SLOANE AT FIVE MONTHS

i apologize in advance for the amount of (rather large-sized) pictures that are to follow. 

i practiced restraint, really i did. 

but i'm a momma posting pictures of her happy baby, indulge me?

At five months, this baby is growing into her own. She has resolved to check out everything with her eyeballs, her hands, her mouth. She leans forwards, backwards, under, over and around you in order to investigate something that she catches a glimpse of, and she reaches out, hands outstretched, which then means she also has to feel it in her mouth. Her world is getting bigger with each thing she sees/feels/gnaws on, and it fills me with glee to watch the world introduce itself to her. ‘Hey world, Sloane is here and she’s coming for you.’

She is still inquisitive, curious, and attentive as ever. When there is conversation going on around her, she'll gnaw on her towel or recent favorite toy and will seem to be nodding along with you, 'yes, yes, go on, then what happened?' Sometimes, she is ultra serious, especially when she meets new people. And then her somber face is all cheeks and dark eyes.

In this spirit of exploration, she can’t wait to get moving, but she seems much more excited about trying to stand on her feet than crawling on her hands and knees. She props up her upper body like a cobra, and surveys the land to see what she can go after. She uses her hands to turn around in a circle and get a proper survey. If she designates a target, she will first attempt to scoot over to it, but will end up backing up, instead of forward (her motors don’t run forward yet), and to overcome this problem, she will attempt to roll her way over to it, which means she often ends up somewhere completely different, but she doesn’t seem to mind all that much.

She is really good at sitting up, sitting around, hanging out, and when she gets excited or hears a good beat, she rocks back and forth with glee.  It’s hard to find anything better than a little lump of a person rocking back and forth with joy watching you dance like a crazy person to Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’.

When you start singing to her, she will break into a big smile, and when she hears music, she will often pause to listen. Sometimes, she will try to sing along with you. These days I’ve been singing her different versions of ‘Amazing Grace’ as part of her bed time ritual, and she will more often than not try to ‘sing’ it along with me. I can’t wait to sing all sorts of songs with her.

She definitely understands who her mom and dad are now – and how glorious it is to see her bouncing up and down with joy when she sees me or Ken walk through the door.  She has also started reaching out for me with her arms, and it is my slice of brilliant. She also claws at faces- I'm not sure what she thinks is going on when she does that, but it can feel like being mauled by a baby tiger.

We are getting the hang of sleeping, and we are trying things like avocado, apples and carrots for the first time.  And by we, I mean, her. We sit in a baby chair at the table, and we are still fascinated by Rusty the dog - she can't wait to get her hands all up in his fur, I can see it in her eyes. We like books, fascinated by any sort of screen, and aren't we all super trooper bath-takers! (The last 'we' applies to the grown-ups too, especially K.)

6 months means we all get a little more worn out with all this pawing, exploring, giggling, we do, 

but we are constantly 

so amazed

that we can hardly believe it.