5 Months

Mikayla at 5 months... there is so much more but these are the first that come to mind:

-          VERY vocal

-          Knows what she wants

-          If you take something away from her (for example the dog’s leash) she cries

-          She really wants to sit and gets frustrated when she can’t

-          She likes to give me “kisses” by smashing her whole face into mine

-          She just started rice cereal a few days ago and seems to like it though it’s super messy and 

        she wants to hold the spoon

-          She loves to blow spit bubbles and has to concentrate to do so

-          She is still loving her baths

-          She LOVES plastic cups and will lay there and crunch them for long periods of time (my 

        mom discovered this and now you can find cups all over the house)

-          She giggles when we run around like fools

-          She enjoys walks and will smile and talk while we push her around

-          If she’s not in the mood to smile she will just stare at you with an indifferent look

-          She does a cute little shy thing at random times with new people and puts her head down and 

        smiles from the side of her face with her eyes looking up…I think she is flirting

-          She holds onto EVERYTHING… earrings, hair

-       She is starting make it known that she wants me around :) good and bad...

-          She enjoys sucking her toes

-          She is sleeping through the night most nights

                                             

Birthday With a Baby

Dhrumil’s birthday was on Sunday and celebrating it with a baby is something new. We have already had a birthday with Mikayla around, but that was when she was 15 days old. Needless to say we were both pretty wiped and though we tried to make the best of it I didn’t feel like the queen for the day because my exhaustion of caring for a newborn took over the need to feel pampered all day (which is what I think should happen on your birthday!)

Dhrumil and I have a running joke that something always life changing happens around his birthday and we never celebrate it the way we would like. This year I was determined to make Dhrumil’s day special and though my intentions were honorable the day ended up being exhausting. Fortunately we laughed about it instead of getting frustrated.

Zebra Shirt and Zebra behind us

Instead of breakfast in bed and letting Dhrumil sleep in, a crabby Mikayla spent time with daddy while I tried to whip up breakfast. After breakfast and hoping Mikayla’s morning nap would turn her around we headed to the Bronx zoo excited by the “cool” weather (15 degrees cooler than it had been most of the summer) and excited to see Mikayla’s reaction to the animals. Well the first 10 minutes at the zoo were enjoyable. After that we were introduced to life with a stroller. Most exhibits you had to leave the stroller outside. So it went like this… navigate through the HUNDREDS of strollers, park ours, take baby out, take out both cameras we smartly brought, diaper bag, and anything else in stroller and drape it over us, go into JAM PACKED exhibit stare at a few monkeys, wonder if Mikayla even noticed them, leave and find stroller, put all the stuff back under it, put baby back in, navigate our way out of the stroller parking lot and while baby screams search map for Zebras since baby has Zebra shirt on and we MUST get a picture BY THE ZEBRA! Our sweet daughter did NOT want to be in the stroller (normally her favorite place to be) and so I carried her, while Dhrumil pushed the stroller with the cameras in the seat instead of the baby.

After seeing 3 or 4 different animals (including the ZEBRAs!) we decided to grab a bite to eat before Mikayla was hungry. Dripping with sweat we maneuvered through the HUNDREDS of people where we found a table and while Dhrumil went to grab unhealthy snacks I sat with a fussy baby and batted away about 20 pigeons who were all trying to grab the lone French fry left under our table. After shoving the food in our mouths because the baby was close to screaming we made our way as fast as we could to try to find a quiet place for me to nurse Mikayla.

 **DISCLAIMER I have not nursed in public because the situation hasn’t come up or I haven’t let it and needless to say I wish I had started earlier because this next part of the story might have been different** 

Every bench we saw I thought was too exposed and after walking half the Zoo again we ended up ironically by the Zebras where I felt I could relax enough to fed my screaming child. Well… all went well for about 2 minuets then Mikayla started screaming for some unknown reason trying to pull the cover off and at the same moment about 20 people walked by and all stared at me. Needless to say I told Dhrumil this would NOT work I NEEDED to go into the car and so we basically ran out of the Zoo and decided that we had enough after 2 hours. So what if we weren’t able to stick Mikayla’s head in the bug cut out… another time perhaps.

