Ellie {5 months} & moving

Well, it's been a crazy month!  I've missed my daughter's fifth month birthday!  Her birthday was a day we were packing....and packing...and packing!  Who has time to write blog posts when you are busy moving??

If I remember right, this 4-5 month age stretch was tough.  Ellie started to have a harder time falling asleep in public places and she just wanted to be at home in her crib.  She does not like to be held when tired.  I know, it's weird.  So if you see me with my fussy baby at church, at the store, or out to eat know that I'm not trying to be mean to my daughter.   I just know she is tired and does not want picked up!  Holding her when she's tired just makes her get frustrated even more!

She likes to sleep on her tummy.  Which I'm okay with (just to get that out there).  And if she's in the car in her car seat she does pretty good if the car is moving and she takes a little snooze.  however since she's not on her tummy she likes the feeling of something on her cheek/up by her face.

I gave her the pink blanket, the blue one she did on her own.

She is not one to like short naps.  And if she gets one, watch out.  She'll be happy at first but within an hour it will hit her...."wait a second, I didn't get a long nap!"

As soon as she wakes up from a good sleep, do not pass her around.  Hand her to me (pretty please), and don't set her down unless you want to hear that cry that makes your heart drop into your stomach.  As soon as she's laying down she thinks she gets to eat, and if it doesn't happen rather quickly she doesn't want anything to do with whatever you think should be done.  And then there's "that cry."  The one that makes my hubby cringe so much that he is willing to get up in the night/early morning to get her so she can eat ASAP.

happy baby!

Nothing much has changed about Ellie this past month.  Except her "routine."  I went from focusing on how long she's been awake to more "watching the clock."  Because it has helped her sleep better at night.  On most days (except random mornings like today), she wakes up around 7 or 7:30am.  Then she takes a morning nap around 8:30 or 9.  She sleeps for roughly two hours, and then is awake for a couple hours.  I nurse her as often as she wants.  I put her down again about 1pm and she sleeps for about 3-4 hours.  Evenings are the hard part, because I can't give her a short evening nap.  However whenever she seems unhappy I just nurse her and it usually helps give her extra strength to go on for awhile longer. :) Her bedtime is around 6:30 or 7pm.  Sometimes she does end up falling asleep for a little catnap.  But usually cat naps don't mess her up too much. ;)

I don't watch the clock so much that she never goes down for a nap say at 12:30 instead of 1pm.  It's all kinda loose, but it's an "idea" I try to stay close to.  The time change this last Sunday has kinda made things a little tricky for her, but I'm hoping within a week or so she'll get adjusted.  :)

Since we're in the middle of moving I don't have pictures to show her growth.  But I can try to do those soon and put them in this post later.  As of now, here's some pictures of this past month with our sweet, Ellie.

Our dear Ellie is not into sitting up yet, she really wants to lay on her tummy and "fly" or be on her back and "run."

But when she gets tired while playing, she lets you know.

She loves those two middle fingers!!

This month brought on some fun!  She's starting to really "play" with her toys, feet, and our hands.

Oball!

Her favorite book right now

put her on a blanket with her toys and she finds the TV ;)

As I'm finishing this post, I'm watching Ellie play on the floor with a toy at my parent's house.  It's a funky ball with a chain of those baby links (rings) on it.  She absolutely loves it!  I would say it's her new favorite toy for sure!  She loves chewing on the rings.  She's also enjoying sucking on her feet (even if they have socks on them).  Ellie is also responding in funny noises like spitting and "making bubbles" with the spit.  She thinks she's quite cool like that! :)  And she finally rolled over from back to tummy (she has been doing tummy to back for quite awhile now)!!  I congratulated her and she keeps giving me the biggest smiles.

Oh, and if you hear my daughter cough, it's all right.  The past couple weeks she figured out the "cool" way to cough and she thinks it's the best thing...so once one cough comes out you may just hear seven more!  I know, coughing is so cool! ;)

We moved to my parents house a week ago.  We still are not fully "moved in" yet. I still need to organize our clothes, the closet, and our pantry food.  As soon as we got here I quickly unpacked and repacked for a few days in Kansas City to surprise my sister for her 30th birthday!  The day we returned my husband had the stomach flu.  Monday, hubby started his new job in Ames and we've had a few hectic evenings.  I am finally getting some laundry done today.  I think tonight we'll work on unpacking more.  March 27th the movers will arrive at our Fairfax apartment and we'll be getting all our furniture and boxes sent here at my parent's house.  So I'll be using our dresser drawers and reorganize later anyways.  But until then, my parent's have enough dressers here for us to use.  They are letting us move things around, which is really nice and helpful to make it feel a little bit more us. :)  In the mean time, we are looking at houses in Ames, hopefully west Ames.  Also, my parents are enjoying having Ellie around, I mean really, who wouldn't? :)

Our Valentine! <3

That smile has always been her sweet, lovable smile.  But she is starting to already have ANOTHER smile!  It's a much BIGGER one.  Her whole face lights up and she gets dimples and it's so sweet!  :)  It's the smile she gets when: she is totally happy, when she's looking around the room and finally finds 'where that voice is coming from,' and when she goes from her typical smile to the BIG one! :)

<3 <3 you sweet Ellie!! <3
(Even when you wake Mommy and Daddy at 4am for no apparent reason.)