Five. Months. Old.

One. Month. Old.
Two. Months. Old.
Three. Months. Old.
Four. Months. Old.

Five Months Old!

 This month Lyric:

• finally found her feet!
• has also found her voice, she makes these long drawn-out "AAAAHHHHHHGGGGS" when she gets tired.  I blame Dave and I, we are both "noisy yawners" around her and I think that's what she's trying to mimic.
• learned how to roll over from her back onto her tummy.  I would like to think it was her Valentine's Day gift to me.  But she can only roll onto her tummy towards her left, then back again & kicks her legs so she sort of spins in a little circle.  :)
• started giving us belly laughs!  I love them, she's such a smiley, happy little baby.  I try to make her laugh as many times a day as possible.
• weighs 12 pounds, 10 ounces (I weigh her every week at my breastfeeding support group)
• wears size 2 diapers
• can still wear some 3 and 3-6 month onesies, fits into all her 6 month clothes (some are a little baggy), and now that she can, she takes off her socks all day long.
• still naps 3-4 times a day.  Every now and then I can get a long nap (1.5 hours) out of her but they are usually 30-45 minutes long.  Bedtime is still 6:00pm and she wakes up to eat around 4:00am and sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00am.
• is starting to grab and really hold onto things.  She grabs my hair and rips it out of my bun every time I hold her.  She also has started gripping my ears, nose and eyelids (!!).  After a close call with a pair of hoops and a little bleeding (me not her) I've decided no more earrings for a bit.

New Nicknames:  Weasel, Peanut and Wiggle Butt (there's a song that goes along with that one, I'll spare you)

The Eyebrow!

Do you see this thing?

Lyric was born with a little white eyebrow.  It grew slowly over the first couple months until it was about an inch long.  Being the consistency of fishing line coupled with it's translucent color meant that everyone who held her tried to pick it off (thinking it was fuzz or animal hair).  Of course they're always shocked when they realize they were trying to pluck her eyebrow!  It broke off (or someone plucked it!?) at two months...and I figured that was that.  I thought it was cute and was kind of bummed when I noticed it was missing.

But, here we are at 5 months, and look what grew back!  It's about 1.5 inches long now and I freaking love it.  I get comments about it all the time and folks still try to yank it out (again, thinking it's not attached) and I laugh every time.

I'm curious to see how long it lasts and whether it's something she has to deal with for the rest of her life.  I'm sure she'll absolutely hate it.  :)

Renovations

The past few weekends have been pretty crazy here in our household.  A couple months ago we assessed our living situation and realized that we needed to create a safe, childproofed area for Lyric who would soon be mobile.  We live in a four-level house and we only just recently (in September) finished the bottom level into a master bedroom with it's own spacious bathroom.  Unfortunately since the other three bedrooms are all on the top level, Dave and I aren't moving down there anytime soon.  I can't imagine running up three sets of stairs every time Lyric woke up!

The next level up from the basement was being used as a computer/workout/crap-pile room and we finally bit the bullet and decided to move things around and make it a comfy den area that would double as a playroom for Lyric. We moved the computer desk upstairs into a spare bedroom, lent the BowFlex to a friend, moved the treadmill into the basement bedroom and I decided the elliptical had to go.  We just couldn't decide what to do with it.  Sell it on Craigslist? Donate it?  But to where?  Finally I had the bright idea to just stick it in front of our house and see what happened.  Forty five minutes later - this happened:

Hilarious!  That thing was HEAVY too.

I had also made the mistake of painting three of the walls an army green color about five years ago....and it absolutely had to go if I had to spend time in this room every day.

So we went from this (I had started the primer already...):

To this:

Looking down:

On Super Bowl Sunday we had a bunch of friends come over, all of whom had kids.  One couple has an almost 16-month old who we wanted to be the "test dummy" if you will, for our new child-proofed area.  With the exception of the lamp cord, we passed!  He had a blast bouncing off the couch and ottoman and running around under the TV shelf (that Dave proudly built, I should add!).

Hopefully in a few months when Lyric is more mobile she will enjoy it as much.  Right now, she's just content to play with her toys and roll around in circles.

Meals for Moms

New moms go through a lot.  We are sleep deprived, sluggish, excited yet overwhelmed and our mind is usually on twelve different things at once.  There are also many good things about being a new mom - the thrill of seeing the world through your baby's eyes, watching them recognize you, smile and coo, the joy of the first laugh and wondering what type of person your baby will eventually grow to become.

A big part of my attitude and outlook on life depends on how I fuel myself.  If I eat like crap, I feel like crap.  If I take time to plan out meals and keep myself from getting too hungry (read: cranky) I feel like I can handle all that this little munchkin can throw at me.

Here are a few quick and easy meals that I've been munching on to help keep my energy up.

 Plain Greek yogurt with chopped apple, cinnamon and peanut butter.

 Quesadilla with refried beans, spinach, mozzarella and green Tabasco.

 Snackplate with kale chips, blueberries, carrot sticks and chicken with hummus.

 Turkey sandwich with avocado, spinach, hummus, laughing cow cheese & peanut butter pretzels.

 Tortilla with refried beans, taco meat, mozzarella, spinach and ranch.

 Pistachios (I didn't eat the whole bowl), peppers and hummus.

 Toast with hummus, laughing cow, eggs and spinach.

Plus, my sweet tooth is still in full force so I've been enjoying many cups of this peppermint hot chocolate.  I also add a couple scoops to my coffee in the morning.  Yum.  :)

What is your go-to easy meal when you need to eat something quickly??