Much to her surprise that darn plate appeared at lunch time. She finally capitulated, but to be honest, I felt awful. However, I have seen too many kids living on only cereal, mac and cheese or pizza and do not want that for Baby S. P wants me to note that he did not feel bad at all about the food battle. How could he? I did all the dirty work for him; I was the one facing the sad puppy eyes, the pouting, the crying and the screaming.

She has the cutest nervous laugh when she gets excited. Whether it is getting her milk in the morning, being picked up by Mama or BaBa or when she realizes that one of us has keys in our hands. It is the cutest thing.

Baby S loves to give and receive kisses, especially at bedtime. It's her her way of postponing the inevitable. I know we are biased, but she gives the best kisses. When we met she did not know how to kiss, picked it up within three days and has not looked back.

She loves water in any form she can get it. She likes to drink water, she likes to play in the water and she likes to look at water. She is not afraid of water on her head and has already taken multiple dips underwater. She loves to feel the shower water pelt her little back and she giggles with delight. I have to post video of Baby S at the lake enjoying herself. We also have pictures of Baby S at a volcano fountain nearby. It is really neat and erupts every 10 minutes. We took her this summer and she did not flinch when the water erupted. We think she's going to grow up to be an island girl.

Baby S loves Funky Dog and cannot sleep without him. We tried many lovies and none would do. We'll post later about FD and the search for a replacement. During the past six weeks she has attached to a Snoopy blanket. Nothing wrong with that as she has many. Leave it up to our daughter to attach to a blanket that is too large for her (it was meant to be used on her crib) to tote around . It also costs $30 so it is going to be pricey to have replacements around. Hey, what can you do?

She loves the W0nder Pets, well, she loves Ming Ming the duck. Baby S gets all excited when she hears "The phone, the phone is ringing..." P has it as a ring tone on his phone. I refuse to allow those creatures to take over my phone. Baby S also likes the Backyardigans, because she is all about the music. Just yesterday she did the Backyardigan twirl. OMG it was adorable. Then when she is up early, she watches Jack's Big Music Show, because Jack looks just like FD. To say that she watches those shows is a stretch, she only pays attention when they are singing.

Baby S continues her love affair with the cable music channels and is a connoisseur of 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's music. From Run Around Sue to Pour Some Sugar on Me, our girl is a well rounded music lover. Her head banging is superb. Lately she's been paying attention to the song Bruises (iPod commercial, someone please teach me how to link). You know, "I try to do hand stands for you..." When the youuuuuuuu part comes on she puckers her lips and sings along. Thankfully she can carry a tune.

For someone so small, Baby S has a LONG tongue. We are talking Gene Simmons long and it always amazes us when she unleashes that puppy.

Baby S is well on her way to tantrum city and is a certified drama queen. She began throwing herself on the floor approximately three weeks ago. It is more of a careful landing at this point, and when she lands she puts her head down and pretends to cry. P thinks it is beyond funny and I have to remind him not to laugh because we do not want to encourage that behavior.

She has baby Alzheimers. Baby S could be in the midst of a major, oh-my-gosh-is the-end-of-the-world-I-can't-go-on cry, then something catches her attention and the crying stops. It does not subside, it just flat out stops, sometimes within seconds of starting. Then she forgets the earth shattering event that caused the crying and she is as happy as ever.

Baby S wakes up with a smile no matter the time of the day, or if her nap (the few times she takes one) was cut short, or if she went to bed kicking and screaming. The girl does not hold a grudge and always greets us with a smile.

She has been fake coughing for a few months and for some reason it amuses her to no end. Recently, I had quite an embarrassing incident due Baby S's fondness for coughing. We were at a a very crowded supermarket on a Friday afternoon. Everything was going well and I just had two more items before we could make a dash for the registers. Then a woman behind us coughed. Baby S leaned sideways on the cart (she was seating facing me), looked at the woman and began to loudly cough at her. I realized that this was not the time for a lesson about not making fun of people, and I tried to redirect her. Much to my surprise, the so called adults around us started laughing. Yep, they thought that my daughter making fun of someone was funny! Needless to say, Baby S thought it was fun and games and kept coughing at the poor woman who was trying to catch her breath. I could not get out of there fast enough. BTW, the woman was really struggling to catch her breath. I just made a beeline for the register and forgot what it was I needed to get. That evening I was telling the story to P who could not stop laughing. I must admit that I did find the humor later on and realize that there was no malice involved. P asked me about the woman and I told him that when I left she was still trying to catch her breath and for some reason that made him laugh even more. We are both blaming the incident on those mean bystanders.

Baby S is obsessed with tags, any type of tags. She can play with a tag for long periods of time and studies each and everyone like the meaning of life is somewhere within. Initially, we could not get her to push on her beloved block wagon, because the manufacturer's thought it'd be a great idea to place a tag on the handle. We would get her to get up, then to hang on to the handle, then she would spot the tag and it would be all over. Although she has many unopened toys (and more coming for Christmas) guess what her neglectful parents have not purchased? Must get taggies for Baby S.