The cough game

Ena has been more vocal over the last week. She has started making more (happy) yelling noises, saying something that sounds a lot like hi, and just kind of babbling at things. By far her favourite new activity, however, is coughing. It isn't really a cough that she is producing, but I can't think of a better word to describe what she has been doing. To get our attention, she makes this eh, or heh sound in the back of her throat (her Auntie Lorna, I'm sure, could provide us with a more technical linguistic description). It's very much about communicating. She will look directly at us, often at our mouths or eyes, and then make the sound. The fun part begins when we mimic her. She coughs, then I cough the same pattern, then she coughs, then I cough and on it goes. It quite delights her. She is so funny. E and I have spent a lot of time laughing with her this week. Lovely.

No success with sweet potatoes

Last night we gave Ena her first taste of a vegetable. I cooked some sweet potato for her to try. Since she has done so well with the yogurt and brown rice we've offered her I thought she would take to the sweet potato right away. Not quite. On her first taste she made a very funny, scrunched up face. The second bite went ok. for the Third bite, however, she was clear that this food was not for her. She stuck her tongue out, refusing the food, and ejected what was left in her mouth. It was pretty disappointing (I love sweet potato!), but there was nothing to be done but to accept her evaluation of the food and move on. E thought she might not have liked it because it was so much more fibrous than the other foods we've been giving her. Next time I try feeding her sweet potato (in a few weeks) I will make sure I blend it more and perhaps mix in a little breast milk, too.

Some good news, last night she slept her first long and deep sleep of the last two weeks. I hope this means that her teeth are troubling her a little less (and, selfishly, that we might all get a little more sleep).

The Wheels on the Bus go round and round...and round

We've been singing a lot of hand action songs lately. Ena really likes to watch our hands move as we sing - she stares in rapt attention. Our repertoire includes the Itsy Bitsy Spider, the Wheels on the Bus, the Hokey Pokey, and I'm a Little Teapot. Her favourite part of the Itsy Bitsy Spider is definitely the sun coming up and for Wheels on the Bus it's the people going up and down. I've been inspired to sing these songs after Ena received a CD of toddler songs from Nanny and Granddad for Christmas. She quite likes the CD and we've started playing it at the start of her nap to help her sleep. It almost always works. I haven't had to break out the guitar much in the last month.

Of course, the downside to all this is that these songs are extremely catchy. They go round and round in our heads at all hours of the day. As I do dishes, cook dinner, or try to fall asleep at night these songs (along with Pop Goes the Weasel, Three Blind Mice and the like) are running through my head.

Can you see the teeth?

I finally managed to get a photo of Ena's first teeth. It's not a great photo but if you know what you are looking for you can spot them. Two beautiful, strong, and very sharp teeth on her lower gum.

Becoming more independent

Two weeks ago we bought Ena a highchair. Like all her new possessions, Ena did not at first take to sitting in the chair. Initially, she would sit happily in the chair for about 5 or 10 minutes and then begin to fuss. As time has gone by, however, she seems to have warmed to the chair and spends increasing amounts of time sitting contentedly in it. She has two main activities she uses to amuse herself while sitting in the highchair. The chair came with a toy that suctions to the food tray and she likes to spin the ball on this toy or, and I think preferably, to chomp down on the toy, chewing on any piece she can fit into her mouth. When she loses interest in this activity she likes to bite the food tray itself, leaning down low to get a good mouthful of the tray. All this chewing has helped her new teeth along and her two bottom front teeth are now both through the gum. I am struck by how quickly time is passing. In many ways she seems more like a child than a baby now.

Food, food, food

It seems as though Ena has inherited her appetite from her father. She rarely passes up a mealtime for sleep, often waking exactly three hours from the start of her last feed, and when she eats it is with gusto. She seems to quite like solid food, taking to both the ground up rice/breast milk mix and the plain yogurt we've offered her. She likes to hold the spoon and move it into her mouth on her own, makes little grunting noises for more, and opens wide as soon as the spoon heads her way. We haven't been giving her much but what we have she eats completely. Plus, she is still nursing just the same amount as before. All indications are that she will be a hearty, and perhaps impatient, eater.

Almost sitting up

It's funny how one moment you think your baby is far from being able to accomplish a particular feat and then days later (or mere minutes even) they go and do just that. Ena is not yet sitting up without help but she is well on her way to doing so. If you had asked me last week I would have said that sitting up was still some weeks away. But every day she has gotten stronger and more sure of herself. She is able to sit for several seconds without support and is starting to figure out how to balance herself. Indeed it may not be long before she is sitting up without us. To prepare, E and I are going to lower the mattress in her crib this weekend. Best to be proactive in avoiding injuries.

As every entry in my blog attests, Ena is a delight to us. We are both so glad we had a child and ever so grateful that when we did it was her.

Ena loves...

