5 Months

She can roll, she can sit, she is on her way to crawling. Nyla is on the move. It is a great stage right now. She can entertain herself for longer stretches but she rarely needs to entertain herself when she has Marianna to put on a show for her. Nyla is Marianna's biggest fan. Sometime all Marianna has to do is look at Nyla and she will burst into giggles. I was surprised the other day when I noticed that she recognizes Marianna's name and will turn to look for her when I call it out. She also chases Marianna around a room by rolling her way across the carpet or flinging herself forward in a inch worm kind of crawl. It is a nice glimpse into the future when they will hopefully spend more time playing with each other. Marianna always wants to involve Nyla in a game of hide and seek and she never forgets to assign her a role in her daily game of make believe princess. I must say Nyla gives a great performance as Dopey when we play Snow White.

However things are not always rosy in fairy-tale land and Nyla's new found independence has caused more sharing and boundary issues. Marianna gets very frustrated when she is having 'quiet time' and Nyla scoots her way over and tries to chew on the book she is reading. Marianna has also become more possessive over her toys and I have had to constantly reassure her that Nyla is not going to actually eat her doll. I knew this stage of parenting would come but I didn't expect it so soon. I have to make a conscious effort to not just snatch things away from Nyla but instead promote sharing. William taught Marianna to gently replace something that she doesn't want Nyla to be playing with, with one of her teething toys. Her first lesson in being a sibling.

We also started solids this month and Nyla is enjoying a variety of pureed fruits and veggies. Her favorite at the moment is apple sauce. Still no luck with the bottle but by next month I plan to introduce the sippy cup so I might just give up on the bottle-feeding dream.

Sleep is still an issue but William has been off a lot. When he is home he lets me sleep in. So although we have not had any progress with managing the night awakenings I feel more rested during the day, which helps. Her naps are consistent (3 a day) and her bedtime is 9pm. Our evening routine is pretty solid and both girls are usually asleep by 9:30pm and up for the day at 8am. So all in all I can't complain. That won't last forever. Nyla will start teething and Marianna has already started dropping her nap. So I know to enjoy it while it lasts.

The weather is perfect and I finally feel like I got this down. We are all excited Spring is here.