Personality Plus

Yo - Now that Ivy is 5 months old, her personality is coming out, and she certainly is one sass-ma-tass like her mama. Since we usually post pics which don't give you a sense of what she's like as a person, and videos which kinda do but don't really, here is a list of Ivy's Likes and Dislikes (hopefully not a precursor to a future Playboy spread):

LIKES: Putting things in her mouth. We're pretty sure she's teething because everything in the world seems to be a potential item which Ivy can put in her mouth. She gums on our arms, the side of her bath, her toys, the mirror, pretty much anything she can get her little paws around and drag into her mouth. Hence, everything in our apartment has the ucky feel of being recently slobbered upon.

DISLIKES: Story time. This upsets me personally because I want Ivy to be a big reader and love books. However, I think the problem here has less to do with our quality storytime together and more to do with the fact that, as mentioned previously, Ivy loves putting things in her mouth, and so whenever I put a book in front of her and start reading from it, her immediate reaction is to grab the book with both hands and start gnawing on the pages. Then I have to pull the book away gently so I can read again, which upsets her, so she starts crying and fidgeting, and that's the end of storytime. Hopefully by the time she hits high school, this will no longer be an issue.

LIKES: TV. We try to avoid having the TV on when she is in the room and awake, unless it's a crucial sporting event (which she needs to witness anyway). Many studies have shown that TV causes babies to have shorter attention spans, smaller brains, increased homocidal tendencies, etc., but by golly, if that TV is on and she can get a tiny glimpse of it, even if she has to spin her head around Exorcist-style to see the screen, she'll do it. Hopefully this will lead to her having a career as a high-powered TV exec and not a career as a couch potato.

LIKES: Trees. The good news is, she is equally fascinated by trees as she is by the TV. Trees are kind of like nature's TV - colors, sound, motion, etc. She loves lying on her tummy on a blanket under a tree and looking up at it. Sounds a little boring, but for a baby this is super good times.

INDIFFERENT: The cat. Slowly but surely, Poker the Cat has begun approaching Ivy, sniffing her, sitting on her clean folded clothes, etc. He has not licked or cuddled with her yet, but considering that for the first 4 months of her life Poker would hide in another room whenever she passed by, this is a major improvement. However, it has yet to be discerned as to whether Ivy has any interest in Poker, as she summarily ignores him whenever he comes around to give her a sniff. I'm sure that some day soon she'll suddenly realize "Oh man there's a cat living here!" and she'll start chasing him all over, but until that day comes, their relationship is icy at best.

DISLIKES: Strangers. It's amazing to see how her little baby brain works. She has figured out that her parents, her grandparents, the daycare people, the other daycare kids, and select other friends and relatives are "safe," and it's okay for them to hold her and be near her. But when she sees a new person arrive in a familiar area, she freaks. Apparently there was a locksmith at the daycare place fixing something, and the usually happy-go-lucky Ivy FREAKED when he was there, because she knew he was a stranger. This apparently also happened when the aunt of one of the daycare kids (as opposed to a parent) picked the kid up - Ivy knew this person was different and a potential threat. Good survival instincts on the kid, though it'll be interesting to see how she responds to Thanksgiving, where she'll be surrounded by new relatives who are very strange indeed.

INDIFFERENT: Other babies. We have lots of friends with little babies around her age, and we try to get them to hang out, but Ivy has no concept that they're around. We could put her down on a blanket next to another kid, and she'll be more interested in trying to put a corner of the blanket into her mouth than in communicating with her peer. Or maybe she just thinks all these other kids are jerks, and who knows, maybe they are. I don't speak baby.

DISLIKES: Daylight Savings Time. Oh, were mom and dad supposed to get a little extra sleep that one night? Yeah, that didn't happen...

LOVES: Music. Ivy LOVES rocking out to music, whether it's dad's rock and roll, mom's lullabies, or Baba's maddeningly annoying Baby Einstein CD that drives me bonkers. She dances by waving her little hands and shaking her little bon bons, which actually is exactly how I dance as well. Apple don't fall far from the tree...

- Mike