Emma Grace | 5 months

I feel like every time I finish posting about Emma's monthly update, the next month is here and I'm doing it all over again.  Slow. Down. Time.

How is it possible that I am going to have a 6 month old soon?  She is getting so big and I am loving each stage of her little life so far.  She is so sweet, fun and such a beautiful girl!  And a mess, and a little wild and well, she has a lot of personality.  Example:  She started "growling" at our dog Neko a few weeks ago and then laughs because she thinks it's funny.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have my work cut out for me with this child ;)

Here are Em’s 5 month stats:

Weight: 14.13 lbs (59% percentile)

Length: 25 1/4 inches (69% percentile)

Milestones:  We have a crawler!  She is on the move ALL the time.  I can't get this girl to stay in one place.  Or out of the dog's toys or from eating every one's shoes (gross)!  Emma cut her second bottom tooth shortly after her first one last month.  She seriously went from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye from last month to this one.  Not only is she crawling, but she is able to sit herself up and she started pulling herself up on things.  She stood on her own (with a little help from help from her chair) the other day for almost 30 seconds!  What is this girl thinking?!  We already need to lower her crib and I don't even want to start the talk on baby proofing.  Did I mention the dog's toys and shoes?!  I think I lost five pounds this week just trying to keep up with her.  This month she also started wiggling her little fingers when we say hi or bye.  She amazes me :)

Sleep:  This has been a struggle for us lately.  We went on vacation and tried to keep her on schedule as much as we could, but it wasn't easy.  She was sleeping through the night, but is back to waking up around 4am to nurse (which I don't mind) and then sleeps until 8.  The hard part has been getting her to sleep.  She will be asleep for about an hour before she is up crying and has a hard time going back down.  Other than that, her naps have still been pretty good.  She is getting two during the day and we are happy about that.

Eating:  We have moved on to more veggies and some fruits.  She prefers her vegetables over fruits.  I hope this continues.  She still nurses around 5 times a day. 

Favorites:  Her favorite thing to do right now is basically get into every possible thing that she can.  She loves chasing the dog and sucking her thumb.  She still LOVES bath time and reading books.  She is pretty much over Curious George, but likes Baby Genius and a few other movies.  She will even cuddle and watch Chopped with me sometimes.  She loves going out for walks downtown.  I think it's the people watching that she enjoys ;)  She thinks I'm funny and likes when we sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider...it gets her every time.

Dislikes:  She does not like her carseat at all these days.  It is a struggle to get her in it and she cries until we are in the car and moving.  Now that she can crawl, she doesn't like to be her chair for very long.  She does like her diaper changed when she's tired and fights us every time we try to put clothes on her.  She would be perfectly happy going around naked all the time.

Clothes:  She is still in 3-6 month clothes, but is fitting into some 9 month bottoms.

Aly