25 weeks!

Ah... this 25th week was a MUCH calmer week. Phew. The action packed weeks just passed were wonderful, but... a slower week... was a gift! A week from today Caroline will be 6 months old and I have to say that I am LOVING this age. She still has rough stretches, but they seem fewer and farther between. And she is much more easily distractable when she gets upset. It is so much easier to make her laugh, and her laugh... what a heavenly sound! She's making all sorts of sounds these days- pinching her lips together and blowing (working on her brass embouchure, perhaps), making bubbles with her excessive drool (such a lovelier use for it!), squawking in addition to squealing, and babbling, babbling, babbling... It also seems that, especially with daddy, she tries to sing along when he sings to her. And more than once it has seemed that she matches pitch, or at least vocalizes in the same key. THAT is pretty cool. Today was a day of interacting with a lot of different people and she gave almost all of them BIG smiles. Each one that they were particularly special, but... she loves people. What can I say! And of course, we're all special. And it is nice when babies can help us feel that way!

Here she is smiling with my hair dresser just today!



On Monday we got an extra day of family time as Kev opted to stay home from work. We did lots of needed home organizing and freed up a lot of space in our bedroom which makes it a better (and alternative) place for Caroline to play. As our laundry machines are attached to our bedroom, this is VERY HANDY! I also moved her jumper this week to the door between our bedroom and the bathroom off our bedroom and this is a brilliant spot for it. I have managed to shower, dress, make the bed, and fold a load of laundry all while she happily jumps away. I think there's a bit of novelty in the new spot that has stretched out her jump sessions, but, whatever the case, it has been a good move! This is a bit blurry, but I think you can see she likes the new locale!



Diaper changes have gotten exciting because she contorts and rolls and... well... does anything but stay in a position that facilitates a successful diaper change. She's not upset during the changes, just ready to MOVE. I wish I had a pic or video of that to post, but usually... our hands are pretty busy keeping her from flying off the changing table WHILE trying to keep bodily fluids landing on diaper- an impressive feat, I assure you. We're doing lots of changes on the floor these days... it just feels safer.

She's napping a bit better these days, especially if I lie down with her at least to get her started. We seem to be settling into a bit of a nap routine. And when she does nap... oh, how much more pleasant she is! Nighttimes have been better, not great, but better. We're moving in the right direction. We're back to co-sleeping some because some nights I'm just too tired to get up. Either she's nursing less when sleeping with us, or I am capable of sleeping through it better!

Perhaps inspired by Sesame Street (which Mamie got us watching a bit!), I've taken to dedicating days to different colors. One of the only days on which I took pictures was a green day. She wore green. I wore green. We walked about outside to see what green we could see- PLENTY. Here are a few shots from green day, with her favorite new toy- an empty apricot container! Hey... it works!




We had a wonderful play date with Fiona last Saturday. Pretty much every time those two get together they plant open mouthed kisses on each other within 15 minutes. No pics from that get together or of that preciousness, but today she had some play time with a baby younger than her for the first time ever. J.H. is 12 weeks old, and Caroline was... mostly gentle. They seemed to enjoy one another's company!



Mamie just sent along a disc full of pictures taken on her camera so I can FINALLY do a baptism post- five months later!!! It's coming, Marecha, eventually, keep reading! And I may have more pictures from last week to put up as well. But, not tonight. It is getting late...

I also have a post about my grandma, Caroline's namesake, brewing.

But again, not tonight. I will try to blog two or three more times this week to get some of these backlogged posts taken care of. Maybe blogger will even cooperate and I'll get some videos up!