Five Months Old + A Baby Blessing

Like magic, Louise continues to grow bigger. I recently was thinking: babies get cuter, smarter, funnier, more fun, easier, and better at everything as they get older.

And yet, those first few months are still somehow the best months of all. 

I'm trying to not be a really giant drama queen every time Louise crashes through another milestone, but it's tough. 

At five months old, she is so happy. I love these pictures, because I feel like they're so accurate to her personality. She is constantly smiling, chatting, and trying to get the attention of the people around her. She doesn't like being held facing me, she always wants to look around! She is definitely an extrovert, she gets excited and happy whenever we are with people. In Sunday School, our class sits in a circle and she sits on my lap. When she's awake, she spends the whole hour looking around the room, panting in excitement, and occasionally bursting into excited laughter. She's so happy to be surrounded by smiling people!

She laughs and giggles very easily, almost constantly- especially at her brothers. They can make her laugh much harder than Travis or I can. She loves her brothers and doesn't mind if they flop her around or are too rough or too noisy. She loves it all! Soon she'll be wrestling and crawling after them. 

On a few occasions when she's been face to face with other babies her size, she gets so excited! She starts panting and trying frantically to grab on to them. I predict she'll be one of those girls who loves baby dolls.
She is basically a baby doll, too. Everywhere we go, little girls come out of the walls and inch up to see her. "Oh! What a pretty baby! Can I hold her?" is something I hear every single time we leave the house. She has those big blue eyes and rosy cheeks that make her irresistible.

She still only has two teeth, and isn't mobile. She can sit up by herself, but gets tired or loses her balance within about 10  minutes. She can roll (and does instantly) when she's on her stomach, but hasn't figured out back to front yet. She doesn't like tummy time, and get frustrated with me very quickly (as pictured!) if I keep flipping her back over on to her stomach. 

Louise is getting very good at grabbing things, and her favorite things to hold on to are her toes and our fingers - all of which go right into her mouth. She's not as drooly as my other kids, but she is just as anxious to eat as they are. She gets very offended if we dare to eat in front of her without handing over our food. 

She chews on apple slices, watermelon, and bananas while we eat. The bananas are her favorite thing in the whole world- but slippery! So everytime she drops her banana, she SCREECHES. Also, she can scream SO loudly, and she does it when she is clearly not hurt, but angry. I'm a little worried about my ability to deal with future toddler-tantrums from this one!
She is a pretty good sleeper- amazing during the day, usually taking 2 three-hour naps! At nigh she sleeps about 12 hours, but wakes up twice to nurse. Which means I'm still getting up every night at 1am and 4am. But she sleeps so well in between eating and goes to sleep without any help, so I can't let her cry it out or anything. She obviously knows how to self-soothe and is actually hungry!

A few weeks ago, she was finally blessed at church! Mormons traditionally do a baby blessing when babies are a few weeks or months old. Similar to a Christening, it's a public prayer given in front of our congregation- typically given by the baby's father. Travis gave a really sweet blessing, and our families were able to come and participate. 

Some of the things Travis said in his prayer were that Louise would grow and develop normally and to be strong and happy.  That she would develop spiritually, find her talents, desires and purpose in this life and use them to build the kingdom of God.  He blessed her with a desire to serve and be aware of the needs of others around her, and to find joy doing so.  To love the scriptures and rely on inspiration of the Spirit and the leaders of the Church. And to have a desire to make and keep covenants pertaining to the gospel and help with the building of the kingdom of God.

Louise with her Dad and both Grandpas on her blessing day. 

Five Months Old

My baby boy is five months old!

After typing those words, I looked out my front window and saw one of my other sons peeing in the front yard.
We live in a neighborhood, guys. Sheesh.
My other child is in his room, screaming for a donut at the top of his lungs. I guess that one is my fault, because I foolishly gave him a donut yesterday.
It's been one of those freaking days.

So this boy. This boy who pees in pretty cloth diapers only, and never, ever screams at me because he wants something (not yet, anyway). He is such a big, happy boy. He sits up, he chews away fiercely at anything he can get his hands on, and he has recently discovered his toes. Oh! I love when they find their toes. He is very ticklish, and easily entertained, even by things that I think are overwhelming or painful (ie: his brothers). In fact, he loves his brothers so much that when they spent the night at their grandma's house this weekend, August was pretty whiney (as whiney as he gets, anyway). He was bored and annoyed with me and became ecstatically happy when the boys came home, barreling through the door like Tasmanian devils. 

