Coralie - 5 months Old!

Every single month I think that it is more fun than the last - I have really enjoyed Cora's 5th month of life! By the time I got around to publishing her 4 month update she had already drastically changed! She's almost nothing like the little baby girl I brought home! She doesn't even look the same! She's fully mastered the pacifier going in and out of her mouth, no more sideways chewing unless she wants to!  She mastered rolling from her front to back just in time to brag to her Pediatrician for her 5 month appointment! She doesn't use rolling as a source of much transportation, but she can certainly get from one area of the rug to another! We're in the beginning stages of child proofing, mostly just paying close attention to what is in her area that she could get into (like my Dad's sandles she attempted to chew on the other day!). Still no crawling, but she's closer every day! 

But MOM I don't want to roll for the camera!

Lunch after Baby Dedication

Sleeping has it's ups and downs. Like everything with babies, there isn't much of a "normal" and everything throws off the little normalcy we do have. She was mostly sleeping through the night then her shots made her feel puny and that messed up sleeping for a while, then we were almost back on schedule and stupid daylight savings came around and blew that out of the water. Since then our busy life has kept us out past her bed time a few too many times making life difficult. I never would have imagined that it would be so important to me to be home by 7:30 every night so she can be in bed by 8:00! It's also really difficult to manage that on a regular basis! Part of the sleep complications have been we have taken her sound machine away. I always assumed that we would love her having a sound machine. John has to have noise to sleep so hearing noise over the monitor doesn't bother us at all. I want her to sleep through my loud rowdy family, so a sound machine seemed like a natural step. When my brother Jacob and his girlfriend Stephanie were in town for Spring Break, Jacob heard the sound machine one night and mentioned that he had read an article about how it delays speech development. After a little bit of research, yup - he was right! So now we shut off the sound machine after an hour so she is having to learn to put herself back to sleep as she comes in and out of deep sleep in her sleeping patterns. 

Nursing is still going well, we've almost kicked the guard habit!! She is really close to holding her own bottle when she is eating with Grandpa (my Dad) or her Daddy! She can manage it for a few seconds, but tires easily.

She has sort of gotten her first solids; every time we eat she is so interested in what we're having. She reaches out for it and wants to hold it so I've started letting her try a little of whatever I'm having that's age appropriate. She never actually eats any of it, she generally holds it or plays with it. The other night we were out for dinner with John's parents and she was of course paying close attention to my food so I offered her some guacamole (very mild, I promise - basically just smooched avocados!) and she actually ate it (and played in it!)! I was very surprised and a little embarrassed at the fact that my childs first food is less than ideal! She hasn't taken any food since, and that's fine! We'll keep breast feeding and offering solids here and there. I'm in no rush to make the transition. 

Her favorite toys are the same; "Mr. Foot" (sock monkey), "Stewart" (the lion), her tambourine, walker and jumparoo. We've also added in a couple of new favorites - a purse with a mirror and rice paper lining so it crunches when she plays with it and "Charming" her stuffed frog! She is quite the Daddy's Girl! Each night they dance and sing together before bed to special Daddy Daughter songs. I love watching them bond like that! When we're out and about they've created their own game of "mask", Cora will hold his thumb and little finger and pull his hand down onto her face then push it off, this goes on for 5 or so minutes at a time and she just loves it! It entertains her when nothing else will.

                                                                                       In her 5th month:

Juliet giving Cora a kiss!

She rolled from back to front, had her first food, We dedicated her in church vowing to raise her up to know Christ as her Father, She met her Great Uncle BD (the last of the "immediate" family to meet!),  and attended her first birthday party for our friend Juliet! We had play dates and lunch dates with her Great Grandparents, Angela and Elenor, Susan (my Doula) and Finn, and Frances.