Vada at 5 Months

Oh baby Belle! How could I have so quickly forgotten how wonderfully fun a five month old baby is?!?! The past month has brought so much laughter, wonder, and excitement with each new thing you learn to do. (We will just choose to ignore the erratic, at best, sleep schedule and new hatred for all methods of trying to get you asleep.)
   You have become so aware of everything around you and watch Daddy, Lucy and me as if you are going to join in on the activity any second. You also have started paying attention to Otis and find his flappy jowls the perfect thing for your little fingers to grab hold of, which truly is just disgusting. Your other new favorite toy are the ten little toes you have just discovered! Anytime you are laying on your back your feet are up and your toes are being held. Which means you rarely do much rolling around, not that I am worried because you are now sitting up all on your own! I am not sure how that happened really; one day you are my little cuddly baby just laying there smiling. Then one day Mama realizes we should start practicing sitting up and suddenly you just are. All on your own, just sitting there watching your sister and Otis play.

   Go ahead and slow down getting older already please. It really isn't that great anyway. As you are learning, getting older brings lots of new adjustments and sometimes is not very comfortable. You are already teething as can be seen with all the drooling and how you pull anything and everything to your mouth to give a chew. Mama's chin is your new favorite thing to get in your mouth and as much as I love pretending you are purposefully kissing me, I know you are just looking for something to chomp on. I promise to keep working on making that feel better since I never really had to find cures for your sister when she was teething.
   You truly are a happy baby and can be laid back when you want to be. Sometimes you are fine just laying there on the floor, playing with your toes and watching the world go round. This is the side you like to show other people, as we so often hear what a great baby you are. Other times, though, you are the fidgetiest little thing I ever did see. You aren't sure whether to be up or down so you alternate from throwing yourself backwards and doing sit ups, making it quite difficult for us to hold you. Then you grab me and bury your head in my neck and suddenly the frustration disappears and I feel like my heart is going to explode.
  For about two weeks you pretended like you were going to be a great sleeper, waking up only once or twice to eat and falling asleep by yourself when I laid you down for a morning nap. Don't worry, we now know the truth. Hopefully it's a growth spurt that has you waking up every hour for the past week and not wanting to go back to sleep after nursing. I'll keep telling myself it's because you miss me and just want to make sure I am still around.
   You are STILL holding out on the belly laughs, seriously kid what is it going to take! You have done a few chuckles maybe two or three times now. Once when Lucy was trying to jump, which let me tell you, how you keep from laughing at that is beyond me. The other times are when we play peek-a-boo. Anytime Daddy tries tickling you, you look like you're in pain and going to explode any second. Not to say you aren't happy, because you really are. That smile of yours could light up the night sky and all it takes is someone smiling at you to see it.
   You are quite the little smarty pants lately, pulling out a fake cough to get our attention. At first I didn't realize what you were doing but Daddy quickly picked up on your shenanigans. Between that and your bubble blowing you can be quite noisy at times, but I love seeing your little personality develop and shine.
   So basically, we are all completely smitten with you and will continue to cover you and your round belly with lots and lots of kisses. Also, please forgive us now for the embarrassing things we will continue doing to make you laugh. I promise to stop before you are in middle school :)