5 Months!

I am finally getting around to this post. I have had the pictures up and loaded since Mon, but haven't had time to actually post! The last month has been eventful for us, not just in Gwen's growth but in our life. Gwen had her first cold, but it hasn't seemed to slow her down. She has a new toy from Grandma...a jumper. She loves it, from what I can tell, but I will post more about that later. She does love the smiling sun that she is holding on to. Gwen seems to love bath time. Usually Eric is just getting home from work (during the week) and he joins us in the bath tub for the fun. I think Gwen is ready to sit in the tub without the insert, but she is so cute when I lay her in here, we haven't done it yet. As you can see now when we sit her in anything she puts her elbows back (which makes it especially challenging to put her in the car seat!) She loves kicking her feet which is fun during bath time because she actually kicks out most of the water...that is what she is doing in this shot.
Gwen during tummy time. These next shots are taken then. Before she could just push up, but now she can balance herself and use her hands to grab at things and bring them to her mouth. I had put the little triangular mirror in this shot in front of her so she could see herself, but it has little chew toys on the end so she surprised me by pulling it to herself so she could get at the toys on the bottom...who knew she could do that!

(Eric says this shot is a classic...she is telling me about something!)
I have given up on trying to read books to her while sitting in my lap, she enjoys looking at them, but likes to turn the pages on her own and I never get to finish the story. I just can't handle that. She likes to slap the book and feel everything, but I want to read the story. Today I think I have finally learned my lesson, I read the book above her head while I gave her another book to slap at! Her ability to grasp and hold is much improved this month, but sadly we are learning cause and effect, so we like to drop things on the ground and see what happens. As of yet, I don't think she knows that she shouldn't do this because I don't think we have fully grasped the idea that when things will return. Once objects leave her line of sight she forgets about them, I think.

I was going to write about how she has turned a new corner in sleeping. When I was supposed to write this post Gwen had started doing this cooing herself to sleep at nap time, which was a nice change from crying, but now we are crying again, but fortunately it doesn't last long, most nights. We do have a melt down problem in the evening. I just can't get a nap schedule together, I'd like her to get 3 naps a day since they are so short, but I don't know what to do when she is due for a nap at 4, plus during the day she still likes eating every 2 hours but that interferes with the napping. Oh well, hopefully these things will work themselves out soon! I have more to say with more pictures, from today and yesterday, hopefully I will get to that today or tomorrow. We leave for FL Tues...AH! I mean I am excited, but so much to do!

Today is Riley Anne's due date, but apart from little contractions no labor yet...we were hoping to see her before we left for FL, but everyday it is looking less likely, huh, Brian & Reyna!