My Baby is Not Extraordinary

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.  Anyone who has been on Facebook or in the blogosphere in the last year has doubtless noticed the slew of faux-controversial titles while the body of the blog is actually sneakily expressing the opposite sentiment of that title....i.e. My Wedding Was the Worst Day of My Life (subtext: because each day of marriage gets better and better)   OR   Teachers Today Don't Know What They're Doing (subtext: they don't know how much they inspire the children of America)  OR  I Hate My Wife (subtext: I hate how much she makes me love her ::winky face winky face heart heart kissy face::)...you know what I'm talking about.  These bloggers were really listening when their 4th grade teachers taught them about starting their essays with an attention grabber.  In all honesty, I usually can't help but roll my eyes a little at these.   Don't trick me into reading your sentimental notions when I'm wanting to be incensed by something shocking, controversial, or ignorant!

BUT I DIGRESS

This is not my typical blog post.  I've mainly been using my blog to record events that happened during pregnancy and my child's life so I don't forget.  Dates, facts, anecdotes, pictures.  But today I'm going to record some feelings I've been having as a mom.  I don't keep a diary and it's my blog so....I do what I want.

I mean what I said in my title.  In the grand scheme of the world, my baby is not unusual or extraordinary.  10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 eyes, etc.  I'm sure she'll have teeth eventually.  It took her a while to learn to roll, and she still doesn't quite have it down.  She's pretty close to walking, which is certainly early, but I'm sure she's not the only baby to learn to walk at or around 8 months.  I, myself, learned at only (insert hair flip here) 9 months.  No big deal.  Is she cute?  THE CUTEST!!!!! And yet, other babies are also really cute.

I went to a nearby tourist trap this weekend.  The weather was nice, the company was good, and it was at the coast, so I was definitely game.  AND I did the best and most classic thing that can be done at a tourist trap: I bought some fudge.  I sampled a few, including jalapeño and maple bacon, ended up settling on the safe (but delicious) caramel pecan, and started chatting up the lady behind the counter.  She had a grandbaby just a little younger than Jenna and you could tell, she really loved that baby.  This is a good thing.  Babies are supposed to be loved.  Then, she started asking me if Jenna was crawling yet. Or maybe rolling? I can't quite remember.  Either way, the answer was "Kind of..." And then she dove in with the "Oh really? Because MY grandbaby..." and she starts telling me about how her grandchild started to crawl/roll at 3 months or 4 months or something...I forget. (See? This is why I have to write all of Jenna's life events in a blog.) Anyway, the general framework was this: "My baby started ___________ at ___ months old...isn't that AMAZING? He/She is extraordinary!"  

If you're a mom, this is not new to you.  If you're holding a baby, people want to talk to you about your baby  and THEN they can talk about THEIR baby. Again, this is good.  I love swapping baby stories.  I love hearing them and I love sharing mine.  But I feel like there's a problem when we start bragging on our babies like fudge lady and a million other people and probably even myself sometimes have done.  Because while Person A is talking about how AMAZING and EXTRAORDINARY their baby is, Person B is automatically feeling either defensive, worried, or sad.  Because if Person A has an extraordinary, amazing, and special baby because it could crawl at 4 months, and Person B's baby didn't crawl until 6 months, the subtext is that Baby B is not extraordinary, amazing, or special.

I walked out of that fudge shop feeling affronted.  How DARE she talk about how great HER baby is when MY baby is clearly also great, if not GREATER!?!  ...I had to do some soul searching about that later on.  Who knows?  Maybe fudge lady's grandchild will grow up to win a medal for having the world's strongest arms and she can point back to that crawling three-month old and prove that that child was always extraordinary.  But the numbers say that MOST people will have babies that fall into the solid majority.  Hence, MAJORITY!