The rest of the day went better with lunch on Arthur Ave (a mix of Mafia and Puerto Rico ) a surprise birthday party (where my wonderful friends brought the cake and ice cream) and then a baby who fell asleep with a little sigh and her sour face turned sweet.  Happy Birthday Husband! Maybe next year it will be a little less chaotic.

End of a LONG day

Stop and Hear the Locusts

When is that last time you stopped and heard the Locusts? This past weekend I had two instances where I noticed little examples of needing to slow down. 


The first was with the flowers I have by the back door. I usually just rush past them, but for some reason I took notice and realized they were in desperate need of water. After watering them they left my mind until the next day… while rushing by again I was stopped dead in my tracks by their beauty and how alive they looked. Wow… never realized how much water does for plants.... yes DUH I knew this, but it took me that second to stop and look to really see what a little watering can do. 


The other instance was while walking Mikayla and Willoughby … not until the very end of our walk did I realize the LOUD buzzing of the locusts which to me signifies the heart of Summer… wow I thought… I had no clue they were around now. I had to again STOP (I stopped because the dog was sniffing) and take time to look around my surroundings. 


Guess plants and locusts gave me my life lesson for the weekend. Today I am going to make sure I take a few moments to stop, observe, and thank God for all He has given me.

On My Mind

I want to know if all women who become mothers also become big saps or is it just me!? First of all having Mikayla seems like yesterday. I keep replaying the amazing experience I had giving birth over and over again in my mind. I keep thinking… I can’t believe I did that, I can’t believe she came from me, that was the most incredible experience of my life, I’ve never felt so close to Dhrumil, I’ve never seen my body work that way and so on… Will it ever get old!? Will the experience ever fade away!? Granted she has only been here for 5 months, but most of the time I feel like it has been so much longer. Maybe I will be done processing what happened in 9 months. It took her 9 months to get here, 9 months to get mentally prepared to be a mother, 9 months to be ready to give birth naturally. The actual birth was pretty fast though… 9 months to create her, but only 12 hours for her to come into the world and then BOOM parents. 

Last night I was watching the video of when she was first born… crying. Today I was reading my birth experience…crying. Her first smile…sniff. Her first laugh…sniff sniff. The moment we shared last week when I came home… she smiled and cooed and looked at me with SUCH love… bring on the water works. Sigh. I guess that’s what I have to look forward to… finding joy in each new milestone… joy that makes me cry… joy that makes me proud… joy that makes me who I am. Thank you Mikayla Rose for giving me the experience of being your mommy! Where are the tissues?

Shrek Baby

It's strange... ever since Dhrumil and I have had Mikayla it feels like a whole new world has opened up. We notice the hundreds of babies in our town, we discuss the strollers we pass, Dhrumil points out a rain cover he would like for our stroller, I immediately go to the baby section in Target and search for items that we "need" for Mikayla. Our once somewhat orderly lives have been rocked and our minds have now expanded to add a baby only section. This morning Dhrumil remarked that now that we have a cleaning lady it seems like our house is even messier than before. I had to explain this isn't the case! Our house is CLEANER but Mikayla's things are just taking over. BTW the cleaning lady is such a treat while I'm working... I now don't have to worry about major cleaning on the weekends and can take that time to spend with Mikayla... such a relief!

Because of our baby brains last weekend while watching Shrek 3 on TV as the last scene came up and showed the little ogre babies sleeping in their crib. Both Dhrumil and I simultaneously cried... "THAT's MIKAYLA" :) No she is not green BUT they had the same sweet sleeping expression. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of the sleeping ogres so the picture below will have to do.

The Stats Are In

4 MONTHS OLD

Height: 25 inches (75%) aka... she will be taller than me

Weight: 13 pounds 9 ounces (50%) aka... Mommy's food is working!

Head Circumference: 41 (50%) aka... she will fit hats made for her month

A Duck to Water

My first swim at 4 months

Mikayla's first swim at 4 months