Just when we thought we were getting somewhere . . .

Safia at 5 Months

Just when we thought we might have figured this whole parenting thing out . . . well not figured out, but at least had it under control that we felt like somewhat normal people . . . Safia decided to go and grow some teeth.  Needless to say it has been a rough week.  I hear that some babies cut their teeth with no fuss at all, or just a little bit of fussiness.  Well, our daughter is definitely not one of those kids.  She’s been fussy, pretty miserable, and driving both Rube and I up the wall.  I know that I should feel sorry for her because she does have two large teeth cutting through her gums, and I did feel sorry for her… for the first three nights.  Then the sleepless nights got the best of me.  To top it all off, she also got her first cold.  I have no idea if it is teething related, or just rotten luck, but between the teething and the runny nose, we had an unhappy baby for a couple of nights.  She (so also us) didn’t really sleep for three nights, and then things got better, but all that we had accomplished in terms of going to bed seemed to fly out the window. 

 

Bedtime has once again been our on-again-off-again struggle.  We felt like we were getting somewhere in the bedtime battles, but teething regression has put us back at square one, or so it seems.  There have been lots of tears (on her part and my part), but hopefully it won’t take us too long to get back on track.

In the past two weeks the three of us took a trip to Naperville to see Rube’s mom.  That’s when we first noticed Safia’s runny nose.  We had a lot of fun, all things considered.  We took a trip into Chicago and walked around the city.  It was finally cold enough that we could break out some of Safia’s fall clothes.  I am sad to see the cute sundress go, but I am so glad that the weather is cooling down.  Cooling down is a relative term though, by most standards, it’s still hot in Georgia.

We also went to Augusta for the day to go to a friend’s wedding.  We even managed to get a picture of the three of us all dressed up.

Safia continues to get bigger and cuter as the days go by.  I know I’m biased, but after the nights we’ve been having, she’s lucky she still makes me smile.  She loves eating.  She now eats carrots, butternut squash, peas, avocado, sweet potato, and rice cereal.  I think we’re going to try chicken next.  She’s becoming more independent, playing for longer periods of time by herself.  She so desperately wants to crawl, but fortunately for us she hasn’t quite figured it out yet.  And she and I went swimming for the first time!  It took her a little while to get used to the water, but we had a lot of fun.  No pictures of swimming yet, we’ll have to go with Rube one day so we can document that process!

Last week we went to see a friend of ours who has a one-month-old baby.  It was pretty amazing holding her thinking that Safia was like this four short months ago.  It seems like forever ago, and I can’t tell if time is moving incredible slow or incredible fast.  The baby-time-warp is in effect again.  I am trying my hardest to live in the moment, to savor each stage, and to relish in the everyday joys of this crazy journey.  But it is oh so hard to do when she’s screaming.  All I can do is do my best.  

Found my toes

Now I'm going to eat my toes

And tell you all about it!

When I was pregnant I told Rube I was
going to dress our child in nothing but
pigtails and overalls.  It's finally cool
enough for overall, can't wait until she
has enough hair for pigtails!

Gazing up at her Daddy

All dressed up.