The Pope Kiddos: Abby's 5 months old!

We're quickly approaching a half year old already. I feel like Abby has grown up a lot in the last month. She's gotten so big for one but she's also definitely a baby now and not a newborn at all. I mostly welcome this change. I love her smiles and laughs and I love her talking. I love seeing her personality start to come out.

I think she's going to be our musical child. She loves music. She especially loves when we sing to her. She prefers our singing to listening to CDs, although she does like listening to those too. Lily and I spend a lot of the day singing songs and she really likes that. She especially likes her lullaby Give Said the Little Stream and this often makes her stop crying when she's upset. Other favorites are the ABCs and Twinkle, twinkle little star. She's also a burgeoning percussionist. She likes to use toys to drum on her high chair tray and sings along with her "music".

She has a very ticklish tummy. She loves to have it tickled and it makes her laugh really hard. She also likes playing games. She's figured out that if she drops toys off her tray someone will keep picking them up for her. She also plays a game with me when she's getting her diaper changed where she's kicks me in the stomach and then I say "Ow!" She starts laughing as soon as she starts kicking me and before I even react because she knows it's coming. But Lily has the easiest time getting her to laugh. Lily plays a little roughly with her and she loves it. Abby likes to keep an eye on Lily to see what she's up to and can keep her entertained for quite a while (long enough for mommy to take a shower). This has come in pretty handy many times.

She's also decided she doesn't care too much for sleeping. We've tried to establish a more structured bedtime routine where she gets dressed in her PJs, then she gets in Lily's bed with Daddy and Lily to read bedtime stories, then she nurses, then she gets in her crib to go to sleep. So far this hasn't worked extremely well yet. She'll stay in there for a little while but she hasn't actually gone to sleep yet. Her pediatrician said we should keep up the routine and she might get it eventually. We can hope. So we end up rocking her to sleep, often hold her until we go to bed, and then sometimes she'll sleep in her own bed for a few hours, or sometimes she'll just sleep in our bed the whole night. She's given up the co-sleeper. She's pretty much as big as it is now, so I don't think it's all that comfortable for her any more. Unfortunately she's not all that crazy about napping either. She's great at falling asleep in the car but she doesn't sleep as well at home. In the past week she has napped some in her crib so it's just something we have to continue trying and hoping soon she'll figure it out and decide it's OK to sleep there.

Milestones:
Wearing 6-9 months or 12 month clothing
Wearing size 2-3 diapers
Rolling from back to tummy all the time
Puts up with being on her stomach for longer and longer stretches
Can sit up for about 30 seconds unassisted
Loves being in her high chair or Bumbo chair
Talks a lot, often loudly
Has babbled once (ya ya ya ya ya)
Sometimes sings along with mommy
Really likes her feet and pulling off socks and playing with her shoes
Loves toys and sucking on them
Is sucking on her hands less than she used to, but still often
100% breastfed, but we plan on introducing solids this month
Loves a little stuffed lamb Lily picked out for her
Likes to scratch things to feel their texture