After spending a whirlwind 3 weeks vacation on the Islands, we are back and easily settled into our little routine and life. After visiting with family and friends we were all fairly exhausted yet it only took a couple days back at home before we were rejuvenated and ready to get back into a much needed routine. Jonas was very easy to get back into regular bedtimes and school/social life, but Karina seems to be a whole new and forever changing person!
Karina is very similar to Jonas as a baby in that she does not cry much nor does she fuss. I consider both Karina and Jonas very easy babies but as time goes on I can see more differences. I am enjoying these differences immensely and am having such a wonderful time getting to know our beautiful little girl. As a baby, Jonas was very content and very easy to pacify if he was upset. Being outside or breastfeeding was all that was ever needed to make Jonas a happy baby. Jonas really liked being around people and hated to play alone. He is very social and not at all shy. Karina, on the other hand is quite mellow but when she is mad, she can be a little more difficult to settle. She will not take the breast nor will going outside calm her. The only thing that I can do for her is take her into a quiet place/ dark room and hold her. She eventually settles on her own. There doesn't seem to be any specific thing for me to do that will calm her - all I can do is provide the environment for her to relax in and she does the rest. Both Jonas and Karina really only get upset is when overstimulated and tired/hungry. Karina has also mastered rolling from back to front and front to back. She is now almost beginning to scoot forward a little. She can almost sit and will often balance herself with an arm if she begins to fall over or else she just flops over. She also likes to stand on her feet with all of her weight, leaning on my arm or other object.
Karina is often not too happy to be held by other people but sometimes she will warm up to someone new who is holding her. She seems to like to be on her own and spend a lot of time observing everything around her. Karina will spend lots of time rolling around on the floor or sitting in her chair keeping herself occupied. Of course I realize that part of this self sufficiency is due to nature and also due to nurture. I am often running around doing one thing or another and cannot always be at her side. She accepts this easily most of the time and will have no problems letting me know otherwise.
I was never into baby swings, exersaucers, jolly jumpers etc for Jonas - although I borrowed all of those items and owned an exersaucer, Jonas was never really into any of them. Since then I have heard from a physiotherapist friend that these devices actually slow down an infants development if used for more than a few minutes each day. In the end I am sure that it doesn't matter either way, but I have not had any need/desire to place Karina in any of these devices. Having a tiny apartment makes it easier to not have these devices as well. Less crap laying around! The idea of kids watching movies in cars while on road trips is totally foreign to me - I am a little old fashioned in that I like Jonas to check out the scenery, listen to music, sing or have conversation with us while driving. A new activity while in the car for Jonas is listening to stories on CD. He is STOKED on listening to CARS at the moment - I don't mind at all because I look back at him and his eyes are faraway and I can tell he is imagining each scene as the story is told and I only wish I could see what the story looks like in his minds eye.
And before I fall asleep I must share one final and interesting development over the past two days. Based on strong intuition and some developmental 'cues' - I fed Karina her first food! It is abit early, but I felt that Karina was ready. While pregnant I imagined that I would wait until she was at least 6 months but I have had this nagging feeling at the back of my mind that she is ready and she seems very interested in food. SO I mixed some freshly pumped milk with some brown rice cereal and tried it out. I was not entirely surprised when Karina squealed with joy and kicked her feet excitedly after I fed her her first spoonful. I only allowed her about 3 teaspoons at her first meal. Some of the clues she has given me that she is ready is that she is almost sitting on her own, she is very interested in my food and tried to grab at it, she does not push the food out of her mouth and she opens her mouth really wide when she sees the spoon coming toward her. She has never done this with the breast, Never a big open mouth like many babies out there. Funny and unique girl, my Karina! This is significant for everyone because it means that others can now participate in feeding her, my milk supply may change (so soon??) and her poops will go from pleasant smelling to stinky real poops.
And this is my life and excitement at the moment and I wouldn't trade it for the world! Its all going by too quickly but by continuing to write in this blog, I have a record of this short time in my life with my little darlings! My mind is so fuzzy half the time and my writing is not at all my best but I will continue otherwise I may not remember these days as clearly as I would like!
