Jemma becoming mobile

Jemma is not starting to get mobile enough to go after what she wants. She sees something and can wiggle and squiggle and roll herself to get to it. It’s quite fun to watch.

Move Update

Things are progressing again on the whole move. We rented a U-haul last weekend and took the last things from my parents house. A few things are still left in the living room but now much and most is give away anyway. We were tired at 8pm on Sunday when we were unloading, so it all ended up in the garage. So it still needs to get brought in the house and sorted, but at least it is there which is a huge relief. We can tackle it a little at a time now after work. The painters started working on their house on Monday also (which is why we had to get the stuff out). They have a whole crew working and they are really getting the job done. Hopefully the house will be on the market by March like initially planned! They are fixing the drywall in the entire house and finishing the basement. Then the hardwood floor people need to come in and refinish the floors and the retaining wall needs to be replaced (which is held up in permitting right now). Mike is also working diligently to draw up a floorplan for the addition as well and we have already talked to builders. So hopefully when their house gets sold, we can move forward with the addition pretty quickly. Although, we all know how that goes :) Our house is still not rented, it is still stuck in the permitting process with baltimore county! AHH!! Very frustrating but not anything we can do about it. They said we should get the permit today and the listing is already written up so it will go on the market the day we send in the permit. Also, we have now bought and/or installed all "new" appliances in the kitchen. A new cooktop and dishwasher are sitting in the garage still waiting to be installed but that should happen this weekend.

Jemma 5 Month Update

Jemma just turned 5 months old yesterday! She is getting such a cute little personality!!

The main things she likes right now are talking, toys and rolling.

She loves "talking" to her toys, herself or to us. She wakes up talking now, its really cute. Yesterday morning we were laying in bed listening to her talk away in her crib. At one point it really sounded like she was singing! She will sit in her activity saucer thing with all the toys and just talk away at all her "friends" aka toys. She likes making all sorts of talking noises. Anything from a high pitched squeal to a low pitching humming noise when she makes her mouth into an O. Sometimes she makes sounds that almost sound like mama too! :)

She is definitely smiling and giggling more often now too. When she gets really excited, she makes this super high pitched squeal that I can hear over the whole house! And when she gets really giggling it sounds exactly like crying! It's so weird! I hear her crying and I go to investigate and she is laughing!

As for toys, she seems to always want something to play with. We need toys everywhere now. She is constantly grabbing things and putting them in her mouth. She just wants to touch and play with everything! She also likes things that light up and make noise. The little rocking snail the MP got us for xmas she likes a lot. When she bats at it, its moves and lights up and makes noise.  

And she LOVES to roll! She is quite a rolly polly! We have that blanket candice made spread over our living room floor and we can put her on the middle of that and she just rolls and rolls and rolls. Sometimes just in circles all over the blanket and sometimes she rolls all the way off of it. She is much better at tummy time now as well and actually seems to like being on her stomach now. She has been lifting her butt really far in the air for a few weeks now but just recently she is starting to hold herself up with her arms and push herself up. She doesn't do the two things together yet, but as soon as that happens it wont be long before we get crawling! That means baby proofing ... :/

She doesn't quite sit too well yet but is getting MUCH better! She doesnt topple over quite as soon or as easily as before. Sometimes I think she just wants to eat her toes and so topples over forward to eat her toes. She LOVES eating her toes too, it is actually really cute. It makes changing a diaper hard though because she wont put her legs down. We have to give her toys now during diaper changing time to distract her. If you let her eat her toes for a bit she will sit back up. So I know she is capable of sitting, I think she just doesnt have any interest in it. She is too nosy and wants to reach for stuff. We try and have her sit on our laps when we eat dinner but that is getting harder and harder. She just wants to reach for anything in front of her and eat the table. She grabs at plates and glasses and tries to eat the glass table. It becomes quite an adventure at dinner time. We should sit her in her bumbo more often but she likes sitting in laps better. Plus even in her bumbo she reaches for everything and she has a really far reach when she tries.

Oh and she still spits up like crazy! The doctor said at the 4 month appt that it should end by around 6 months so I am definitely looking forward to that. We constantly have to carry burp rags and clean up after her and change her clothes (and ours). It doesn't ever seem to bother her and there is no warning before it happens either. That is one of the reasons I don't think she is quite ready for solid food yet. We are going to start solids when she turns 6 months. I am really looking forward to it! I have been researching it a lot lately so I have a whole plan worked out (typical me ...). She does feed herself her own bottle now though! (kind of ...). she has got down holding the bottle to her mouth but she just sucks at it so we still have to tilt it up for her to actually drink it. its cute though :)

As for sleeping, that is back to normal, thankfully! She is back to sleeping through the night and mommy and daddy are much happier! She has been sleeping in her crib for an entire month now and it is going well. She seems to like her crib a lot. I was a little sad when Mike packed up the co-sleeper but she really is too big for that now. Plus the way the house is laid out, she is still pretty close and we can hear her but she doesn't see us so that helps. She wiggles a lot in there and ends up sometimes sideways or turned around. We don't use the bumper either so sometimes her arm ends up out the slats and it makes me worried. We think we might get one of those mesh bumpers for her.

Cloth diapering is doing great as well. Now that we are more settled in the house, I have gone back to hanging the diapers to dry. According to my calculations I am at the point of achieving my return on investment! So from now on, we are just saving money :) Its also a lot nicer since she only poops about once every other day, so most diapers are just pee and clean easily. She doesn't seem to leak out the diapers too much and they have washed pretty well, I think the sun has been able to get rid of any stains.  

She also seems to like mommy (aka me!) which is sooo cute! She seems to want me sometimes and gets upset when I leave. It is really cute and melts my heart but also makes me feel super guilty going to work.