Every day we learn more about our lovely Ena. She loves to look out the window. She loves to go for walks. She likes to sit up (with support) and dislikes laying on her tummy. She loves music, especially if it is Irish. She likes to eat. She wakes up to creaky doors, creaky floors, and other people sneezing or coughing but sleeps through hammering, sawing, and loud music. She loves to look at our computer screens and our tv (I wish it weren't so, sigh, and I am trying hard not to succumb to my desire to make life easier by putting her in front of the tv more often). She loves to hear us sing. Her current favourites are Wheels on the Bus, the alphabet song, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. She has little patience. Likes to be constantly stimulated. Has a good sense of humour. Loves her feet. Loves looking at herself in mirrors. Has a fondness for rubbing her bald head against her Dad's stubbly chin. Loves looking at pictures of other babies.

She changes so often it is hard to keep up with her. I wish more of our family had a chance to see her as she grows.

First solid food

Now that Ena is 5 months old we have decided to try introducing solid foods. Yesterday I made up a batch of brown rice and we pureed it with some breast milk. We planned to offer her some after her dinner time feed. Unfortunately she became fussy in the evening and we thought we'd have to call the whole thing off. We were quite disappointed. I think that she was disturbed by the sound of the blender. Anyhow, with a little creative thinking E and I managed to get her back in a good mood. E sang/played The Grand Old Duke of York with her - lifting her up and down on his lap to the song "when they were up they were up and when they were down they were down and when they were only half-way up they were neither up nor down." I sang her recent favourite, The Wheels on the Bus. She seems to love watching the hand movements.

With Ena back in a good mood we decided to try to food after all. I didn't have high expectations but surprisingly she seem to quite enjoy it. We planned to give her only a teaspoon but she responded well so we fed her four or five small spoonfuls. Of course, of this likely only a teaspoon was actually digested. Most ended up on her hand, her bib, and me. Still, we were very proud of her. Another first. What a delight it is to watch her grow and change.

p.s. That tooth is very sharp. It is above the gum now, though it still doesn't look like a tooth in a photo. She keeps pulling our fingers into her mouth for a good chomp and I keep expecting her to actually break our skin. Ouch.

More poo talk

I am consistently amazed at how my life has come to centre around poo. E and I often find ourselves discussing Ena's poo - a particularly amazing sound she made, an explosive force she produced, the size of her poo.... Changing her diaper has become such a large part of my every day that I thought I would once again comment on the process. We realized recently that Ena has developed a style or system for pooing.

When I am nursing her she will sometimes start sucking fiercely, dropping on and off the breast, and kicking her right leg. I first noticed this behaviour a couple of months ago and now respond by holding her in my arms and patting her back for several minutes. Inevitably she makes an explosive poo which then shoots up her back. Before having a baby I never understood that this was possible. It really is quite remarkable how such a small body can produce such loud and forceful poos.

This method of pooing is strictly a Mom method. She never poos in E's arms. Instead, E somehow manages to get struck by her poo while changing her on the change table. Ena will start kicking her left leg while putting her right foot into her mouth. If E notices in time he will usually be able to get a diaper underneath her before she poos. If not...well, it's not a pretty sight!

The funny thing about baby poo is that before you are a parent you think that changing diapers will be one of the worst aspects of having a baby. Poo is gross, smelly, and hard to clean. It, as I've seen, gets everywhere. Yet when the baby is your baby suddenly the poo doesn't seem so bad, the diaper changing is just another aspect of your day, and instead what seems bad is the thought of life without your child. I am glad to have learned this.

Back to school...the holiday ends

Holidays are over now and E is back to school. We had a rough start of it this morning - Ena didn't sleep much last night and E got up at 5:30 rather than return to bed and risk waking her up with his alarm at 6:30. On top of that, E hurt his back last evening and is having trouble getting around.

Ena seems fine today. The last few nights have been tough, with Ena waking every 2 1/2 or 3 hours. I think her tooth is bothering her. It is quite visible in her mouth now - not really raised but definitely there - and may be causing her some discomfort. She is still chomping on anything she can get into her mouth. At night she has been waking with these loud yells. The only thing that seems to soothe her is nursing. I guess I should be feeling lucky, at least feeding her calms her and during the day we haven't had too much fussing. Still, it would be nice to get a little more sleep again.

It is always hard to accept the end of the holidays. Nothing left to look forward to. E back at work. Tidying to be done and ornaments to be packed away. This year the holidays went by so quickly. It was lovely to spend time together as a family, no traveling and little visiting, just playing with Ena, making good food for ourselves and watching movies. I wish that it could have gone on a little longer.

Well, at least we can get back into our routine now. Ena is way off her schedule, going to bed later and later every night it seems. I am hoping it won't take too long to get back to our early to bed, early to rise workday routine. We shall see. If she is anything like her parents (and she really seems to be!) she won't cooperate and will insist on being a night owl.