Look, I'm not saying Jenna isn't going to grow up to be extraordinary.  She could one day work really hard and become the president, an olympian, a Nobel Prize winner, or the architect who designs and constructs the first suburb on Mars while using all recycled materials.  But right now, she's a baby.  She has been given a normal baby brain.  She didn't come out of the womb speaking multiple languages or tap dancing or cooking soufflé.  She does some things quickly and some things slowly.  She's loved, she's wonderful, she's mine.  And while my husband and I might whisper behind closed doors that she really IS the best baby, newsflash: EVERYBODY feels that way about their babies!!  That doesn't mean they really ARE the best baby!  If you go around trying to convince others that your baby really is the best, you are invariably telling them that their baby is NOT the best.  That's just not nice and nobody wins when you go around poking a bunch of mama bears.

My baby is not extraordinary.  She's a normal baby who learns things at a normal pace and when I talk about her to other mothers, I will tell them about the things she learns to do quickly AND the things she learns to do slowly.  And I will be sure to tell them that their baby is cute and wonderful as well, because guess what?  All babies are.

But really, mine is so cute, right?

7 Months

Age
7 Months

Milestones
Jenna has been pushing herself up into crawl position...mostly while she sleeps.  When she's awake, she only holds it for a second and then plops down in the ground, flat as a pancake.

Trying to pull herself up to a standing position!!  She ALMOST completely did it by herself once, but lost her balance at the last millisecond.  Still, we should probably start thinking about baby proofing this house!

Eating solids!  Not necessarily happily, but she's doing it.  We had a ROUGH 2+ weeks of feeding her solids every day and her just gagging and spitting everything out.  She got a lot better once she saw Asher eating though, and once we started to let her hold the spoon.

It was rough going for a while.

Interacting with other babies.  In the past, she's mostly just been in her own little world, but it was SO fun seeing her interact with Asher!!  They had little conversations squeaking, yelling, and blowing bubbles at each other.  Stacy and I had SO much fun watching!  The first time it happened, one of us cried...I won't reveal who.

My Favorites
This month, my favorites was just watching Jenna with my siblings, parents, in-laws, nieces & nephews, etc.  It was just really amazing seeing her bond with my family and seeing them interact with her.  We stayed in the basement at my parents' house and when I would walk up the stairs with her in the morning, she would just start giggling because she couldn't wait to play with everyone.  It was just the best.

Slackjaw picture.  Probably resulted in Jenna being slightly dubious of our sanity, but worth it.  Sorry family.  

How she greets people by touching their faces.  It is without a doubt one of the first things she'll do when she sees you.  And she does it if I'm holding her and she's very sleepy...sometimes she'll look up and slowly put her hand on my cheek like, "Thanks Mom."  It kills me.

Her Favorites
Her cousin Asher!!  Actually, all of the family, come to think of it. Tia, Zio, Aunt Bunny, Uncle Tommy, Grandma, Grandpa, and all of the Marcottes had SUCH cute interactions with Jenna.  It was so cute and so heartwarming to watch.

Jacob.  Jenna just LOVES her daddy!! It was tough being away from each other for a week or so, but when Jacob and I would talk on the phone or FaceTime, Jenna would get the BIGGEST smile on her face whenever Jacob would start talking.  Then, he would stop talking and her face would fall...then he would start talking again and she would light up again.  And then, when Jacob picked us up from the airport, the second she saw him she started grinning and squealing and kicking her feet at super high speed!  It was so amazing to see. 

That Sophie giraffe toy!  The big squeaky one.  She LOVES it and smiles like crazy whenever she sees it and giggles whenever it squeaks.  I can't explain it.  It is just a plastic giraffe.

Standing.  It is ALL she wants to do now!!  Standing while holding my fingers, standing while holding onto the couch, standing and "walking" around the room while I hold her hands...it's not just A favorite, it is THE favorite right now.

Surprises
It's really crazy to me that she's kind of learning to roll over, crawl, and walk around the same time...she hadn't really mastered rolling, but started pushing herself into crawl position.  She hadn't even mastered being in crawl position, much less crawling, when she started trying to pull herself up onto things.

Other Notable Moments
Her sinful nature is starting to show!! It's hilarious but...it's probably time to start teaching about sharing...

Her first Fourth of July!!  She loved it.

Well, she was pretty neutral.  But next year she'll love it!

