Holly 5 Months Old

5 Months Old!

Where has the time gone!?  Holly turned 5 months old two days ago and has been growing by leaps and bounds.  I sometimes wish I found time to write every week because it seems like each week she is learning something new.  I didn't put a four month old post up because we were on vacation down in Oregon when she turned 4 months old, so you'll just have to look at our vacation pictures on facebook for that month.

Holly is still growing like she should be.  Her head was really large and off the growth curve at her four month appointment (75%), so we had an ultrasound done this last month to make sure everything was okay and luckily it was.  We just have to keep an eye on the head growth each check up, but she seems to just have a big noggin. (Her body and weight were about the 13% for comparison to her head.)  I weighed her on the 16th on my home scale and she was just 13 pounds, so she has now doubled her birth weight for sure!  At her official weight at her four month check up she was just short of doubling it at 11.91 pounds.  She was 24.25 inches long at the check up and I am sure she's even longer now!

Holly's physical capabilities have really taken off.  She just began rolling over from her tummy to her back at 4 months old.  She is getting better at it, but still struggles with that.  She did her first rolling over at the doctor's office perfectly for Dr. Benedict.  I think she was showing off.  Shortly after learning that, she jumped right to rolling onto her tummy.  Since she has trouble with the first one, she will often roll on her stomach, play for a little bit, then cry for help saying, "I'm stuck!"  We will in and help her roll over.  Then she turns around and rolls right back onto her tummy.  Sometimes she doesn't mind going back.  Other times she cries like she is saying, "I can't stop!  Please help me, I can't stop rolling!"

Holly has been growing in her grabbing abilities and grabs a lot of toys now. On our way down to Oregon, we stopped at Anthony's Dad's.  There, his little sister Peyton gave Holly a little stuffed horse to play with and she really held on to it.  That was the first time it seemed like she was really interested in grabbing a toy on purpose.  Since then, she has taken off.  She has been discovering her hands and her feet too.  Recently she loves grabbing her feet often.  This morning I put her on her nursing pillows and she sure wanted to try nursing while hanging on to her foot, silly girl.

Holly has been getting better about sitting.  She has really good head control now and only needs a little extra support at times.  She has sat in the Bumbo chair a few times.  She still leans a lot, but is sitting.   She also started pulling herself forward away from me when sitting in my lap this last week.

Linguistically, Holly has sure added to her baby vocabulary.  She learned her high pitched squealing and added that to her agoos and lip bubbles around 4 months old.  She has added in a lot more consonances and vowels now too.  It's neat to see how she blends her new sounds with her old ones.  She does like to chatter and will just talk to herself at times.  She started being interested in the baby in the mirror and will talk to herself in the mirror too.  Her newest sound is the "H" sound I think.  She says "ha" and "hi."  She even says a sound very close to "owl" (more like "ah-l") and she will say it when we have her owl toys out....so I'm thinking she's catching on!

Holly still really likes music.  "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was her favorite song just a two weeks ago, but now she has been going to baby music class for 4 weeks, so I am not sure what her favorite is right now.  She does like "Pop! Goes the Weasel."  In her class are two other babies.  Meesha turns 1 year old this week and Beckett is now 8 months old.  It's a fun mix in the class and the babies all like watching each other.  

I am starting back with the symphony this week and I am back to work next week, so this next month is going to be a big transition month for us!  We are also planning to move Holly's crib downstairs and to move her from the rock and play to the crib.  I hope she keeps sleeping through the night even in the crib! 

I took a ton of pictures for her 5 month photo shoot because I am trying to get the perfect one for the Gerber baby competition. We shall see how that goes too!

Holly 3 Months Old

Today I did Holly's 3 month photo shoot.  We are a few days late because it has been a busy week for us!  On Saturday we went to Spokane to go meet aunts and cousins of the Byrd side of the family at a shower they threw for Holly.  Holly also came to school with me for the first time this week while I got a few things ready for my sub.  Yesterday we went and visited Monica and her almost 2 year old daughter Emria.  So, lots of socializing this week!

Holly keep growing and learning new things.  She is sleeping well through the night now too, which helps get things done the next day!  She falls asleep typically between 7 and 8.  We all try to go the bed by 8:30 (doesn'y usually happen, but we try!) and she's usually up between 3 and 4 then.  Anthony's studying for his CPA exams, so he gets up at 4 to study himself.  I then get her up, feed her, then we got back to bed for a short nap to finish off the night (if I didn't make it to bed on time with Anthony and Holly.)  We get up officially between 8 and 9.  I feed Holly again before doing what I call her development play.  It's the one time a day I purposefully try to get certain baby activities in.  Today she got to do her photo shoot - a good time to do it since she is in such a good mood then!  But normally it involved "talking" to each other, singing songs, reading books, baby yoga, and tummy time.  We will also work on sitting and reaching/grabbing skills too.  Some days I see what she seems most interested in and will do less language building activities and do more physical or visa versa.  Holly is usually hungry and worn out by 11:00 or so, so then she is ready to start resting and takes her long nap of the day anywhere from 11 to 1 and will sleep for one to three hours.  She's napping right now while I type.  I usually use this time to exercise, but I wanted to do her photos today instead! :)

Holly does talk a lot more with everyone she meets.  I love her little voice.  She is a cute talker.  She also starting doing really well just the last two days at grabbing things in front of her.  She will grab my hand and is more purposeful about helping to hold her bottles.  She is definitely getting more control over her hands and fingers.  She loves watching my hands right now too, like when I turn pages in a book she is fascinated.  She is learning about her hands by putting them into her mouth to the point of gagging herself, silly girl!

Lets see, Holly still likes to walk and look at things.  She really likes trees still both in her books and in real life.  She seems to be responding to colors more and more and gets waaaaay distracted by the TV.  We're trying to be more careful about what's on these days so I put on "The Little Mermaid" just as background for me, but, oh, she wanted to watch it!  So, I did let her and she stayed awake and interested all the way to the end.  I try not to let her watch too much TV yet, but it was so cute how she was into it.

Here's Holly's size comparison.  She was weighing 10 lbs 8 oz last week with a length of 23 inches:

Here are photo's from her shoot.  I am still learning to use the new camera, but it is coming along!