Yesterday Josie turned 5 months old! We* had double chocolate coconut cake to celebrate! (* we does not include Josie) The lit candle was a real highlight for her.  At this point Josie is showing off more and more of her personality each day. She is very stubborn when she wants something, but has typical baby concentration abilities and can be distracted away from certain things. She loves people and animals and is very social. Stacking cups and triangular checkerboard blocks are still her favorite toys. Books are mainly for eating currently. I have taken to making up new stories to go along with the pictures as I’m a little bored of the same ones again and again.

Physically she’s very strong! She can sit up now for long periods of time by herself without toppling over, although we have to sit her up. If you give her your hands and hold them steady, she can usually pull herself up to a standing position which pleases her greatly. Now she also likes to walk while you hold her hands and she can make it across the room (often to a cat). She seems like she might sort-of get the idea of being gentle with the kitties, but they are very patient as she tries to grab them.

We’re looking forward to her hitting the big 6 month mark so we can start the doctor-approved solid foods. I’m sure there will be lots of fun pictures of that next month. She sits with us for meals and has her own spoon, bowl, and cup which generally keeps her occupied but she’s dying to get in on the eating action. I gave her a bowl last week with a little water in it and she perfectly picked it up and poured it all into her mouth. Then she made a face of ‘eww what is that!’ and dribbled it all out. I will continue to work on her cup drinking skills this month.

Sadly (for me) she’s still awake twice a night (at least) although she seems to be moving her bedtime and wake-up time earlier. She wakes up precisely when the teething relief stuff wears off. Nothing is really consistent in that arena though but continued change. She sleeps on her stomach sometimes now of her own accord. She is still teething like the dickens, with the drool and the fussiness, and little white dots are appearing all over her gums hinting at what is to come but no real teeth have made their appearance!

I think I want some consistency to these monthly posts so let’s cover a few short basic questions:

• Size/weight: 9 month size, around 14 lbs 4 oz, don’t know height at the moment.
• Favorite food: breastmilk
• Favorite toy: stacking cups
• Favorite activity: standing, watching her parents dance like fools
• Sleeping: wakes up twice a night, 9:30 bedtime, 6-8am wakeup
• New skill: sitting upright, pushing on you when you hold her to signal she wants to face forward
• Teeth: small dots in gums, none yet
• Vocalizations: dinosaur-like growls, real laughs, raspberries

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 6:26 pm by Jen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.