10-24, Five Months old today!

Sweet Katherine,

I finally just laid you down in bed, and your daddy is laying here snoring.  We have almost 40 minutes left in the day, today marked 5 months.  How can it even be possible that you have been with us almost half of the year now?  You are growing so fast, too fast for my liking.  We used the last size 1 diaper on Sunday.  You aren't in the hurry to do everything like Rebecca was, it's just that I want to slow down time.  I'm trying to savor things with you.  Your looks seem to be changing, you look like Ruth at times, but also completely different from everyone.  I'm still trying to figure out where the very round eyes came from.  You have lost alot of your hair this month.  I'm still trying to decide what color is growing in.  It still looks dark, but sometimes in the light it looks red.  Is it brown, auburn, a honey brown like Ruth's, will you turn out to be another blond baby, who knows?

9-30, Tummy time.

This month we finally discovered something that makes you unhappy - teething.  The last part of last week, you were so fussy.  You didn't want to be put down for anything, would stay asleep very long.  However, as long as I held you and you could snuggle against my collar bone you were quite.  That tooth that we have been eyeing for a couple months, finally came through the gum last month, then stopped.  Just yesterday it's come in alot more and you are working on one, maybe two more.  You like the vibrating teether, but most of all you like to chew on the side of my hand.  You have quite often left two tiny teeth prints one on top, one on bottom.  On that subject you have started watching us eat more this month.  You are also mouthing anything you can get near your mouth.  I have found you chewing on all your toys, stuffed animals, the bars on the crib, the side of the high chair, but your fingers and your feet seem to be your favorite thing to stuff in your mouth.  No joke, in the 17 pictures I took today trying to get your 5 month picture, in 12 of them you were shoving something in your mouth.  When your teeth are bothering you though you are very insistent that you don't want your pacifier in your mouth.

10-24, Good thing Fox doesn't mind being chewed on.

10-5, Spa Day.

Another big change is to see you really trying to work at moving around.  You often lay in the living room floor during the morning schooling, or in my bedroom floor during the late afternoon.  You roll around and do your best to lift up off the floor.  You haven't mastered it yet, you merely get your chest up off the floor, and you often push yourself backwards as you work on the skill.  But you are also working those legs, and as a result you spin around, roll over, scoot back, and even occasionally manage to move forward.  Sometimes I doubt that it will take you another two months to begin to crawl, when I see how much you are working at it.

10-1

10-3

We've had to use the bouncer less and less.  You want to not only sit up but sit straight up.  You seem to constantly be throwing yourself up against the straps.  You aren't there yet, but you are doing some tripod sitting when I sit you down that way.  Since you are so insistent on being directly vertical, we are letting you sit in your highchair at supper time, and occasionally during school time.  It's still too big for you, and you have trouble sitting up for the whole meal, but you seem to like sitting there with a teether.  You have started watching us eat, but I still plan to wait another month before adding real food.  You are still nursing.  I have started pumping, and we are having much better luck getting you to take a bottle now.  We give you a bottle of milk or formula probably once or twice a week now.

10-18, Crouses' Fall Festival!

We seem to have a good routine.  You wake up around the time that Daddy leaves for work, you eat and go back to sleep for around an hour.  Somewhere around 8 you wake up for the day, and are awake for a while.  Most of the time you are content to lay in the floor and work at crawling or piddle with some of your toys.  Your favorites are your taggie ball, the baby rattle, your lovey, the fox from Aunt Manna, and the singing giraffe.  You often go down for your morning nap a little after we start school, around 11.  Sometimes you even fall asleep on the quilt in the floor.  You sleep 1.5 to 2 hours, and wake up to eat while I read aloud to everyone around 12:30 or 1.  You are then awake for several hours.  You typically want more attention in the afternoons, and snack off and on then.  When I'm not holding you during lessons, or moving you about the house with me for chores, your brother and sisters are eager to hold you.  Ruth likes to pick you up for too much for my comfort level.  She likes to lift you up under your arms, so that you are standing in her lap looking at her.  She likes to see you smile when she talks to you.  Rebecca loves to wave your toys around you and sing made up songs.  Britt will sit Indian style, sit you in his lap to lean back against his stomach and build block towers for you, to then knock them down.  You seem to get very excited right before he knocks them down, as he builds up the suspense for you.  During supper, or after when I do our Bible reading aloud, you eat again, and then often hang out with Daddy on the bed for a few hours.  He typically gives you a bath around 9:30, and then I feed you around 10:30, and you nurse yourself to sleep.  I have you in bed between 11 and 11:30 most nights.

10-21, At Marco Island with Momma.

You continue to bring us great joy.  I hope you never doubt just how much you are loved.  I tell you every day, "Momma loves you.  Daddy loves you.  You are so loved!"

Love,
Momma