A few months ago I wrote out a list of all the signs I thought would be useful for Kate to learn and started using some of them day-to-day. But then I stopped doing it because she was too young to notice. I’ve just realized that Kate is nearly 6 months old! She’s certainly old enough to start learning them now, I need to start making an effort to show her signs, starting with “milk.” Today for the first time she looked at my hand with interest as I made the sign for milk before nursing her. Hmmm, I can hear the gears turning in there.

Who took my baby and replaced her with a monkey? No really. She’s always been a baby in motion, but now I’m all like, Would you stop kicking and clawing me and just settle down and eat?!” I have no issues being a jungle gym. I also have no issues being a milk bar. I do, however, have issues with being both simultaneously.

She’s also flailing around a lot when I am trying to get her to sleep by nursing her laying down, something that used to work like a charm. It’s been so frustrating lately – and naps so short – that for the last week I’ve been having her nap on my chest while I watch TV. (To be honest I don’t mind at all… I really really love the sleep snuggles I get.) And when she finally does settle down and fall asleep she’s rousing and flailing every single time I try moving away from her. So last night I tilted her towards her stomach instead of her back…. and she slept. I think she just craves some firm pressure against her front in order to sleep – that’s how she sleeps on me on the couch, in the carrier, and in the bed. She’s been a rolling fiend lately, rolling across the room repeatedly, so I have no fears about her getting stuck on her tummy if she doesn’t want to be. The only hard part about this is that if she’s not fully asleep when I gently roll her from her side to her front she wakes up and cries because in her head laying on her belly on something other than mommy means playtime. Oi.