Well as of last week, Erica reached the 5 month mark. 

When E was preggy, we heard other parents remark that they grow so fast.  Boy do we ever believe it.  She’s now approaching 15lbs.

Thinking back since our last update, she’s gone from a newborn who mostly eats/sleeps/make dirty diapers to a newborn that well… eats/sleeps/make dirty diapers, but also now has very sharp hearing/eyesight, has full control over her head, can roll over, suck her thumb, and grab her feet.  Also giggles and makes a lot of pterodactyl like sounds.

It’s hard to believe that she was 4 months when we took her to Maui.  It was on the flight there that we first noticed that she was sucking her thumb, and not “west-coasting” it.  One night in the hotel room, we heard her grunting and doing something that was taking a lot of exertion… we naturally thought she was making a big diaper, but when we peeked into her crib, she had rolled herself over!  Now she can do it at will, and keep her head up to look around.  Her bum is also in the air, so we think it’s a precursor to crawling.

For some time now, she’s been staring at her hands… and it was during the trip that she discovered her feet.  Now she has them to stare and grab at.

One thing that’s surprised us is how interactive she is becoming with her surroundings.  For sure, her eyesight and hearing is better than ours.  While feeding, she can become distracted by the cats walking around, or if I’m feeding her, she’s scanning around to see where mom is.  She’s definitely spending more time noticing and staring at the cats and fishtank… and TV.  🙁

She’s also been practising her vocals, babbling, listening to how high her voice can go, making subtle gurgling noises.  In short, she’s finding her voice.

There’s also been other subtle signs that show she’s understanding things- like during nap time when I show her a soother, she’ll open her mouth to take it, and grab her rattle bear.   

So some photos- the one with Sloan was taken today.  Sloan is *almost* 3.  The other pic shows Aidan (August 9) and Caden (August 12) and Erica (August 17).  Aidan and Caden (and oh yeah, their parents) live in our complex.  E sent this photo to me at work and pointed out that e is playing with her two new BOY-friends. 

Auuuugh!   😐