new things.

The little munchkin is doing some new things.  Most notably, eating food.   AND she needs a haircut too.  Her bangs are so long.  They're all in her eyes.  She's such a big girl now!!! She'll be 5 months old on the 15th which is Wednesday already!  craziness.  Here are 2 shots of her first sweet potato encounter:

So yes, 5 months.  In five months I've learned to do some things I never thought possible.  Change diapers.  Do everything one-handed.  Drive while holding a pacifier in a baby's mouth so she doesn't keep spitting it out and shrieking.  etc.   It's been quite an adventure.  Nearing this momentous 5 month mark I've also recently adopted a new approach to parenting:  throwing out the books.  I like systems.  I like rules.  I like X plus Y equals Z (although I do hate math, go figure).  I like to know that if I do something  the right way, I will get the desired result.   Parenting doesn't seem to be one of those things that can be reduced to a system.  For example:  Book A tells me that 97% of babies whose moms follow their structure sleep through the night by 12 weeks.  (HAH.)  Book B tells me that if my baby still isn't sleeping through the night by a certain time all I have to do is trick her by giving her a pacifier instead of a feeding for two nights and by the third night baby wont even bother to wake up (HAH again... 6 nights of hours of screaming proved otherwise).  Anyway, all these books were ruling my brain and making me feel like I must be doing something wrong if Lena's not cooperating with the systems.   Anyway, now I'm doing things my way.  It seems that for centuries people were parents without these books, so they can't be necessary, right?  Hopefully I won't ruin her...

note:  not that the books were totally un-helpful, they definitely were helpful especially at the beginning when babies were foreign beings to me.  They only became unhelpful when I tried to "systemize" Lena and then doubt myself when things didn't go as written.  So yes, if you gave me a book, thanks, it's not you, it's me.   ;-)