On a foggy Saturday afternoon, we decided to give Nina her first taste of the local bucket swings. After a few moments of being quite perplexed, Nina relaxed and enjoyed the experience. She also liked watching the children next to her swinging. I picked a yellow ginko leaf off the ground which I’ll save to commemorate the experience.

Nina’s making some advances toward talking. After making what may or may not have been consonant sounds for the past couple of weeks, today she unmistakeably said, "Mama," and then began saying it again and again. I realize that this is just a random sound she makes and not — to her — a word with meaning, but it was still startling to hear. Kind of a preview of what’s to come. She’s also saying "baa baa." No "Dada" yet!

Nina had her first taste of solid food (aside for a fingerful of carrot I gave her a few weeks ago) on Tuesday. We gave her this meal in her new red plastic IKEA highchair. She loves being in the highchair, feeling like part of the family at mealtime. The solid food — rice cereal — had the effect we expected: it seemed to leave Nina very perplexed. Not too much food was actually ingested. But the point of this whole thing is to acclimate her to eating, not to bestow nutrients. The utterly puzzled and somewhat disgusted face Nina makes when she takes a bite is delightful. I certainly don’t remember my first bite of solid food, but seeing this look on Nina’s face makes me feel like I do.

For those with babies who are not yet highchair owners, I can’t say enough about the IKEA chair. It cost just $20 including the tray, and it’s great — lightweight, easy to wipe down, and it doesn’t take up much room in the apartment. IKEA also sells a really cute and inexpensive toddler chair for when Nina is older.

This is a picture from the day that Nina was sick with a fever. She woke up the night before screaming and inconsolable, and very hot. The fever came down somewhat in the AM, and I took her to the doctor. She seemed alert, so he said to just watch her. I gave her some baby Tylenol (her first experience ingesting non-breastmilk!), and that seemed to help. She took a long nap and woke up like this. Since then, she’s been just fine. I’m not sure what caused the fever.

Nina’s sitting up on her own now, at 5 and a half months. She also got to weigh in at the doctor’s office, tipping the scales at 18 pounds, 5 ounces.

She loves to watch Dad and me engage in various domestic activities. But there’s one that particularly fascinates her: teeth brushing. When I’m by myself, I bring her into the bathroom while I shower, brush teeth, etc. While I brush my teeth, she is absolutely transfixed. Maybe not having teeth herself, she is envious. Funny little girl!

Refusing to be overshadowed by certain big news of the past 24 hours (on which I will comment soon…I am collecting my thoughts), Nina Woods has reached a new milestone today: eating without spitting up. While folks in my neighborhood are outside cheering Obama, Nina’s mama is rejoicing at home over this smaller but no less important victory. Goodbye to the Era of Regurgitated Milk — you will not be missed!

She likes the balloons

Originally uploaded by Ginny and John

I haven’t done a blog post on Nina’s developments in a long while…so it’s about time. She’s now a week or so past 5 months, and here’s what she’s up to (see our Flickr photos for more details): She likes to hold her hand (the left one) in front of her face and rotate it back and forth, apparently admiring her fingers. She’s rolling across the floor less, instead trying harder to figure out a way to move forward. No luck with that yet. She’ll push up with her legs so that her bottom is in the air, and sometimes end up sort of propped up on her forehead. She’s a lot more observant and responsive, and she loves playing in the Exersaucer that someone in the neighborhood gave me. “Manning the controls,” as we say. I still haven’t fed her solid food, as the doctor told me to wait until her 6-month visit, since she’s doing so well on the breastmilk. I’m trying not to over-analyze this too much and will just stick with the doctor’s recommendations. I thought about getting some rice cereal for her to try but then I realized I don’t have any plastic bowls or spoons. Need to get those.

Nina loves leaves, balloons, grabbing her feet, and anything with lots of colors. She likes when people dance in front of her and clap their hands. She has one book that she loves, called Chika Chika Boom Boom. The front page of this book has a big colorful version of the letters of the alphabet, and she likes to look at this as I sing the alphabet song. Her other favorite activity of late: squealing. She’s got a very good set of pipes, so her squeals of glee really echo through our high-ceilinged apartment.