Flannery turned five months on the 30th of September.
This month was a month of discovery! So many things were found during these past few weeks.
A first discovery was these chunky blocks of flesh at the end of her legs with wiggly spuds sticking out of them. Sometimes, if they hold still long enough, you can grab on to them! And if you’re very flexible (which of course our Flannery is) you can even stick them in your mouth and chew on them! It is very exciting, and needless to say she was awfully proud of herself for finding these new toys. Of course her feet have been there all along, but we won’t spoil it for her by telling her so.
Another discovery was the amazingly full range of sounds she can make, from the highest squeaky-squeaks to the lowest growls, and even spit-filled raspberries! Crowing! Squealing! Talking! Squeaking is her very favorite, though. She reaches her voice up as high as it can possibly go, then looks sideways at you to see if you’ve noticed her dexterity in this magnificent skill.
The third discovery (which Mama has not exactly encouraged) was that fingers are as good as pacifiers in a pinch. I found her asleep several times with two fingers stuck in her mouth, just like Clive used to do. I took a few pictures as proof, then tried my best to discourage the fingers and offer a pacifier. Pacifiers can be taken away, but we’ve had a heck of a time getting our finger/thumb-suckers to stop.
She’s much stronger on her belly, now, and can spend much longer times on her tummy, up and looking around. We have a little whale toy that we’ve been hanging on to for years that is for tummy play–it’s a pouch filled with water with little fish floating in it that baby can look at and poke at, as they like to do at this age. Elvie was thrilled that Flannery was finally old enough for the toy, and badgered me until I got it set up for Flannery to play with. Then we placed Flannery on it, but everyone so crowded around her to see what she would do that she didn’t even notice the toy–she was too busy talking to her admiring fans! It took several tries over the course of a couple of weeks for her to look at the toy and bat at is, as is intended. Now she loves the toy, and Elvie is content.
Even though she’s a skinny little thing, she’s so long that I had to bump her up to the next size sleepers–and her toes still stretch to the very end of the feet of her pajamas. Her fingers and feet are so long! She is long, too, though not extremely so–just a little more than average.
She’s an expert now at the IKEA gym toy. She never misses when she grabs at it, and loves to swing her feet up to knock the toys back and forth, too. She’s working on rolling but hasn’t accomplished a back-to-belly roll on her own yet. Late rolling is kind of a Kransling speciality, with the exception of those Kranslings who were belly sleepers.
She’s a nosey little thing and likes to know what’s going on around her. Nursing her while out in a room is impossible; I have to go back to my room and shut the door. She will often tire of lying on the floor, wanting instead to be up and looking around at everything and everyone. When she complains, I put her in the bouncy seat (if I can’t hold her) at a spot where she can supervise the goings-on in the room. This pleases her enormously, and cuts the complaining immediately.
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