Scared of a Sneeze?!?

In the last week or so, Stephen has sneezed and Lexi burst out crying. We think it scared her! I can just imagine how she would react if she heard Grandpa (my dad) sneeze (if you have heard my dad sneeze, you will know why)!

And we don’t need to buy her lots of expensive toys, she is happy tearing up the newspaper and playing with plastic sacks (don’t worry, she’s always supervised). These days if she is crying – and not hungry, wet or tired – it’s because she has grown tired of what ever she was playing with and is ready to move on to something new. Sometimes finding the “right” entertainment is a challenge! She loves to stare out the window and see what is happening in the natural world. I am not always sure exactly what has captivated her attention; the trees moving? The flowers? The birds or bugs?

Tonight I had leftovers because Stephen is away. I put them in the microwave to heat up and Lexi perked up. I think she was expecting a bottle to come out – Jane heats up her bottle in the microwave (yes, I know you aren’t supposed to but it works). She looked at the microwave very expectantly when it dinged. In many ways, we can tell she is learning new things.

Stranger Anxiety & Pressed Nappies

We have gone out to eat again. This time to a French-Swiss restaurant called (and run by) Rudy’s. Rudy came up to greet us and Lexi – and she screamed her head off! She doesn’t react that way to the wait staff who are all black. As this is the second time she has screamed at seeing a white person, we think maybe she is scared of white faces. She is definitely going through some sort of stranger anxiety phase.

I think Lexi is one of the best pressed babies around. Jane (our house help – see Stephen’s recent post) thinks all laundry should be ironed. I don’t really need my underwear to be ironed, but it’s being done anyway. She also irons Lexi’s cloth diapers, onesies and little oufits. I doubt any of Lexi’s cousins in the US wearing cloth diapers have them pressed so neatly!

Growing and doing new things

We took Lexi to the pediatrician this morning for her five-month checkup. There wasn’t anything major the doctor needed to look at, and there were no immunizations that Lexi needed at this time (and, in fact, we saw a different doctor this time because our usual one was out or something).

But Lexi is growing, and this is most clearly indicated by her weight. She now weighs 6.6 kg (14.55 lb), which is 600 grams heavier than a month ago. There was an error in measuring her height this morning, so I won’t give that. But I think most of her weight is going to her thighs.

The doctor asked us several general questions about her eating and sleeping habits and examined her a bit and declared her healthy, telling us, “Good job, guys!” It’s good to get this sort of affirmation for something as hard as caring for a human being who’s so dependent on you.

Several days ago, on the eve of her 5-month birthday, we started Lexi on solid foods. It’s true what you’re told before you have a baby – that you’ll just know when your child is ready for certain things, and this was the case with starting on solid foods. She was becoming quite observant with watching us eat – she knew we were taking things from plates and putting them in our mouths. Plus she is very much into the oral phase, to borrow a medical term from the doctor this morning, and is putting everything in her mouth anyway. So we started to feed her a little bit of rice cereal at the beginning of the bedtime routine to see if this would fill up her belly more solidly and get her to sleep for longer stretches at night as well.

She’s adapting to it well – well, as much as we can tell because we don’t know exactly how this should go, this being our first child. She likes to make a lot of noise when she eats – sort of a humming thing in the background while she “chews.” It’s kind of funny.

Then, to make it all official, we went out over the weekend and bought a real high chair for Lexi. Now, suddenly, it seems that the whole house has been taken over by large baby equipment – strollers, car seats, cribs, bouncy chairs, toys, etc. Well, we’re used to adult equipment – things like living room furniture or a desk with a computer on it – but having baby things and big baby things among the furniture still feels strange.

Otherwise, her personality is largely the same. She likes to look at us a lot and smile often. She is still good at smiling at strangers who talk to her, although the other night at the Chinese restaurant, the Chinese woman who owns the place was talking to her, and she started crying that “I’m afraid” cry. Lexi hasn’t figured out that she’s very pale-skinned compared to the many African people she sees around and who talk to her.

So Lexi is growing and learning new things all the time, like how to eat solid foods. Here’s a picture of her doing something else new – we’ve got her learning how to do housework with Jane, our nanny/housekeeper. Here they’re hanging Lexi’s cloth diapers outside to dry after they’ve been washed.

Bedtime blues

We have started giving Lexi a little rice cereal in the evening hoping it might help her to sleep for longer stretches at night. I'm not sure it has really helped. We are also having problems establishing a bedtime routine and sticking to it - and knowing when to let her cry and when to comfort her. Stephen is rather frustrated with me as I keep changing things and he is tired of talking about the changes - he wants us to just stick to it! I want to find THE thing that works - and of course, I want it to work the first time. So we struggle on.

Some nights have been better than others...we shall see.

A Morning Person?

I think Alexandria may be a morning person. She is usually in such a good mood in the morning - she can happily amuse herself for quite a long time without any interference from an adult. But as the day wears on, she tends to get fussier and want to be held more. Maybe it's because she sleeps well at night and doesn't really nap. She will take short naps, but she often wakes up and seems as unhappy as she was before she laid down.

We shall see when she gets older....