5 Month Old Baby

She’s five months already!? How is this possible!? 

She doesn’t even seem like a baby anymore, just a small person. It may seem weird to describe her like that, as she clearly still looks like a baby, but she has become so big, and she seems so intelligent. I’m sure every parent says their baby is so smart, and really, they are probably right. I think I had an expectation of babies being more like potatoes, and it turns out, they seem very thoughtful. Not so much that they don’t shove gross crap in their mouth, but we like to describe her actions as “she’s doing x like people!”

She talks like people (granted, it sounds like a language she invented), makes expressions like people (my favorite is when she’s confused by something and furrows her little brow), and just wants to have fun. Her awake time is mostly spent playing. She loves playing with people most, but she’ll also play with her toys. Her favorite currently is a filmsy bunch of crackly paper and a spatula we found.

After playing, her favorite thing is bathtime, which could be considered a variation of playing. She loves to splash and tries to grab the water. 

Dave is by far her favorite person. She hears his voice, and will stop whatever she’s doing to look for him. She gets very excited when he enters the room. They are the best kind of buddies, and he makes her laugh. Sometimes she sees him and laughs without him even doing anything, perhaps her little baby memory remembering something he did.

That’s not to say she isn’t fond of me, but they clearly have something special going on. I’m okay with that, it’s so adorable to see them together. 

It might be a coinicidence, but when I say “Daddy,” she gets excited. She can’t say words yet, but maybe she can understand words? She is a big talker, frequently telling us things in her made up language.  They are noises so close to being words, but just not there yet. 

She loves the pool now. I think the time I took her in before and she screamed her head off was because the water wasn’t at an ideal temperature. Now that she’s been swimming while it’s hot, she loves it. She kicks and splashes and doesn’t want to come out. She makes sad faces when she gets taken out (left). 

She has hit a major milestone of being able to completely roll herself over. It’s a little awkward to watch her do it, as her arm gets trapped under her own body, but she nearly always manages to pull it out. She now rolls over nearly everytime she is laying down, which for a baby, is quite a lot. She rolls over, and then she cries because she doesn’t know what to do next. It’s also not easy for them to hold themselves on their tummies so she ends up breathing hard and her heart is racing.

It feels like we are constantly having to roll her back over to soothe her, and try to get her to catch her breath. She isn’t a quiter though, amd as soon as we roll her over, she’s rolling back. It’s a bit exhausting, and another example of those times I don’t understand baby logic. She really does need to get used to be on her tummy though, so I just hope it’s less stressful on her than it looks.

The worst is at bedtime. She’s laid down, tummy full, burped, in her sleep sack, and then it’s time for the roll-over Olympics. She can’t roll back over yet, and she’s not going to fall asleep on her tummy, so this means a nightly battle to prevent her from rolling over. She is not pleased with this, and screams at me the whole time.