Q turns 5 months old today. Boy, has my life changed in that time. Herewith, everything I have learned from this little mini-human so far:

To love your feet. Q stares at her feet for hours. She puts them in her mouth, she caresses them, she treasures them as if they hold the key to magical infant powers. You’ll never spend so much time looking at a human’s feet as you do the hours you spend watching your child discover theirs.

To dance. Q’s legs never stop moving. Whether she’s on her back in the crib on in my lap, those legs are always moving. I should always keep moving. It will be key to burning off these pregnancy pounds.

To smile at the smallest things. I think she smiles because she discovered she has a mouth. She loves smiling because she can. And that is reason enough to smile as much as possible.

To make noise even when you don’t know how to perfectly express yourself.  Gaaaaahhhh, ahh boooo, haaa! are the extent of Q’s vocabulary, yet she yells these illegible words loudly, with pride. As a writer I should put this into practice–even when I have no idea what I want to say, or don’t know how to say it perfectly, I should say it anyway. The words will eventually catch up with my thoughts.

To let E drive more so you can catch a cat nap in the car. I used to be a horrible back seat driver. Now, nothing better than stealing some much needed shuteye while daddy drives.

To reach above your head for objects that might be out of your reach. Keep going, for one day, after many attempts, grunts and failures, you just might reach that Wubbanub pacifier.

To eat every three hours or else risk turning into a cranky, crying, whining, poopie pants that drives everyone around you crazy.

To adapt to change. Feeding patterns, sleeping patterns, toys they like, toys they don’t like. Noises they make. Looks they give. Diapers they fit into. Poops they poop. Everything changes day to day. That’s why….

There are no rules of parenting. None. Don’t listen to anyone who claims they have any. Sleep with your baby or don’t sleep with your baby. Breast feed or don’t breast feed. Go to the beach, or not. Do you. Do her. Do whatever you need to do to keep that baby happy. That is all.

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