Aurick turned five months on the seventh of March (the same day that Anselm turned seven–Happy Birthday, Anselm!)
It has just occurred to me that not only do Anselm and Aurick share a birthdate (both born on the seventh of a month) they also share a first initial (and are the only Kranslings to have first names beginning with A.) It’s almost like we planned it!
Aurick persists in being a really, genuinely pleasant baby. Oh, he has his moments (don’t we all?) but mostly only protests when he’s ready to change positions or when he wants to go to sleep. For the vast majority of his days he is quiet, engaged, playing with his hand-me-down gym toy, or watching the goings-on with polite interest. In fact, he is so politely interested in what the other children are up to that he will flat forget to nurse if they’re somewhere nearby. He has thus officially begun the stage of retiring to his room for meals.
And of course by his room, I mean our room. It is funny to me to think back on how we used to move the other babies so quickly from our room (I think Ephraim was six weeks old.) Of course that has had to change as our family grew and our space dwindled. Aurick is still in his baby closet, and I’m not sure when he’ll move out. He is a mostly pleasant roommate. I am not sure if he would say the same about us.
He nearly always has something in his mouth. His pacifier, his fingers, his fist, parts of his sleeve, a corner of his blankie. I have been awakened in the night not a few times to the sound of him working steadily at eating his own hand. In truth, the roommate situation will have to be rectified soon, as we really do keep each other up and his night feedings are beginning to interfere with his daytime feedings almost as badly as his interest in his siblings does. This is typical for this age, for Kranslings at least.
He’s also following the typical curve in distrust of strangers. Oh, he’s happy to smile at anyone, so long as they maintain a respectful distance–too close, however, and Aurick’s pleasantly smiling countenance turns into the most pronounced of frowns. He is especially perplexed and unhappy when he notices Mama is not the person who is holding him.
Of all his siblings, Beatrice is the most enamored with Aurick (having named all of her dolls after him) and he is the most excited and interested in her. Her voice adopts a lilting falsetto the moment she spots him. “Hiiiiii, baby!” He kicks vigorously and gurgles in response. It will be interesting to see the dynamic their relationship will embody, and whether she will eventually boss him as much as Elvie does Eldore.
Speaking of gurgles, nearly all his vocalizations consist of gurgling and growling, with an occasional laugh thrown in. All of the babyish hoo, hoo sounds have been abandoned in favor of this new textural talkyness*, which he has perfected over the course of this month.
We did eventually fall prey to the dreaded four-month-sleep-regression, and are now slowly climbing out of that particular pit. His daytime sleep hasn’t been too shaken, though it’s clear that nap spacing and routines will need to be reevaluated soon.
*I borrowed this word from Eldore.
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