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Monday, July 26, 2010

Growth Spurt

I'm thinking Eisley's going through a growth spurt. She'll be 6 months old in just 3 days and already she's stretching her 6 month outfits to capacity. The vast majority of the clothes we received at our baby shower and when Eisley was born were in the 3-6 month range. Over the past 3 months, we could dress her in a different outfit every day and not have to do laundry for a month or more. Now that she's moving into the 6-12 month sizes, I'm facing the possibility of having to go baby clothes shopping for the first time.

She just seems so BIG lately. We get comments all the time on how "long" she seems for a 6 month old, and all that length is funneled into her arms and legs as well. We used to be able to hold her up in the air with one hand and her arms and legs would just sort of stick straight out. Now they are bendy and gangly and typically fighting to wrap themselves around us. She's always reaching and grabbing with those arms, kicking with those legs, squirming and wriggling on the changing table and arching her back, lurching forward to escape our arms. She's a highly physical little girl.

Already, she's crawling. She started doing this at around 5 1/2 months. There is still a considerable amount of faceplant involved in the crawling process, but she knows how to get from point A to point B, and doesn't hesitate to do so if point B involves something she wants. A week or so ago we had her lying on a blanket as we decorated the school gym for day camp. We were cutting out paper and she WANTED IT. Every 2 seconds, it seemed, we were picking her up and placing her back on the far end of the blanket because she kept crawling over and cramming our decorations in her slobbery mouth.

Her other physical skills include sitting up, which she can almost do from a straight lying-down position. If she's at a slight reclining angle in our arms or on the couch, she can easily pull her body to a sitting position, and from there to a crawling position. She rolls over not just on flat surfaces, but is also adept at squirming and rolling in almost any direction in order to get away from us or toward something she wants. She's starting to pull herself to a standing position on low objects, and has succeeded a few times. It may be time to lower her crib mattress even further.

Eisley's not just getting bigger and stronger, she's getting smarter and more social too. She babbles almost constantly now, and it's often conversationally, with accompanying expressions that imply she is telling us something very important. She plays little games and has developed a sense of humor. Peek-a-boo is definitely hilarious now, as are tickling, funny sounds, and the dog. She likes to reach out and grab a fist full of our skin or pull our hair and then laughs maniacally. We're working on that one.

She's become more aware of people and takes awhile to warm up to new faces. She often plays the "shy" game, burying her face into mom or dad's shoulder when a new person walks up and says hello. When people have interesting facial features, such as a mustache or glasses, she finds them particularly intriguing.

Eisley's two bottom teeth have grown in almost fully, and she's now using them to explore different foods. We're letting her explore various healthy foods at her own pace, and she doesn't hesitate to reach out and grab for our plates. So far, she loves pears but hates avocado. She has only ingested a very tiny amount of each, and has fun making a huge mess in the process.







30 seconds with Eisley taken just 10 minutes ago:











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