Bailey grows up

Bailey has had a few firsts over the last month. She's now 5.5 months old and she's catching up and growing up like crazy. The little peanut is still in the 10th percentile in size, but that's to be expected when you decide to make your entrance into the world six weeks early. She's becoming more baby and less infant. I've got to tell you, I'm not really shedding any tears over that development. Some people like that newborn stage. I'm not sure what they like about the sleep deprivation, the constant crying, changing 20 diapers a day, feeding every three hours, and doing 15 loads of laundry a week. But that's just me.

So here are our signs that our little Bailey is growing up...

First time in a high chair.
Yeah, we had to have the massively padded high chair cover to keep her in there; but she was there, alert, and excited to be a big girl in the high chair. She sat in it through the entire meal, grinning at everyone that walked by. Let me tell you, when you go to IHOP on Senior's night, that's a lot of grins to give out. Here's her picture of the event.




Got her ears pierced.
We pierced Reagan's ears at 4.5 months, just after her second set of shots. We did the same thing with Bailey. They both have matching little flower earrings now. She cried when I held her head. She didn't cry for the piercing. She was grinning ear to ear as soon as I let go of her. Here's her picture of the event.


And no, it doesn't stop people from calling her a boy. Bailey will be dressed from head to toe in pink, sporting her earrings, and a giant daisy stuck on the top of her head. And yet people will still say, "Oh, what a cute little boy, how old is he?"

I ask you, what self respecting parent that loves their child would dress their BOY like this?


Or this?

And now you are asking yourself, "what self respecting parent that loves their child would dress ANY baby like that?" Yeah, you've got a point. Moving on.

First solids
We tried cereal about a month back. We've moved on to veggies. She had her first taste of squash yesterday. To say she enjoyed it was an understatement. She would flap her arms and dive towards the spoon like a little birdie going for a worm. She ate 3/4 of the container before she petered out. I'd say she was ready for solids. Hopefully it will keep some food in her belly at night so that mommy and daddy keep to their beds more at night. We'll see. I can't wait until she's sleeping through the night.

Where's her picture of the event? *Gasp!* I don't have one. I've taken over 6,000 pictures in the last year and I made a conscious decision not to film her first feeding of solids. I thought about it. Then I remembered my last 2+ years on BBC (mommy board) and the 4001 pictures I've seen of messy face kids. I've decided that all pictures of messy face kids look exactly alike and somewhere around pic 3998 it stopped being amusing to me.

So I'll spare you pictures of Bailey covered from head to toe in squash. There was an added benefit to me not taking pictures. My camera stayed squash free. Nothing says, "My camera is headed for the repair shop" like a camera covered in squash from the onslaught of impending raspberries and sneezes that can only occur at the precise moment that you loaded her with more squash. She did manage to cover Reagan in squash. Is it wrong to say I was amused and felt slightly vindicated after Reagan's behavior over the last few days? *Chu-chunk* What's that sound you hear? That's the sound of me adding 20 more bucks to her therapy fund bucket for when she reads that sentence as a tween and tells me I ruined her whole life. Don't worry. There's plenty of money there already. She'll have a good therapist when she reads this blog one day.

Bailey slept through the night.
Ok, that wasn't really a first. A girl can dream, can't she?