This last weekend was Helen Jeanette’s 5 month birthday. The day after we had some people over for Chris’s 26th birthday including 2 babies younger then Helen Jeanette and weighing around 9-10 pounds. Helen Jeanette looked huge compared to them and it was so hard to believe that it’s only been a few months since she was that size, we can hardly remember her being that tiny.

So what is going on in a 5 month old’s world? We don’t have any weight/height statistics because she only goes to the doctor every other month these days, but here are a couple things going on.

*She’s sitting! If we sit her up she can hold herself pretty steady and remain upright while she grabs at and plays with toys.

*She’s really refining her grabbing skills and can confidently reach for and grab items. She’s started watching her hands again and I think she’s discovering her fingers because she’s mostly making pinching motions when she does this.

*Her sleep is still not great, and we’re thinking fondly back to the days when she was sleeping through the night. These days there are usually 2 night wakings where she’s hungry, eats, and goes right back to sleep. I’ve considered letting her cry but when she eats it’s clear that she was hungry so for now I’m just hoping that introducing solids at 6 months will help her sleep through again.

*She loves reading books and wants to grab, grab, grab whatever we’re reading to her.

*She can play quietly for long periods of time and sometimes we just put her stuffed doggy in the crib and let her play for 10-20 minutes.

*She’s started squirming so much in her crib that the back of her head is a tangled, frizzy, bird’s nest. She’s also getting a lot more hair, although the length isn’t changing much.

*She’s super social and lights up when people come to visit her in the nursery at work.

*It’s becoming much more difficult to take her pictures in the rocker, since she now wants to play with the toys instead of sweetly sitting there stationary.

Helen Jeanette isn’t quite at a point where she can join us on the slopes, but she’s sure having fun hanging out with family this weekend.

Helen Jeanette is 4 months old today! Here are the milestones:

*Today she weighs 15 lbs 3 oz (she was 7 lbs 15 oz at birth so she’s getting close to doubling her birth weight!) This is the 69th percentile.

*She is 25″ long, 58th percentile

*Her head size is in the 86th percentile!

*Today at 4 months old she wore her first disposable diaper (and her second and her third)! The pipes to our washer and downstairs shower froze night before last and having easy access to laundry is a crucial part of cloth diapering. I’m pretty proud of us for our 4 month streak though. Hopefully we can continue with the cloth soon- and hopefully our crawlspace won’t be flooded.

*She received 2 jumperoos yesterday as belated Christmas presents and she loves to jump! She’s also mastered the art of spinning the toys with beads in them so they make noises.

*She is fascinated by food and cannot wait to start eating. She’s been taking little sips of water from our cups and every time we try to take a sip she flails, leans toward it, and makes little grunting noises.

*She’s either waking up once in the night or sleeping through (roughly 8 pm to 6 am). Christmas vacation was R-O-U-G-H from a sleep standpoint but we got through with lots of family to babysit and many nap opportunities. Hopefully it was just the unfamiliar environment and not a sleep regression she’s planning to repeat.

*She’s rolling a little more consistently now belly-to-back and she’s mastered the back-to-side roll but hasn’t quite managed to complete the roll. She’s loving tummy time these days.

*She loves to smile and has the sweetest laugh, everywhere we go people comment on how alert she is (including her doctor today!) and we think she’s the smartest little thing.

*She’s still spitting up a lot and I’m a little worried about introducing solid food and finding all my clothing stained beyond recognition.

*She’s learning spanish from her new nanny, Silvia. Helen Jeanette is smitten with Ms. Silvia and I don’t blame her- she’s awesome.

We are completely in love with our little 4 month old darling! It’s already hard to imagine life without her but at the same time it seems like just yesterday that I was pregnant and trying to guess when she would come!

I should have a really cute picture of her today but my phone is still out of commission and I didn’t take any camera pictures, and so I leave you with a picture Chris sent me of them at the doctor’s office. She’s super cool and she knows it.

Helen Jeanette seems to have grown up overnight. Suddenly she doesn’t always want to be held but enjoys playing by herself. She is loving tummy time and is even asking for it. She seems desperate to start eating solids and she can’t take her eyes off our food. She loves to sit up and can even crutch herself into a seated position and hold it. (For one second before she topples over.) Of all the cliches in the world “they grow up fast” has always been the most over played in my opinion, but it turns out there’s a reason for that. I gave birth, blinked, and now I have a 3 month old.

It’s been awhile…

2 days shy of 4 weeks old and Helen Jeanette rolled from her belly to her back this morning. Pretty impressive considering she’d only been laid completely flat on her stomach twice– most of her tummy time has been on Mommy while she reclines.

My hope is that she will call him Uncle DanDan! He is 17 today but thesepicture are from Saturday Sept 28th.