Flannery turns six months today, October 30th.

She is still a wiry little peanut with hardly any hair. What hair is there is still coming in slowly, slowly, just like Big Sister Elvie, who made it all the way to eighteen months or so before it really started to grow. Why does hair do that sometimes? What has grown in still looks very reddish, red enough that new acquaintances see the red tinge, too, and not just a Mama who gets carried away with wishful thinking. What she lacks in hair she makes up for in big, big blue eyes.

Those big eyes only ever seem to shut in sleep or smiling, when she crinkles up her nose and squints her eyes at you as she grins her gummiest grin. She likes to smile, and can really get cackling if you tickle her or play peek-a-boo with her. She even likes to be tossed up in the air, something which Aurick will actually still not let me do.

Elvie is especially good at getting her to laugh. Beatrice tries very hard but with limited success. Beatrice is still Flannery Fan Number One, always wanting to sit with Flannery or talk to Flannery or play with Flannery, but sometimes her three-year-old enthusiasm (and underdeveloped balance) causes more problems than playing. Then there is a great amount of tears on the part of both of the girls, which thankfully they both seem to recover from quickly.

On the subject of sleep: we’ve been through a very long Wonder Week this month, and naps suffered, though not as badly as some of the children have experienced at this age. Flannery has always been very good at putting herself to sleep (if the conditions are right) but she had more trouble with that this month. One day she didn’t nap hardly at all, which for her is so very very strange. Oddly enough, though, her temperament is still fairly sunny, even as tired as she could get during these times.

She’s very particular about where she sleeps, though. I’ve learned that this month as I’ve spent a lot more time out and about with her than I usually do. Like Clive, Flannery will not sleep in the carseat hardly at all. It takes a long day of errands to wear her down enough to sleep in the car. She doesn’t exactly like to sleep in the ring sling, either, but will eventually, if I cover her eyes with a blanket. If I’m holding her, I can get her to surrender and fall asleep if I hold her arms tightly against her and, again, cover her eyes, but she will only sleep like this for maybe ten to fifteen minutes. I even had her on my bed last week while I cleaned–she had her blankie, and her pacifier, and the noise machine was on. And she fussed at me, and fussed, and fussed, until I picked her up and put her in her sleeping basket. Then she shut her eyes and rolled her head up and to the side, and fell asleep. Promptly. The girl knows what she likes!

She still nurses one to two times at night. I have decided not to wean her from night feedings until we start solids. I don’t really think she needs the night feedings–she doesn’t nurse super well during the day which is a surefire way to tell that they could be phased out–but I think perhaps subconsciously I am just afraid to night train her while she’s in such a low percentile for weight. There isn’t any concern–she is following her own growth curve, and I’ve already been through this exact thing twice with Clive and Anselm, who were small like her and still sleeping 12 hrs at night by her age–but I don’t want my sleep training her to be blamed for her being small. So I’ll just wait.

She is a busy little girly when she’s awake! She so loves to have the other children come and talk to her. She grumbles when she’s alone, sometimes. She likes to lie on the floor and see what everyone is up to. She loves to see Aurick–she thinks he’s fascinating. He, for his part, is very careful and gentle with her.
She has been working on rolling over, and though I haven’t seen it yet, the kids say they’ve seen her roll over on her own.

We all call her Flansie-Mo. Or maybe that should be written Flan-Simo? Flansimo? However you spell it, it is wonderfully fun to say; between that and just plain Flansie, she has her nicknames pretty well set for her.

other updates:
ephraim + clive + anselm + elvie + eldore + beatrice + aurick