He still doesn't sleep through the night, but he's happy waiting longer periods of time between daytime meals. He needs to wear a bib almost all the time, because he drools so much and non stop. 

He still doesn't roll over, but he pushes himself up with his arms straight under his belly when he's on his stomach. I think he doesn't roll over, mostly because he doesn't need to, because his big cloth diapers make it tricky, and because he honestly doesn't get enough tummy time. Now that he can sit up, I just sit him up instead of lying him down. When he does get tummy time, though, he can move around in a circle, with his feet anchored at the center, so he turns around to watch the boys. 

5 months

I have two little babies names Micah and Grey. They are five months old.

It freaking blows my mind.

I have so many more pictures that I managed to restrain myself from posting, because seriously, I can't get enough of you babies.

Yes it's true.

Babies, I love you.

One of the biggest changes I've seen in the babies over the last month is that suddenly they have emotions. LOTS of different emotions.

They aren't just happy, sad, hungry, tired.

They're so overjoyed they can't stop laughing. They're mildly entertained. They're surprised. They're curious. They're amused.

They get jealous if they see me holding their brother. They get frustrated if they just can't quite get what they're reaching for. They get so excited that they start this laugh-crying where they hyperventilate a little!

It's amazing. 

When I lie them down by themselves, there are so many different types of crying that go on.

Sometimes they lie there quietly and periodically bellow, like they're saying "HEY! Did you forget that I'm in here?"

Sometimes they whimper, like they're saying "I don't want to be in here by myself, but I'm okay."

 Grey was lying in his bed talking happily to himself, and saw Travis from the corner of his eye. He did a double take and smiled, and then -when Travis made no move to pick him up- started screaming. 

Like he was saying "Now that you know I'm awake in here, you better not leave me!"

The boys move now with so much intention, too. Before when they rolled over they were always kind of like "okay... What just happened?" but now they roll over because they want to! I even saw Micah roll three times in a row to get somewhere!

The boys are also getting really good at grabbing.  Sometimes we'll sit them on the couch, and they'll reach up and take their pacifier out of their mouths and then put it back in.
Then take it out.
Then put it back in.

If we lie something fun like a pacifier or a toy in front of them they'll scoot for it, and just today I witnessed their first real squabble.
Micah had a pacifier, and Grey reached over and took it!
Micah was mad, and grabbed Grey's arm and tried to force the pacifier back into his own mouth.

It wasn't coordinated super well and boys definitely got poked in the face a few times, but it was clear what the boys wanted.
And dang it! they'd figure out a way to get it!

These babies also have SO much to say! I was nursing a few days ago, and Grey pulled off and looked up at me and said SO CLEARLY (that I didn't realize at first that it was him!) "Hey, Dad."
Yeah, he didn't mean anything by it. But it sounded like he was answering a phone. It was aahhh-mazing.

The boys also shove their whole hands and fists in their mouths, as they're teething and LOVE to chew on things. The only problem is that they shove their fingers so far down their throats that they throw up!
Seriously.
Little bulimic babies.

And suddenly when they nurse they don't use shields. One day Grey was eating and he kept clamping down on the shield and yanking it off. Finally I said (maybe spitefully) "Fine, you can just see if you can eat without it."
He latched right on to the breast and has refused to nurse with the shield ever since.
They very next day, Micah did the same thing, except he managed to pull the shield off, spit it out, and then latch back on before I noticed anything.

They look more alike every day, and it gets harder and harder to tell them apart - even for us! Although we can always tell if we get a good look at them, there's no way that we could tell who's who in the middle of the night of they didn't have individual cribs.

And speaking of cribs, they definitely need their own cribs because man, can they move! Last night Micah was screaming and I went in to his room, and he was wedged in a corner of his bed with an arm and a leg both stuck through the bars, and his other leg straight up over the side of the bed. Also, he was on his stomach, so the leg over the side of the bed was bent up awkwardly behind his back.

And maybe you didn't notice, but I'm pretty obsessed with taking pictures of all of their feet together.
Cutest thing ever.

And give us a vote for the babies birthday.
(Five month b-day totally counts.)