Elia Turns 5 Months! Wow, how can that be? So milestones first: Elia began turning from back to front on the 17th three days before her fifth month. She has begun grabbing at things and sleeps holding the edge of her bassinet. She holds her blanket to her face when she is awake and loves rubbing her face in it. Just today, we gave her the o-ball and she grabbed it immediately (and tossed it). If you hold her by the hands and lift she will get to her feet.
Elia has just started solid foods with rice cereal, but has not taken to it like Curie did; we have not started her on other foods yet. We have yet to put her in the jumper chair, but she loves the exer-saucer. Curie seemed ready to crawl at this point, but Elia is on her own schedule enjoying life from day to day; she always wakes up happy in the morning and is always smiling.
Elia recognizes when you come by and definitely prefers Erin when she can see her. Curie can make her laugh and loves to hug her and kiss her. Even when Curie is fussy she will light up when she sees Elia and calls her “my best friend Elia.” She also has taken to wanting to feed Elia both rice cereal and bottle.
We were so busy waging the war against pink when Curie was young (our theory was that the percentage of leak through would make an acceptable level of pink), that we never really thought about whether people would think that she was a boy. Recently though, people have been assuming that Elia is a boy (wearing many of Curie’s old clothes, which are often blue boy’s clothes) and somehow it is not okay; as a result, we have begun putting bows in her hair and even buying a pink swim/sun suit specifically to indicate that she is a girl.
We took the family for a stay-cation at the Westin at Tysons, even though we normally go to the Sheraton Premiere (the Sheraton Premiere is better, bigger rooms, more amenities, though the Westin had a great brunch). We went to the Taste of Arlington (next year only buy the restaurant challenges), Elia and Curie each gave Erin necklaces for Mother’s Day, and Albert went to Thailand.
Albert has been holding Elia more these days – perhaps because she is more interactive, or perhaps he needs her more now, or perhaps traveling to Thailand was a lot of time away. The idea of baby therapy when you are down is not so crazy; when the work day gets you down or you just need a hug, sitting with a baby for a while all alone is not the worst way to feel better. There is nothing cuter than a smiling baby (except perhaps a smiling toddler), and there is nothing like their unconditional adoration – oh yeah, and Elia pooped in the bathtub the other night, very gross – ah memories.
