Five Months Old

My little Pearl is five months old today!

Along with the whole deciding to wake up at five in the morning thing, Pearl's napping has been just totally unpredictable. In the course of a week, she has gone from taking no decent naps, to taking a few short and one gloriously long nap, to taking several long naps, to taking a million tiny naps, etc. Her night sleeping schedule is more regular - she seems to be sleeping for a nine and a half hour stretch. I think she's sleeping through the night. Since she's always pretty much done that, what I mean is that I don't think she's rousing to nurse in the time between when I go to sleep and the time her wiggling wakes me in the morning.



She's such an active and playful baby. She's learned how to jump in her doorway jumper and really enjoys it. She can pretty much destroy her playmat, which makes me wish I'd gotten one bigger and sturdier than the gym-to-go that I purchased. However wimpy it may be, she still has lots of fun with it, and that's the whole point, right? She loves for me to play peekaboo with her and she is now returning the interest her cousin Kaida shows in her, reaching out to grab her ears and poke her in the eye and make her cry. Before she would usually arch her back and try to escape, or ignore Kaida completely. My sister's dogs held much more fascination! Pearl is also very fond of our kitty.



Another game she enjoys, especially when Daddy does it, is having her fingers gobbled up. Her daddy just has to open his mouth like he's going to do it and she starts laughing. It's different from the way she giggles when I tickle her, a special laugh reserved for that game in particular. She's also having a lot of fun grabbing at our noses and hair.




This month she has learned how to suck her thumb but she hasn't yet figured out how to do it with her hand closed so at first she would always poke herself in the eye, repeatedly. We found it funny but trying to keep her from doing wouldn't do any good; this child is the most persistant little monkey I've ever met. If you could see her nursing you'd know what I mean - she is still constantly trying to sneak her fingers into her mouth as she eats, and you'd be amazed at the inventiveness she shows in trying to circumvent my hand and get those fingers in there! Sometimes she switches it up a bit and tries to rub furiously at her eye instead, but she's no less determined to dodge my hand in those instances.



She can sit up for about twenty seconds before she topples, and just in the past few days we have seen the beginning of locomotion - place a toy out of reach and she inches towards it on her belly. I have to double check her position to see that she has in fact moved, but she's definitely moving.



Pearl's fifth month has been a wonderful one. She has been so happy and fun, so sweet and affectionate. She makes all sorts of silly noises, and sometimes she does this crazy turning everywhichway looking around thing that's really funny. She smiles at me when she wakes from her nap, she'll pop off the breast just to grin at me, she reaches her arms out towards me when I lay down beside her...