5 Months!

Dear Doodle Bug,
    
You have changed so much in this past month that I really can't believe my eyes sometimes.  Daddy and I laugh because you are becoming less like a baby and more like a little person.  You are such a pleasant little girl, and it doesn't take much for you to reveal that beautiful toothless grin of yours.  However, Daddy is still the best at making you laugh.  You adore your Daddy and I love that.

You smile whenever we enter the room, and you've started leaning forward when we reach down to pick you up, like you are helping us!  You even reach for us a little bit (or so we tell ourselves) and we love that!  When we are holding you, you hold onto us now, which is so sweet.   But I have to make sure to keep those nails of yours nice and short because they are like little daggers!

You are definitely reaching for your toys and you can hold onto them with both hands and focus really well on them.  You shake your little rattle and put your Sofie giraffe in your mouth. 

Speaking of putting things in your mouth....everything goes there these days.  You especially love to gnaw on burp cloths, your giraffe, and the little singing bee toy on your car seat.  I've questioned whether you are teething multiple times, but I don't think you are yet.  You are just exploring your new world via your mouth.

You have really started to notice your puppy Daisy too. You absolutely love her and you smile every time you see her.  You've even started reaching out to grab her when she is close enough, and thank goodness, she doesn't mind.  Daisy tries to get as many licks in as she can before I catch her and yell at her.  I especially try to prevent her from licking your face, but she is relentless, and you love it!  You giggle when she licks you!

You have several new moves as of this past month.  When you get excited you shake your head back and forth like you are shaking "no".  You have now started holding onto your feet, and today for the first time I saw your put your foot in your mouth!  You make some funny noises, and your most recent is your quacking noise that you make when you are excited.  It is soooo loud, and I jokingly call you my little duckie. 

I'd have to say that your biggest move of this past month is your ability to roll from your back to your front ....unassisted!  Ha ha!  There has been a lot of controversy over whether your roll from last month counted, but now it definitely does.  You are an expert roller...in that direction.  But you still haven't figured out how to get back to your back.  You usually just cry and wait for someone to help you.  But tummy time is becoming more and more tolerable now that you can hold yourself up and look around.  Speaking of rolling, when you roll over, you only roll to the left....our little Zoolander baby!

You aren't eating baby food yet, still 100% mommy's milk.  I am definitely proud of that.  You are so cute because you've started licking your lips and smacking your lips when you are done eating.  It's so funny!  But to be honest, I'm not sure how much longer we'll last on the breastfeeding front, because you have become quite active while you eat.  First of all, you can't handle any distractions.  I can't so much as sigh while I feed you or you stop, turn your head, and look at me, like "Mom, this is my time.  No noise."  You've also started to reach up and put your hand in my mouth or grab my nose, whatever you can find.  Not to mention that you've started winding up and punching me and or kneeing me while you eat.  Ha ha, I take some abuse to feed you these days, little one.  So we'll see how much longer we last.  I have no set in stone goals.  We're gonna play it by ear from here on out.  If I for some reason had to stop breastfeeding you today, I'd be OK with it.  You've gotten 5 solid months of solely breast milk so far, and I think that's pretty good!

As far as sleep is concerned, we're still hit or miss on the sleeping through the night thing.  We've been starting your night time routine around 7 and have you in bed between 7 and 8.  Bath, feed, bed.  We've fallen off the wagon with reading you a bedtime story, but I really want to start it back up since you can actually pay attention now.  So anyway, sometimes you'll sleep straight through until 5AM (then eat and go back to bed until 8ish) for several nights in a row and we get all excited thinking you might be done with getting up in the middle of the night.  But you inevitably throw us a curve ball by getting up twice sometimes.  Or in the case of two nights ago, every 2.5 hours.  That's right, for the first time EVER, you got up every 2-2.5 hours all night.  What was up with that???  Just excited about turning 5 months or what?  Luckily last night was just once, around 2AM and then back to bed until 7.  Whew.  I'm OK getting up with you once, but any more than that and I'm exhausted.  What can I say, you've spoiled me Addy!



I've said it before and I'm going to say it again.  Can I just stop time and keep you right here?????  Please????  Your big, round eyes, toothless grin, and peach fuzz hair.  I want it all to stay that way.  But lucky for me, I seem to love each stage of your life more than the last, so I have a lot to look forward to! 

Here are your 5 month pics and some videos:

Daddy got a smile out of you....which was no easy task on this day.  You were very cranky (probably because you were up so much at night, silly girl!), so the photo shoot was long and drawn out.

And getting you to lie still for these pics is getting harder and harder.

Most of them end up like this.

Or, now that you are a master roller, like this.

You found your feet!

Love that smile!

Bumbo Baby

This one might be my favorite!  It makes me laugh every time :)

Just chillin'

Close up

Ha ha!  What is going on here Addy?

I know you are sleepy.  We are almost done baby girl.

Happy girl

And of course, the family photo :)   (Another thing that is VERY difficult to obtain!  You just want to look at us and not the camera.)

Here are the videos:

 

Well Ad Marie, another month has come and gone and I feel so blessed to have you in my life.  You are so much fun and its such a joy to be able to spend all of my days with you by my side.  You are smiley and happy just because, and that makes me smiley and happy too!  Mommy and Daddy love you more than words can say!

Love,

Mommy