Month Five...and Still Counting

I have not written, directly, about the babe in a while so let me fix that right now. Miss M turned five months old two days ago and the last week has been amazing! She is becoming so physical. She has mastered rolling over from her stomach to her back...at least from right to left. She favors her right arm as her pushing arm and hasn't quite gotten the fact that she could push with her left arm and go over the other way. If she's blocked on the left side she still just gets kind of mad at the situation. But it is so cute to watch her flip over and smile as though she were saying: "See what I just did".

She is about to become a real sitter. Last Sunday John put her in the sitting position and let go and she stayed. This week she has just gotten stronger. She still mostly sits "froggy style" with her body hunched over, but she's begun to pull her torso up. She also reaches for her toys form this position and is so happy when she gets them. She's giggling and has even laughed out loud at Daddy a few times.

Being physical is more than her development. I remember, well, it was only a couple of months ago, when we were so careful with her. I was ginger and gentle with every touch and tried to limit rough play. She couldn't move very well...and I didn't like to mess with her. As she's grown my fear has subsided and now one of our favorite games involves tossing her up and down while singing The Grand Old Duke of York We tickle and dance around and jostle to William Tells Ride.... you know...ba-rump-bada-rump-bada-rump-rump-rump-rump...John will toss and swing her and she just loves it. She loves to move, to be moved, to be tickled and touched. She reaches up when she wants to be held and responds to touch in distinct ways. It is so different from even a month ago when it seemed that she just kind of put up with us. Now she knows we can be fun too.

Speaking of fun, we had a family adventure this afternoon. We took Maia up for her first ride in the Mooney. We were planning to fly over to Paso Robles in central California for lunch. It's about an hour flight with a solid destination and food! We are thinking of flying to Idaho for Christmas and need to make sure Maia can tolerate it before we embark on a three and a half hour trip.

Maia has ear gear. Ear protection is paramount when flying in a small plane. I found soft silicone earplugs, actually they're called "pillows" and cover the outer ear. They help with the pressure change as well as provide decibel buffering. She also has her small earmuffs...powder blue and oh-so-cute! I thought she was set. Well, the ear pillows have a learning curve as to how they go in best and the muffs didn't hold them in her tiny ears as I had hoped. She became uncomfortable and started to cry soon after take off. I went into stress mode trying to calm her down, the bottle wasn't helping and I couldn't pick her up and darn if that girl will still not take a pacifier. We decided to head back for the airport and not push it; after all, we want her to enjoy plane trips. As we were being directed back to the airport, Maia stopped crying and took her pacifier, alleviating some of the discomfort. We decided to toodle around for a bit...she was fine and beginning to nod off. We thought we'd head over to Half Moon Bay, a short fifteen-minute distance. While we didn't want to push our luck, we weren't ready to give up altogether. She fell asleep during the approach. Halleluiah.

Half Moon Bay was nice. We had lunch at the brewery that could have been better, but we'll just go somewhere else next time I think. We wandered by the fishing pier and had tea in an odd little cafe near the airport. Then it was time to head back home.

This time I got smart with the silicone ear pillows. I had purchased a neoprene headband designed to keep earplugs in while swimming. I really smoothed in the pillows, wrapped the headband across Maia's ears and placed the earmuffs over that. There is no such thing as too much protection for tiny ears. She seemed kind of frustrated with so much stuff on her head...but quickly settled down. I had a bottle ready to go for takeoff and she was asleep before we had leveled off. Good girl! John chose to take to scenic route home. We followed the coastline down to Santa Cruz then popped over the hills into the valley. Maia did wake up for the last part of the trip but was a happy camper...finishing her bottle and playing with her toys.

I think we're going to fly for Christmas. We're going to do a little more altitude flying with her in preparation for going over the Sierras but now that the ear/pressure kinks have been worked out I think we'll be fine. It's a great thing to be able to make these trips together. John and I love adventures and I really want our kids to be able to experience them too. And hopefully love them as well. Maia looks like she's off to a good start.