Merry Christmas!

5 months on Christmas Day!


We went to REI and Clay had our pea climbing rocks...to his delight she squealed every time he brought her over there.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! I hope everyone had a blessed & joyous holiday. Poor Pop Pop had to work on 12/23, Christmas Eve, and Christmas day but he returned home on Christmas night. Luci & I went to church on Christmas Eve & got very, very homesick (well at least I did). Thankfully we are blessed with unbelievable friends; the extended Lawrence family welcomed us as one of their own for both Christmas Eve & Christmas dinner. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

On Christmas Day our baby was officially 5 months old! Here are some things we want to remember...

-She is a rollin fool...but only from her back to her tummy...and only to the right. She gets about 1/2 way over on the left, and then rolls back onto her back, and then rolls to her right. She then scoots to get where she needs to go by turning her little body around in a circle.

-She is just starting to respond to her name.
-She has just started to notice the cats...she doesn't really want to touch them yet, but she really likes to watch them.
-She LOVES her soft blocks...especially the one that makes crinkly noises.
-She is in 6-12 month onsies, 9 month pants and 9 month sleepers. Most 6-12 month dresses fit, but are too short and look more like shirts. As of today (12/28) 9 month sleepers are being retired & replaced with 12 month sleepers!
-She has a constant rash on her chin & cheeks from her excessive drool. It might be the start of teething? She loves to mash her red little angry face into our shoulders...I think it must be itchy. -Little patches of eczema have returned to her calves & elbows.
-Her hair is starting to come in more quickly...it is a light brown/dark blond color. She still has the bald ring on the back of her head from all of the back & forth flipping of her head. It looks like it will be curly.
-She loves her paci and is constantly taking it in & out of her mouth. Sometimes it makes it back in correctly, sometimes it doesn't. This doesn't seem to bother her for the most part...she'll gladly gnaw on any part of it that she can get into her mouth.
-She likes the bath...but only if she gets to chew on her rubber ducky.
-She still needs white noise to sleep.
-She will sit in the jumperoo for up to an hour at a time.
-She is very wary of anyone holding her but Mom or Dad.
-She still likes to look at herself in the mirror, smile, and then turn away all bashful like.
-We are still seriously struggling with sleep...both day & night. She's taking 3 naps a day, usually between 25 - 45 minutes long. This does not seem long enough, but no matter what we do she won't resettle & go back to sleep. By 5pm the five o'clock fussies set in & we seriously struggle to keep her entertained & awake till 6pm. At 6pm we start the bedtime routine (bath, lotion, sleepsack, nurse, read 2 books, sing a song, in bed). Usually she falls asleep while nursing around 6:30p or 6:40p. Then she is usually up 45 minutes later, and again another 45 minutes later, and up again at some point between 9pm and 11pm. Then usually again between 2am and 4am for a diaper change & feeding, then back to sleep until sometime between 6am and 7am. Sleeping in past 7am is a real (and infrequent) treat. Sometimes she settles down easily for those first few wakings, and other times she's up for over an hour at a time. It stinks. Last night I fed her a bottle of formula at 9:40p and she slept from 10pm to 3am. So I might stick with that and hope that the 3am feeding goes away on its own.
-Her first diaper change in the morning is almost always poopy. It is often the only one of the day.
-She's starting to sleep on her tummy. She usually rolls over within seconds of being placed on her back in the crib. Given that she is in her sleepsack, we try not to worry too much about this...but still do.
-Just within the last 2 days she has started to raise up on her arms & knees...in the crawling position. We'll see how long it takes from here!
-She can sit in the corner of a chair for a fairly long period of time. She can sit for maybe 10 seconds unassisted on the floor if we put her in that position.
-Finally...and this is the source of much debate...she may be turning the pages of her board books during story time. Grandma Pierse first pointed out that she was doing this & Clay & I thought she maybe had a case of the proud Grandmas. But...I too now think that she is turning the pages. Sure, she doesn't wait until I'm done reading that page, but it is always the right hand, and it always grabs the page & pushes it to the left. Pop Pop thinks both Grandma & I are nuts.

We head to Iowa on Monday & we are all a little nervous about flying. We are planning on the 7am flight on Monday to Minneapolis because it has 84 seats open...so hopefully we can all sit together. Then once we get in we still have the 2.5 hour drive down to New Hampton to contend with...I hope our baby got her Pop's love for traveling.