Five Months

Layla, you turned five months old on December 17th.  You have changed so much this month!  You are such a character, and make your daddy and I laugh every day.

We started you on food this month, and you love it!  So far, you've tried rice cereal, applesauce, bananas, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, and squash.  You love everything except the green beans.  You have a hatred of green beans like I have never seen.  You seriously screamed for a good five minutes after I stopped feeding you just because you were mad.  I thought something was wrong - I tasted them and they were fine - I made them!  So I hurried to whip up some bananas for you and as soon as they hit your lips, you stopped screaming and gobbled them down.  I'm scared to try green beans again!

You are eating about 7 oz each bottle feeding, and I would estimate that you weigh around 15 pounds.  You are officially in size six month clothing, and we have had to add a new item to your wardrobe - teething bibs.  I don't see any teeth yet, but you are constantly drooling!  So we have to keep a bib on you or we would be changing your shirt constantly.

You go to sleep at 8 and usually wake up around 3.  I was hoping the food would make you sleep longer but it's actually done the opposite.  You usually just want a quick feeding at 3 and are back asleep by 4 for a couple more hours.  However, you still don't like naps and we usually can't get you to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time during the day in your crib.  You'll sleep in someones arms though!

You are getting so good at grabbing things and are always trying to pick up or reach for anything you can.  You also love to watch people talk to you and reach out to touch their faces.  Also, you are starting to be able to sit up on your own.  We definitely have to hover because you will topple over after a bit, but you've done great and look like such a big girl sitting there all by yourself!

You also have finally started to take a pacifier, and it has made such a difference.  For some reason you just hated them when you were really little, but once we saw this:

we decided to give it another try.  Within a minute of you having the paci, you fell asleep! 

You babble quite a bit, especially in the mornings.  Your daddy and I will just sit and listen to you talk  and squeak over the monitor when you wake up. You'll also "say" things to us and laugh and laugh when we respond.  You've discovered how to blow raspberries, and still love to make the growling noise.  And of course, "mmmm" while you're eating!

You love being read to, which I'm really happy about, and try to reach out and touch the different pictures on the pages.  You have a lot of fun in your jumper, and really like toys that you can get a good handle on and shake.  And, as always, you LOVE the dogs!  You reach out and pet them now and it's so sweet - I just have to make sure I'm right there because you obviously don't know the difference between petting and grabbing a handful of hair.  But the dogs are very patient and gentle with you, no aggression at all.  I'm so happy that you will have a special relationship with your puppies!

We love you more and more every day.  You bring us such joy and we've loved every minute with you!

Thanksgiving 2010 - Part 2

We were so happy to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with both sides of the family this year.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove to Bay City and spent the day with Nick's family, and we had a wonderful time.  The food was great - especially my favorite Hash Brown Casserole that Nick's mom makes!  We also had homemade ice cream, which I've been hearing about for a while and finally got to experience.  Layla was super interested in watching the girls turn the crank to make the ice cream - maybe next year she can actually join in!

It was so nice to relax and visit with family, and Layla loved being held by everyone and getting lots of attention.  By the end of the day, she was pretty tired out and fell asleep in my arms - look familiar??

I guess there is something about Thanksgiving and that position that puts this little girl right to sleep!

Rice Cereal

I was really excited when we got the green light from our pediatrician to start Layla on rice cereal.  She loves her food, and I couldn't wait to see how she took to something more substantial than milk!

So, Nick and I broke out the high chair last night and got her all set up.  I had both the video camera and digital camera out to capture this "first" so we can show it to all of her future boyfriends ;).  She was a little wary at first, but once she got used to the spoon she loved it!  She was making little "mmmm" noises while she was eating, so cute.  I was hoping that feeding her would add maybe an hour or so of sleep to her morning, but so far no luck...maybe this weekend will go better!

Here are a few pictures - what a mess!  It seemed like for every scrape of food off of her face and into her mouth, twice that amount came back out. She kept getting a surprised look on her face, and I could just see her thinking "What is this stuff??!"  We'll see how next week goes with the cereal, and if she's doing well, then on to oatmeal and veggies!