A bit old, but worth a post.

In finally looking at all the pictures on our camera, and in preparing for baby girl's 6 month birthday (seriously??), I found a few shots from up in Idaho, this was just before five months. She sure does love her feet!

Happy Mothers and Grandmothers Day!

As a mothers day present, the bean slept in until nearly 6 am! Oh how your perspective changes :) Even with little sleep we love our little munchkin. I am so lucky to be your mom!

First "laughs" I've actually caught

So baby girl will laugh, but not a whole lot, she mostly just giggles, and I can't really figure out what exactly makes her laugh. But a few days ago I was able to capture a few giggles on video. 

She was seriously laughing like crazy before I got my phone, but at least continued to giggle while I recorded it. She initially was just laughing while I changed her diaper. I think she might be ticklish...

I think she likes the ExerSaucer

When I was still pregnant, one of my co-workers gave me their used ExerSaucer. It was a little old, but I put it in the closet since it's better to try things out first for free, and then if I decided I wanted something fancy or newer I could buy one if she liked it.

Well the jury is no longer out: she loves it. It makes sense, as she loves to stand anyway, and this way she can see everyone in the living room as well. (sorry the pics are so washed out ... phones are only so good at multitasking)

 

I think it kind of looks like a little space ship ... but she likes it so I am fine. It's so funny to watch her spin herself around to get to the different toys.

On an unrelated note, I have started making baby food for the bean. I purchased some special ice-trays to freeze individual portions and have whipped up a few things in bulk to feed her over the next few months. So far I've made Sweet Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Apples, Pears, Bananas and Avocados. I plan to make some peas, beans and blueberries to add some more color, but so far so good. I've actually only fed her Sweet Potatoes, Apples and Pears; she'll tolerate the Sweet Potatoes but LOVES the apples. I haven't decided how much cheaper it is to make her food myself, but I prefer to know exactly what is in her food, since she is having a tiny reaction on her chin every time I feed her anything. I still don't know if it is an allergic reaction or just irritation from her 'food wearing' technique. Only time will tell, but I've stopped giving her rice cereal in case she is allergic to soy. I may need to make my own of that as well if I can't find a brand without soy added... we'll see.

 

She is also getting much better at opening her mouth to take a bite, and I don't feel like I have to trick her to eat as much anymore :). (She is eating rice in the blue, and pears in the pink, my hand looks huge!)

Play date

We had a fun play date with some of the other little ones and baby girl made a new friend! It was so fun to watch them talk to each other and get to hang out with other grown ups!  The owl toy seems to be a favorite of all babies. L even lunged forward / army crawled to get it ... makes me worried crawling is only a matter of time.

Holding hands ... how cute. And just because I think she's cute, here she is this morning before we went on our walk.

On the move

She started out on her play mat, and this is where she ended up. Trying to eat the bed skirt.

Daily dose of cute

Baby girl is growing and becoming even more adorable. She is 5 months old, is weighing in over 17 lbs, we don't have an official doctor visit until 6 months, but I wanted to post so I would remember some of her favorite things right now, including:

  * Being held, all the time, doesn't matter who by. She has recently started crying until you pick her up, and then she gets this pleased as punch look on her face and is so happy perched up on your shoulder. She is also currently refusing to nap in her crib, she instead is insisting on being held while she naps. I have all but caved in, and have decided I will train #2 to sleep in a crib for naps.

  * Being sung to, current favorites include Rudolf and random Rolf Harris Aussie songs.

  * Rolling from her back to stomach AND FINALLY stomach to back! She is still not an 'ambi-roller' and only rolls to the left, even so, she can cover some serious ground and can spin completely around on her tummy to get facing whichever way she will be able to see people (she is a very social baby for sure).

  * Putting anything and everything in her mouth; including but not limited to, toys, hands, clothes, blankets, binkies, her feet ... anything really, today while she was in the bumbo she moved herself around so she could grab her car seat and started sucking on that.

  * She still lacks hand eye coordination so often, instead of sucking on things, she just gets the items near her mouth, and licks them ... weird, but funny as well

Some of our favorite things about the little bean:

  * She is getting to be a champ about going to bed. She has a ~8 pm bedtime and goes down fairly easily and often sleeps through until morning (waking ~6-7 am), even when she does wake up, it is usually only once around 4-5 am.

  * When she sits on your lap, she'll hold onto your arm; she also hugs on tight to you when you go up and down stairs, so cute.

  * Even though she won't nap in her crib, she will sleep being held, and makes the most amazing sleeping noises while snuggled into your arms.

  * On nights she's slept well, she is seriously so cute in the morning and SO HAPPY.

  * When her hair is slightly dirty, it can make a pretty awesome mohawk. And on that note, just her hair in general, even with the slight bald spot she is developing from her crib.

  * How she sleeps on her side.

And now for a daily dose of cute for all of you:

 Grandma liked this outfit so much she bought it twice! Can you blame her though? Also check the hair height.

 While singing Rudolf ... also debuting some more fabulous hair.

 Rolling, and just being darling.

After eating pears. YUM! She was much more enthusiastic about these than she has ever been about rice cereal or peas. Shocking huh?