Super Active Alexa

Monday morning the baby that woke up in our crib was very different from the baby we put to sleep Sunday night. She spent the entire day being fussy - not really crying - but just being grumpy. At first I thought it was because we had so much activity over the weekend. We had the Nordstrom opening on Friday, a family reunion on Saturday and a long car ride on Sunday. I tried all of Alexa's usual favorite things and nothing really seemed to pacify her. One day of inconsistent behavior never ruffles my feathers, so I just let it go and hoped for a better day on Tuesday.



Tuesday morning New Alexa woke up in the crib again. I was puzzled by all of the fussing. On the second day of inconsistent behavior I start forming theories and running experiments. I watch her face to see what kind of expressions she's making and then try new things and see how her expressions change. The first thing I tried was a new feeding position because she had been kicking and hitting me while she was eating. It worked! She ate more calmly. Then, I went against my better judgement and hauled her off to Target in the midst of her fussing. We got to the store and she simmered right down. My wheels started turning....new position....going in public....hmmmm.... I started to realize I had seen this behavior before. The response was just stronger. To see if I was right I tried my third experiment of the day. We danced to rap music in the kitchen. She giggled like it was the best thing she had ever done in her life! Have you figured out the problem? Yep. Kid was bored.



Picard and I pulled out the baby books Tuesday night to see if we could brainstorm some fun new games to keep Alexa happy and entertained. Instead, we came across a section called "Do you have a challenging baby?" The very first subsection was "The Active Baby." It was like I was reading a description of Alexa herself. The description said active babies sleep less than most (Alexa sleeps well at night but hardly naps at all during the day), become restless when feeding, can become extremely frustrated until they're able to be independently mobile, are usually alert, interested and interesting. Have I not said every single one of those things at some point already on the blog? Fortunately, our good friend Lori had just given us a baby play book that gives appropriate activities for infants month by month. I skipped ahead to month three and have been coming up with new things to do every day.

I think the pictures below are a great demonstration of the activity we're seeing.

What's better than shakin' your booty to a little LL in the afternoon?

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Alexa was especially fussy in the early evening yesterday so we plopped her butt straight on the grass. We looked so odd that a neighbor actually came to see what we were doing. It might have looked funny, but it worked. I think you can see how intensely she's soaking up the experience in the below pictures. She loved the tickle of the grass on her chubby cheeks, grabbing a handful to see how it worked, and waving and crunching a leaf.

Below are the new feeding positions. She sits on my lap, rather than in the snuggle position, and either looks at me or looks around the room. She can see her flapping her arms in the first pic and you can see her turning her head to watch the light dance off the walls in the second. (And yes, I'm wearing snowflake pajama pants in September. You can't be a diva every second of the day.)