Mostly the Kids: Ellen, 5 months (10/11/2011)

Dear Ellen,

You are so much fun these days! Lots of smiles, laughing, and little noises. You are blowing raspberries and sticking out your tongue a lot, much to our amusement. You continue to be a very easy baby and hardly ever cry out of fussiness. If you do cry, it is for a specific need like food or a diaper change. People can hardly believe our good luck – two easy babies is not an easy thing to come by!

My Favorite Thing: I love that your personality is coming through a little more each day, and it amazes me how even at this age I can tell that you and your brother will be different! While you are both pretty easy going, I think you are going to be a little more demanding. When you see something that you want, you work to get it! You don’t like to be left alone and you let us know in no uncertain terms that we need to come get you… NOW. Not a cry, but a “HEY YOU GUYS! I’m over here! I want to see you!”

Daily Activities and Playing: You are starting to sit up really well and can almost sit unassisted. The “tripod” position isn’t far off. You roll over from back to front almost immediately when we lay you down (changing your diaper can be an adventure!). You can scoot around a little, mostly backwards, and are starting to really reach for objects that are out of reach. You are starting to become more vocal, and even started SCREAMING (with happiness) lately. When you play, you are very focused on your toy and not easily distracted.

Sibling: No one can make you smile like Ian can! Even when I am afraid that he is being too rough, you are usually laughing right along with him. There have been a couple of times that he poked you in the eye or accidentally hit you in the face, and this definitely made you cry. But he is quick to respond with, “It’s okay, Ellen,” and tries to rock you (if you are in the bouncer or your car seat) or give you hugs and kisses. You are usually more vocal when Ian isn’t around, but clam up when he is there as you are busy watching everything he is doing. Ian talks enough for the both of you, and for now you are happy to let him steal the show.

Eating: No significant changes in eating; you still eat every 4 hours during the day and 12 hours between evening and morning feedings. You might be hitting a growth spurt as you have occasionally been waking up hungry at 4 or 5 a.m., but early waking is not a habit. The two bottles you have during the day still have 6-7 ounces of breast milk apiece. You are still not eating solid foods, although you are starting to look interested in what we are doing at dinner time. I let you suck on a peach a couple of times and you weren’t very sure about that! You sit at the table with us in the bumbo chair, and before too long we will get a high chair so you can really join us for meals.

Sleeping: You are still consistently going to bed between 8:00 and 8:30 PM and waking up to eat at 6:30 or 7:00. You usually like to go to sleep on your side, but when I check on you, you move all over the crib and sleep in all sorts of positions! You even sleep on your stomach much of the time, but you do not like being put down to go to sleep that way. You nap about 2-3 times per day, usually snoozing in the car to and from school as well. You usually get a very long (2 hour) nap during the early afternoon. Your morning nap is hit or miss at school, but you will still take a good morning nap when at home. You only use your pacifier when you are sleepy, and if it isn’t handy I will catch you sucking on your thumb instead. However, if the pacifier falls out and you can see it, you usually try to grab it and put it back in your mouth before resorting to your thumb.

Special Events: This month we took a weekend camping trip to Cooper Lake State Park (Doctor’s Creek Unit) with some other families from FaithBridge Church. We arrived late on Friday afternoon to set up camp, stayed in our tent for two nights, and then finished off the weekend with a quick trip to Sulphur Springs to eat in Steve Smith’s BBQ restaurant. It was the first weekend in many months that it wasn’t over 100 degrees, and it actually rained late on Friday night. But the temperature still rose pretty high on Saturday, making our hike warmer than we would have liked. I carried you in the Baby Bjorn, and you fell asleep pretty quickly. Overall it was a very fun trip.