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.