My Baby Is Probably Not As Advanced As Your Baby Now

I figured it was time for a Button update. Why? Because, honestly, there hasn't been ANYTHING going on this week and I really felt like I should post something instead of nothing. But I will include some cute baby pictures. That makes it all right, right?

So, Butts sort of stalled out developmentally around the five month range. In fact, she's been regressing a bit in the sleep department--moving away from the nearly convenient twice-nightly feedings back into the realm of waking up every two hours to be fed (which is probably why she's the baby equivalent of the Burj Khalifa, because she will eat a full bottle each time whether she should be hungry or not). Unfortunately, that is the ONLY way she will fall asleep right now, while eating. Unlike Gabe, who still loves his binky (a very specific style of binky--we call it a "peak-a-boo" bitty because it has a little plastic cover built in that snaps shut when the binky is closed, to keep it clean, supposedly--that we have to buy at the baby store here in town. We only have two of the damn things now and it's a daily routine of panic and relief as we scour the entire house trying to figure out where he's left one of them), and who we're a little worried might still be using said binky into his teens, Butts has had no use for them. We will give one to her, and she will chew on it dutifully for a minute or two, then she'll throw it aside. She also has nothing to do with sucking on her fingers or falling asleep while we rock or cuddle her. She'll only fall asleep with a bottle in her mouth. Obviously, this causes problems when she eats a full bottle but doesn't fall asleep like she's supposed to. She will remain awake for another 90 minutes at least before she will even consider taking another bottle. Very frustrating, indeed.

Anyway, beyond the sleeping disorder, she's also stalled out on the developmental processes that leads to walking. Despite her nearly eight months, she's still not even sitting on her own. She CAN do it, I know. I'll put her between my legs for support several times during the day then slowly back away from her, just to see if she'll keep herself upright without me there to lean on, and she will--until she realizes I'm not there, then she pushes herself back like a diver performing a back flip from the high board. If I wasn't there to catch her, she'd smack her head on the ground.

She's also shown no interest in crawling. We've tried putting things just out of reach to encourage her to scoot forward after them, but she'll just reach for them forlornly for a few moments then roll over onto her back and switch her focus to something else. This is pretty foreign territory for us. Gabe was the exact opposite. As soon as he could sit on his own (which happened by the end of January, we know, because we have pictures of it--that's one nice thing about having kids whose birthdays are three days apart, we can map their developments pretty accurately--and he was 7 weeks premature and, well, pretty neglected when we got him at three months old), he made the progressions to crawling pretty quickly because he always wanted to get at everything.

Butts, not quite rolling.

Her preferred method of movement is the roll. Over the course of five minutes, she can span the living room if she wants to. Of course, she has no particular goal in mind when she does it, so we usually have to keep a pretty close eye on her to make sure she doesn't end up cracking her head on something hard or scooting her way under our couch or chair, which have clearances just high enough for a baby to wedge herself under, should she be so inclined. But she seems perfectly content to settle on rolling her way through life.

And by "perfectly content," I mean that she will wail and cry after a few minutes of rolling because she wants to play with something more interesting or be entertained by others. Apparently, quite contrary to my own personality, I'm managing to raise two drama queens. I have no idea how it happened.

She HAS been showing marked improvement in the eating category, though. She is really very fond of feeding herself now, so we spend a goodly portion of each day handing her saltines and little baby puffs. This is her eating a teething biscuit. I'm not sure who thought these food items were a good idea. Probably someone in the laundry detergent business.

Speaking of drama, Gabe is doing some pretty amusing stuff right now. Pretty consistently, when I tell him "no" to whatever it is he has gotten into his head that he wants to do (which happens A LOT during the day), he will go over to the stairs, sit down, and start to cry. When we ask him what he's doing, he'll reply "Just crying." It's adorable and a little heart-wrenching. The kid is a magnificent manipulator. I'll give him that.

That doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I find it amusing, so I thought I would share.

This was supposed to be a video of Button rolling around, but she wasn't all that interested in participating. And Gabe, as usual, WAS interested in participating. So, not surprisingly, this has become another Gabe video with Button in the background (though Gabe wasn't exactly bringing A game material here, either).