Looking Forward To...
Honestly, I know this is going to COMPLETELY rock my world and change everything I know about being a parent right now, but I'm so excited for her to walk.  I just can't wait to see what she walks towards and what she's curious about.  It's one thing to try and figure out what she's looking at, but it's going to be so cool to take her to the park and just follow her around.

6 Months

Age
6 months!!  Halfie Birthday, Jenna!!

Milestones
ROLLING OVER!! She finally rolled over for the first time on May 27!!!  ...and then rolled over for the second time on June 19 haha...easing into it, I guess.  The first time, I had laid her on her tummy because she had poop all up her back and I was going to try and wipe it off so I could change her without making a mess.  I turned to grab the wipes and when I turned around again, she was rolling over!  So much for not making a mess, but I was so excited I really didn't mind!  The second time, she rolled over while she was taking a nap.  My parents were here for that one, so it's fun they got to "witness" that milestone.

She is SOLIDLY sitting up on her own now!

This isn't technically a Jenna milestone, but I'm back to my pre-baby weight....not that you could tell because I'm still COMPLETELY squishy.  Apparently, sitting on the couch eating eggless cookie dough for 9 months makes you lose muscle.  Who knew?  Surprisingly, I'm not too concerned about it.  I won this FANTASTIC postpartum workout DVD (on my birthday, of all days!) so I'm trying to tone up a bit.  It's cool that I'm using candles instead of the 5/10 lb. weights she recommends, right?

My Favorites
How easily she falls asleep (most of the time)

She kicks her legs like windshield wipers when she gets excited...I don't have a video of this yet but desperately need to.  It is hilarious.

How she flaps her arm up and down and grabs her ears when she's tired.

Baby grins & chubby cheeks!

When she watches us chew and moves her mouth like she's chewing something too.

When Jacob makes up songs and has Jenna "dance" to them.

Her Favorites
Her bouncer

Chewing on her feet.

Chewing on toys.

Chewing on my fingers.

Chewing on...pretty much anything she can get her hands on.

iPhones.

Playing and cuddling with her grandparents!!

 

Surprises
How I am soooo not tired of looking at her cute little face yet :)

Other Notable Moments
Jacob's first official Father's Day!

Looking Forward To...
Visiting Illinois and having Jenna meet the rest of our family members!!

5 months

Age
5 months!  I can't believe she's almost old enough for solids!  I don't know if I'm ready!!!!

Milestones
Sitting up!!!  New development as of yesterday.  She can hold herself up for a while...at least until she leans too far back or to the side.  Then, she tips over and it totally cracks me up!

Sleeping on her stomach!  I tried it once for a nap and she slept SO well!  We gradually started to do it more and more and now it's her favorite way to sleep!  I don't have the courage to let her sleep the whole night on her stomach yet, but she usually wakes up in the middle of the night frustrated because she wants to be turned over.  I guess I'll be ready to just start putting her down on her stomach when I'm ready to sleep through the night again :)

My Favorites
How much more aware she is!  She grabs at books (or dad's glasses), she laughs at more things, she watches Raven running around...it's really fun to see her watching and reacting to the world in a whole new way.

She's started to talk in a cadence that sounds a lot more like conversation.  It's so fun to hear!

Her faces!!! She's so expressive, and I love making faces back and forth with her.

Her Favorites
When we sing and dance together!  It's a great workout for me and she's going to know every Disney and Broadway song before she can walk.  I'm pretty sure her first words will be Hakuna Matata, or something of the like.  She even starts yelling along with me, which I'm pretty sure is her trying to sing.

BOOKS!! She gets really worked up when we start reading books to her. She starts rocking back and forth and yelling and grabs at the pages...it's like she's so excited she can't contain herself and it's kind of hilarious.

Surprises
That she has ZERO interest in rolling over!  I mean, she can basically sit!  And she's never even gotten close to rolling over!  That just feels so backwards, but I know babies do things differently so I'm not concerned, it's just funny.

Other Notable Moments
In the move, we forgot to pack Jenna's brush and didn't find it among the boxes for about two weeks. Result?  Baby dreads.

We started leaving her at the church nursery/BSF children's class!!  I almost started bawling the first time but kept it together pretty well.  She's so grown up now!

