Crysania is now 7 months old! She still on the small side, which is not surprising given that neither of her parents are particularly large. She’s up to over 14 pounds, 25.5″ long (when does that switch over to “tall”?)
Yesterday, she started having some serious mommy separation anxiety. There have been times over the past couple of days where Crysania is only happy if Surekha is holding her. It’s not good enough for daddy to hold her in mommy’s presence. Quite a phase to witness.
Parenting
An interesting set of child car seat safety tips, including some things that I wasn’t aware of. The article explains the reason for an infant seat being rear facing, and says that it’s good to leave the infant rear facing as long as possible to avoid spinal injuries.
Parenting
We’ve got some time before Crysania reaches toddlerhood, but these tips on getting a toddler into good hygiene habits will probably come in handy then.
Parenting
The second day of solids was more successful than the first. I think it’s partly that Crysania had napped better today and was in a better mood overall. We used a spoon today, and she was definitely interested in it and I think she ingested at least a little of the food. She didn’t seem to be rejecting the food, but it also appeared that she didn’t know that she’s supposed to go ahead and swallow it. I’m sure she’ll get the hang of it before we know it.
Also, I wanted to keep a link to Safe and Secure Baby.com which looks like a pretty comprehensive site of baby safety products. They even have items that will prevent a child from opening the lever-style door handles that we have here. Cool!
Parenting
Today, Crysania had a few little tastes of Gerber Rice Cereal, heavily diluted with water. She didn’t seem very fond of it, but then this is her first “solid” food ever! It was hard to know how she would react. She has seemed anxious to eat solid food for a long time. (For all I know, after trying the rice cereal she may have been thinking “this is it? I’m goin’ back to the breast!”.) Anyhow, it’s an exciting step forward into a very messy and stinky future.
In other Crysania news, she’s up to 13 pounds! Still small for her age, but my arms and back are fine with that for now 
She’s gaining weight and is plenty healthy, so no worries there.
Parenting
I just had to put in a plug for the Safer Bather. Initially, Crysania seemed mildly wary of bathtime, but was generally okay. Somewhere around 3-4 months, she became really loud at bathtime. It was to the point that I was going to start wearing earplugs. Since we started using the Safer Bather, she’s been a lot happier in the bath.
For reference, we had been using an infant tub before. I have a feeling that she was getting cold in the old tub. The Safer Bather keeps her warm because the water seeps into it.
Parenting
Crysania has grown to be unhappy with riding in the car. Car Seat Crying | FamilyResource.com has some good tips that I think will help.
Parenting
On Christmas Day, Crysania had her first real laugh! It wasn’t just one little giggle, but a full-blown laugh! And, of course, she was quite adorable when she did it (By the way, I pushed this entry back on to Christmas Day for convenience.)
Parenting
With the headline 5 Best & Worst Things To Say To Your Kids, I wasn’t sure what I’d think if this Parentstages article. But, I actually think that this is a good set of tips for saying things that are more productive.
Parenting
