The incredible traveling baby

BEACH BABY BEACH BABY THERE ON THE SAND!

CONCLUSION: Daisy loves to travel. Yes, this is a HUGE relief to her mother, yours truly, who gets cabin fever and begins downing bottles of wine routinely if she doesn't have a vacation on the near horizon.

Spending uninterrupted time with Mummy, Daddy, Nanny, and Grandad, living life on her nap schedule, heading out to see new things and new people twice a day, and a daily swim really seemed to put our little munckin into the best mood. (Given that statement, it's hardly surprising, huh?) She was the least cranky she's ever been and the best napper, planted smack-bang in the middle of a cushy king-size bed.

TUCKERED-OUT AFTER HER SWIMMING SESSION

Unfortunately night-time sleep wasn't perfect but then it hasn't been much better at home either; we haven't routinely slept through the night now for quite some time. Honestly, it impacted Hubby and I more because she moves around so much in the night and woke us up with every little meep and grunt from her crib just a few feet away. Ack!

Even the airport and plane journey was less stressful than anticipated.


ON THE PLANE READY FOR TAKE-OFF

There are now "Family Lanes" at the security check-points which definitely takes some of the stress out of carting a baby and all her associated contraptions, through the scanners. Basically everyone's in the same boat - sweating to get it all right and not lose their boarding pass in the process - and so nobody gets mad at you for behaving like a monkey screwing a football.

We did buy a seat for Daisy this time around (hey, Southwest - $69 each way, why wouldn't we?) and so she got to take off in the comfort of a familiar environment. However she was so bored and over-stimulated by the time she got settled in her seat that she fell asleep shortly before take-off and stayed asleep until about 1/2 way through the flight. That left me with only 45 minutes or so of nursing her through the rest of the flight with assorted toys, songs, and funny faces. (I've completely lost my fear of singing in public now, by the way.)

Our favorite activities while away were:

• Hanging out in the front pack, people watching. Daisy LOVES to be around a ton of people. Guess she's her mother's daughter there. I think she's going to LOVE the big cities! I'm thinking London next year?
• The beach. She squealed with delight at the waves and wriggled her toes in the sand.
• The pool. We swam almost every day and her squeals definitely woke up all those OC-types lounging around the Hyatt Regency pool!
• Rolling around on the king bed. I get that. I like to roll around on the king bed too, although I didn't get to do much of that this time around ;o)
  

Developmental Milestones

On vacation we turned 5 months old - I know, NO WAY! So, time for some developmental updates:

• Smiling: Yes, lots. Daddy, Mummy, Nanny, or Grandad only have to look at her now and she beams right back at us with a big grin that turns into a shy smile as she hides her face.
• Giggling: Yes, especially if Daddy kisses our naked tummy or plays "Boo!" really loudly at us when we're on our tummy.
• Squealing: Oh God, no problems there. She can clear a restaurant in minutes.
• Rolling: Back to front and front to back. Yes, we do it all now.
• Forward Motion: As a 1/2 step to crawling, she can now get our knees under her and propel herself forward. Unfortunately her face is still planted firmly on the floor so she sort of pushes her head across the carpet like a broom.
• Tummy Time: She spends most of her day on her tummy now. Even when she doesn't want to be there, she rolls over. She has such great neck and back strength at this point that she can actually hold a toy and play with it underneath her while she lays on her front. She even naps on her stomach.
• Sitting: Daisy can sit unsupported for a second and lightly supported for a lot longer, although she tends to either flop sideways or lurch forward onto our tummy.
• Hand-eye coordination: She's come along leaps and bounds here. She can do fairly advanced things with her hands. At Macaroni Grill recently, she completely ripped apart and demolished the paper table cloth. She LOVES paper and loves to transfer it from hand to hand, rip it, and then suck it. We also have a new skill, which we lovingly call "The Paddy" (an Irish/English way of saying a "fit".) Daisy loves to fling her arm up-and-down-up-and-down from the shoulder, smacking herself on the forehead and thigh alternately. Sometimes there are things in her hand (like the plastic keys that hit Daddy in the head) and sometimes it's also accompanied by a frantic side-to-side shaking of her head. She looks like she'd having an epileptic fit but in reality it seems as though she's just getting out some pent-up physical energy. However, it does sometimes mean that we end up with a red spot on our forehead at the end of the day. Between that and the marks on her face from face-planting onto the binky during her naps, someone is going to cal CPS on me any day now! Although, I'd have some justification - oh the hair pulling! Who knew a 5 month old had such strength and grip???
• Eating: Still on the ceral. At a play date today she discovered a love for Puffs and some kind of Yogurt treat, so I guess I'm off to Safeway tomorrow to buy that. As for drinking, she loves iced water or apple juice from a straw but I have to be careful when I give it to her because, once I start, it's hard to stop. Daisy now throws fits when you take something away from her that she wants or enjoys even if it's not good for her. So, moral to this story, don't start something you can't finish.
• Sleeping: Overall, this is the only area where we're still experiencing some regression. Our solid night-sleeper has turned into a one-a-night (at least) waker. She wakes usually around 2am and 90% of the time will put herself back to sleep but 10% of the time cannot and requires us to go in, reposition her (she's usually all the way in the corner of the crib with her head banging against the bumper) and sometimes even stick in the binky. 50% of the time she also wakes up at 4 or 5-ish too. Sometimes we have to give her a bottle at this point and sometimes we don't. Needless to say, we're still working on this new night-time Daisy. All advice appreciated. As for naps - don't get me started! Although she napped great on vacation, as a general rule she has cottoned-on to our tactics for getting her to sleep at all other times and steadfastly refuses to yield. It's back arching and tears all the way. It doesn't help that she now has the power to remove the binky (our tried-and-true nap tool), stick it in backwards, make herself mad and then fling the binky across the room. Again, we're in the process of trying to figure this one out.

For more pics from our vacation click here

Ok, over and out before this post becomes too long for anyone to read it...