My first official Mother's Day!!

Jenna turning 20 weeks old!  I put her 20 week ultrasound next to a 20 week picture...they really are the same baby!

Looking Forward To...
My mom and dad coming to visit in a few weeks!!! I can't WAIT for them to get more time with Jenna!

4 months

Age
4 months (and then some...I swear I had this all written out two weeks ago.  We've been busy haha)

 

At her doctor's appointment this week, she weighed 14 lb. 11 oz. and measured at 24 inches...later when the doctor handed me the paper with her information I saw that her weight was in the 60th percentile and her height was in the 28TH!  I was so surprised that I straight up yelled out, "She's SHORT!!!"  But then the doctor told me she thinks that Jenna maybe wasn't stretched out all the way when they measured her because she didn't LOOK 28th percentile short.  I measured her myself later, and sure enough she's almost 25 inches, which jumped her back to a more normal percentile.  Somewhere between 70 and 100....those charts are hard to read. Phew.

Milestones
She has a lot more control over her arms now.  She's started to intentionally reach for things a bit more, or at least hold onto them when they're within her grasp.  The other day, she was very intentionally knocking over my water bottle.  I'd set it back up, and she'd knock it down again. I was prepare to do this for hours but eventually she got to the point where she would cry every time I put the water bottle upright...I guess she really wanted it down...

She's holding herself up really well on her stomach!! 

Tummy Time expert!

I don't need to burp her anymore!  Hooray!

My Favorites
She has started squeezing my neck with one arm when I pick her up and it makes me never ever ever want to set her down.

Her totally bonkers hair.  We accidentally packed up her hairbrush a little prematurely and couldn't remember where it was so for about two weeks she's had tufts of hair just randomly sticking out all over the place.

Her Favorites
Crinkling things!  She is a crinkling FIEND these days!  I have to watch it when I bring plastic bags home.

Moving her tongue around.  I think she's practicing to be in a KISS cover band when she grows up or something.

I couldn't pick just one, they were all cracking me up

HOLDING HANDS!  Actually, this should be one of my favorites too.  Whenever she's sad about something, the #1 thing that makes her feel better is holding one of my fingers.  If she's really upset, she'll grab one with each hand.  It absolutely melts. my. heart.  She was also holding hands with her friend Brooklyn the other day, which was ADORABLE.  Alice and I took probably about 40 photos between us because it was just too much. 

Squeaking!!

Sucking on her fingers!  She does it ALL the time!

Sometimes it's hard to coordinate

Sometimes she accidentally gags herself

But when she gets it right, it's pretty darn precious.

Looking at her dad!  It's so cute, when Jacob comes home she will not take her eyes off him.  She smiles and flaps her arms and I absolutely love seeing how much she loves her daddy.

Oh my gosh, me.  For 80% of her wake time, she is absolutely fine being held by other people, looking at other people, etc. and she barely notices if I'm not around.  When she gets tired or overwhelmed?  Look. Out.  She needs to be in my lap or over my shoulder or she will freak. the flip. out.  It is simultaneously flattering, heartwarming, and a little exhausting.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I love that she loves me and I love holding her pretty much whenevs.

Really? You won't even smile for this little cutie?

Surprises
How much she looks like me!!  Especially since she's all about imitating my facial expressions.  It's really a crazy feeling seeing my face almost exactly reflected on this tiny little baby head.

Other Notable Moments
Getting to meet & spend time with Rachel!  Jenna LOVED her, which was so cute to see!!!  Also, cheering us on during our 5K (which Jenna did not actually enjoy, but Rachel & I did!)

Moving to Houston!!!  It was a little sad packing up the house where we started our marriage and had Jenna, but this will be a fun new adventure!

Looking Forward To...

New adventures in Houston!! We're going to stop by our new BSF class (mostly just to get her registered) and maybe join a playgroup?  It'll be fun!

Her being able to sit up on her own.  She LOVES being able to see everything that's going on, but can only stay comfortably upright in her Bumbo for so long.  She'll be a lot happier when she can do it on her own.