Austen’s fifth month of life has been a marvelous one. She’s much happier now that she gets to go out and meet new people everyday – most of whom she flirts with using her “big smile.” She laughs a lot, vocalizing with everything from grunts to spikey squeals. Fortunately, her loud crying is now only transitory. There are times that she gets bored at home, but when she’s out she’s a picture of fascination. Lights on the ceiling, people of all ages, colorful objects, all catch her interest. Mommy and Daddy have started to take Austen for outings a least once a day. The Mall. Restaurants. Parks. Babies R Us.
The biggest change since Austen’s four-mouth update is that she no longer needs swaddling to sleep. At night she’s in her bassinet wearing a
sleepsack and covered by a loosely-woven blanket. Her arms no longer bound, she rests them up by her ears. There’s still flailing at times but it eventually calms down and she can sleep without restraints. During daytime naps, Austen doesn’t like to be put in her bassinet and needs some rocking, but normally no swaddle is required.
Another change is that Austen has started eating rice cereal mixed with milk. She doesn’t eat enough for sustenance; she’s still in the learning phase. First, it was three parts milk to one part cereal, but the percentage of milk is decreasing. At restaurants, Austen reaches for Mommy and Daddy’s food. When trying to eat your own food, you have to stay alert and be quick in order to keep her from tasting. For Daddy, it’s a game just trying to feed himself.
As it turns out, Austen is not a hyper-sensitive child as she seemed to be her first few months. She can sleep almost anywhere as long as there’s a bit of jostling involved: her car seat, her stroller, in someone’s arms, in her swing, in her bassinet at night. She doesn’t mind loud music or noises, just turns to check them out. You can take her out in the windy cold and hear not a peep out of her. You can swing her around, holding her in just about any positions, without eliciting a complaint — she just wrinkles her brow and takes in the new sensations. She splashes around in her bath, not even screaming when some water or soap washes over her face. She’s even been bumped a few times without seeming to care. However, her one sensitivity is her face. She dislikes having her face touched and flails her arms to try to get the offending appendage off of her. (Think of Mary’s brother in the movie There’s Something about Mary … “
franks and beans!!“) She’s learning to tolerate kisses from Mommy and scruffy-faced Daddy.
There’s not much crawling but Austen loves to stand, bearing her weight on her legs while holding onto Mommy or Daddy for balance. She’s not fond of lying on her back anymore, but when forced to, she rolls around (from back to stomach, stomach to back) and lifts her legs in the air, grabbing her feet, sometimes stuffing them in her mouth. She doesn’t last long during tummy time unless very well distracted, like at Gymboree where she calmly watches the other babies.
Austen loves to play with her
Exersaucer,
jumper swing and noise-making toys that light up. Her favorite toy is her own hand, which she explores and experiments with for hours on end. Everyday she acquires new skills. She holds her own bottle – making a special “hurry up” grumble when she sees it. She can move toys from hand to hand and turn them over to inspect them. She jabs at buttons and pulls dangling toys. She whacks her pacifier around and can put it into her mouth the right way, instead of just trying to swallow it whole. She even turns the pages of her board books.
Cat lover in training, Austen stops whatever she’s doing, cranes her neck and stares when kitties walk by. Squirtcup is her favorite and, amazingly, Squirt seems to like Austen. Squirt rubs up against her, pacing back and forth, and tolerates her awkward rubbing. Austen ends up with clumps of Squirts hair in her palms. Nietzsche is not hostile toward Austen, but she does avoid her for the most part; a few short petting sessions have taken place without incident. Yet, when Austen starts to fuss, Nietzsche makes a fluid dash for the door. Scout seems okay with Austen, maybe a bit afraid of her. Without hissing or scratching, Scout vocalizes complaints when Austen’s cuddling turns not-so-gentle, like when Austen grabs on to Scout’s tail with her “death grip.” (Austen should beware. Scout has her own secret weapon: “The death paw.” Of course, it moves so slowly, it’s unlikely to hurt a fly … but we digress.)
Austen is teething so she’s always drooling and chomping on things, especially her Gerber Nuk pacifier, which she can’t live without. She enjoys clamping down on Mommy or Daddy’s skin and snapping her head side to side like a cat trying to subdue a mouse trapped in its jaw. This, accompanied by grunting noises, helps her convey an increased sense of ferocity.