5.5 months

Yesterday I had a newborn and today I have a 5.5 month old girl with zesty personality! Let me tell you about this girl who we almost always call by her first and middle names, Isla Rai. So fitting for all that zest. She gets it from her namesake.

1. She'll grab anything she can get her hands on, hair (and facial hair), necklaces, toys, plates (loaded with food), food. You get the picture. Yesterday we had to untangle her from Vincent she had him by his hair so well. That'll teach him not to get in her face so often. 

2. She's getting bad about being held. I used to pride myself on being able to put her down anywhere and she'd entertain herself. Now, notsomuch. This weekend I had her in the swing and she saw me walk by. Boy, did that piss her off to be ignored. And she only does this to me! I think she just sees me as a giant hamburger when I walk by. Nothing but food.

3. She likes to eat! We had a suspicion she'd be a mighty eater, and we were right! We started solids this weekend. There was no painful tongue reflex and gagging we experienced with Vincent and that gave me PTSD. Nope. This girl gobbled down whole containers of baby food. Everyone told me that most likely she'd only eat a couple tablespoons. Ha. But I love it! I dreaded the solids stage after Vincent required occupational therapy to get over his eating issues, and some textures still to this day trigger his gag reflex.

4. She's starting to roll to her belly to sleep. It makes me nervous, but if it gets her sleeping longer, I guess I should get on board. 

5. She doesn't nap. She takes these tiny cat naps throughout the day. When she does sleep more than 20 minutes, we freak out and so does daycare. We rush to her side to check her breathing. 

6. Her hair has turned a coppery auburn. 

7. Her eyes are still blue.

8. She still hates getting dressed.

9. She still hates getting her hair washed. 

10. We love her to pieces! Tonight our neighbor's little 1.5 year old wanted me to hold her while my neighbor held Isla. I said maybe we can trade. Vincent wasn't having any of that, despite how much he adores our neighbor's little girl. He said, "No, you can't do that. I really like her." I guess it's settled. Isla is here to stay. 

Chapter closing

Today marks the last day of the very last maternity leave I'll take. Monday I'll return to work, and right now, we're planning to be done with a family four strong. The sides are even: two boys and two girls. Right now we think that's pretty perfect, my body is tired, our mentality is tired from dealing with a baby and a preschooler, and we're ready to focus our energies to continue to raise these two halfings up proud. And maybe take some epic vacation in the coming years.

I've loved my 10 weeks off with my sweet Isla. She's such a good baby. Where Vincent was only happy being held and rarely smiled, Isla thinks being held means you're trying to put her to sleep (she's right sometimes), so you have to hold her a certain way or put her down and she's full of smiles, coos, and talks. The other day I'm pretty sure she tried to say "I love you." I think she's going to be my zesty energetic one, while Vincent is my deep sensitive one. I'm good with that. I love them both fiercely. I'm their mama bear. And I'm so excited to watch them grow up together. I can't even really remember what it was like before Isla, almost as if she's always been here.

Yesterday was chickabee's 2-month appointment. I've been fretting about her weight since Vincent struggled in that department. I can't help but compare and anticipate the worst because of him, but Isla is 2 ounces shy of 11 pounds! She's also in the 76 percentile for height. I'll have to dig out Vincent's stats to compare, I'm pretty sure she's beating him!

 I didn't get nearly all the things I wanted to get done on my maternity leave that I had planned, but I'm good with that. A new era is dawning in this household, so I've plenty of time to clean out the basement later. For now I'll just enjoy these sweet gummy smiles and almost four year old excitement over playing Go Fish with his mama. Plus, I found a new show, Castle, during my leave. I think that's a successful leave!