Five Months

Baby girl, how can you possibly be almost half a year old? You are so social and sweet, and we love you.

Likes:

• Grabbing . . . everything. Especially Mommy's hair. 
• Chewing everything, especially the little raspberry teether Grancy bought her in Lubbock, and Sophie the Giraffe. 
• Drooling. (Okay, I don't know if she LIKES it, but she sure does it a lot.) 
• Looking at people, especially people who are talking to her and smiling at her. Church has suddenly become a RIOT, at least between classes.
• Neck kisses and belly blows (which we used to call zerbits in my family, but I'm not sure that word is in general use.)
• Rolling around
• Sucking on or playing with her toes 
• Dancing with Daddy
• Looking in the mirror
• Being folded in half
• Rubbing a perpetual bald spot on the back of her head

Dislikes: 

• Being left alone in a room too long (like, for more than a minute unless she's asleep)
• Getting stuck on her tummy or back (because rolling both ways is happening, but it's not a sure thing)
• Real bathtubs
• Really really long road trips (at least by the end of them)
• Crying it out (although now that we've finally get naps working again, I think she's okay.) 
• Being covered in poop (her parents don't like that one either)
• Having her finger nails cut, especially when Mommy nicks her. (So sad.)

Accomplishments and adventures:

• Rolling over both ways (but somehow when she gets from her back to her belly, she forgets she knows how to go from her belly to her back)
• First trip to Texas! (See previous post.)
• Made it through Relief Society without screaming or just eating/sleeping the whole time! (She gets a little distracting at times - she starts chatting and all of the ladies look over and coo and forget about the lesson.) 
• Is off the charts for height, according to her last well-baby checkup. Still going strong at 75th percentile for weight, so Daddy has taken to calling her "svelte." This would make more sense if she didn't have those adorable leg rolls.
• Has tasted a couple of foods (green beans, most notably) but still looking forward to starting solids in earnest. We'll probably wait until the first of the year, after we're home from our next round of road tripping and she's about six months.

CB, I love you so much that honestly, I'm afraid that if/when I have another baby someday, they won't measure up. I'm sure I will adore that baby too, but how could any baby be as sweet and wonderful as you? I think you might have my number. The way you twist around to find me when I come to get you in your crib, and the flap around like it's the most exciting thing that's ever happened . . . well. How can I resist?

I'm beginning to think you are going to take after your daddy socially. You are such a little people pleaser, grinning and giggling at everyone who comes up to talk to you wherever we go. Your signature move is a grin followed by turning and burying your face in me, then peeking out again. We also didn't realize until we met your cousin who is the same age, that while she always grabs on to whoever is holding her, you might lay one hand on a shoulder to stabilize and then have your arms spread out to touch anything you might come in contact with. You are my fearless explorer, and you love touching and seeing new things. I love the way you feel cold water glasses or soft stuffed animals. You're like a little scientist experimenting with the whole world.

You are so strong now! You love playing in your exersaucer, and the other night while Daddy and I were decorating the Christmas tree, you decided to roll from your back to your stomach. I ran upstairs to get something, and when I came back, you were calmly playing with your toys from your stomach as if it was no big thing. (However, once you'd convinced yourself you could do it, you apparently decided you were fine, because you haven't done it since the several times you did it that night.) 

Earlier this month we started working on some sleep training, because although you still slept like a champion at night, naps suddenly became a completely foreign concept. I tried to do some crying it out a few days before Lubbock (hoping, I guess, that it would solve all of our problems and you would be a perfect napper by the time we got to Texas.) It was misery, and the problem still wasn't solved, and the you proceeded to refuse almost all naps while we were gone. We forced a few by taking you on walks and putting you in swings, but it was mostly a lost cause. However, we came back and resumed sleep training in earnest, and now you're back to taking at least two really good naps a day almost every day, and you rarely cry for more than a minute or two when I lay you down, and about half the time you don't protest at all. Hallelujah. (Unfortunately, I'm not sure you'll nap for anyone else, since I've taken to nursing you until you're sleepy, patting you on the back, and laying you down, where you find your thumb and go to sleep. We might have to work on finding other ways to get you ready for your nap eventually, but honestly, as long as you nap every day in your crib for now, I am taking it. Cranky babies are no fun.) 

You're starting to grow out of your 3-6 month clothes because you are just SO. DANG. TALL. It's particularly becoming a problem in the pajama department, where I noticed the other day that you couldn't stretch your legs all the way out in the footie jammies you were wearing. Hmm. Maybe it's time to break out the bigger jammies, Mommy. I'll probably be washing a round of your 6 month clothes soon, but I'm telling you, I have such a hard time not hanging on to your smaller clothes for as long as possible. But clearly it's not stunting your growth, so I don't feel too bad. 

I love you, CB. I'm so glad you're my baby. 

Love, 

Mama