Life as a 5 Month'er

Our sweet girl will be 5 months young in just a few days.  I am actually not trying to rush the post along, it's just that I actually found 5 minutes to write one :)  Life is certainly been more busy now that I have been back to work full time.  I would remind you all that I am missing our little sweet heart every day, but then I would be pointing out the ever so obvious.  I have had a few tear filled mornings, and I call her school twice a day.  They haven't gotten sick of me yet, or at least they are hiding it really well : ) Lucia has developed so much in the last month.  Here is how she spends her days:

-- She rolls over from back to front and then gets really mad when she is on her tummy (hasn't learned how to roll back over!)

-- She reads books.  I am serious.  We have books everywhere now, and this little one loves to hold the book, tap the book, eat the book, and when we read them to her, she listens and moves her eyes along where we point. Our hope is to encourage this love of books throughout her development.

-- She does what I call. the hula hoop sit up.  Basically, she can sit on her own for about 10 seconds, but does this round the hip wobble action.  She is learning to balance herself.  It is so cute.

-- She eats a bowl of cereal every evening at about 6pm and has so for a month. She loves it.  She can hold her spoon and tries really hard to put the spoon in her mouth. Usually she misses, so thank goodness Mom is there to help :)  And just yesterday I made Lucia sweet potatoes. Of course she gobbled them up!

-- Sleeping.  Lucia is sleeping!  A lot.  At night she goes to sleep at 7pm and wakes up about 6am.  She has one wake up in the night for a feeding, but then falls right back to sleep.  And get this, drum roll..... she can sometimes fall asleep on her own in her crib.  This to me is amazing.  She is not swaddled any more and just uses a binky in the beginning.  I am so proud of how well she has done with her sleep independence.  But I won't fib, if she wakes up before 6am, I bring her to bed with us for some snuggle time.  

-- School.  Lucia is at school Mon-Fri from about 7am until 430pm.  Sounds like a lot, I know.  Feels like forever to me.  But she is loving school and her teachers.  There have only been three mornings out of the months that Lucia has cried when we left.  And every day we pick her up, she is happy.  And that makes me happy.  The teachers seem to love her and shower her with love.  Can you believe I actually asked the director if they will make sure to hug and kiss her a lot?  I didn't want her to feel unloved...

-- Swimming.  Like I have mentioned before, Lucia loves to swim.  I think she is part fish.  We take her once a week to Wilson Pool which is a single persons worse nightmare; hundreds of kids, all splashing, bumping, messing around, screaming.  And Lucia is right there with them.  She is not phased at the water in her eyes, or messing up her hair, getting accidentally dunked.  At 6 months, we will start her in lessons.  She could be world class some day.

-- Bella.  This will undoubtedly be Lucia's first word.  We have used the word Bella so much around her that I believe that when we ask "Where is Bella" if Lucia can hear Bella's collar, she will actually look around to find Bella.  Lucia loves to watch her run around the yard , roll around on her back, etc.  I even caught Lucia laughing when she saw Bella the other day.  

-- Smiles and laughs.  There is simply nothing more rewarding in my life then seeing Lucia smile.  And she does it so much during the day.  It doesn't take much to get her to smile and laugh too.  I think she will be a very happy child.

-- Weekly grandparent Skype calls.  One of the downsides of living away from family is that you need the internet to stay in touch.  So Lucia is speaking with her grandparents every week via Skype.  For Rafa's parents, we use the iphone so we can move it all around to follow Lucia's actions.  They seem to get a kick out of that. And with my mom, we need to fix something on her computer, so for now we use just the computer to speak to her.  So Lucia is stationary.  At the very least, Lucia is learning the sound of love from her grandparents voices.  It's kind of like a virtual hug :)  I cannot wait until our Nov and Dec trip to visit family.  I am excited for the reunion for both Lucia and our families.

-- Riding in the car.  Not much to say here, she still hates it, but just not as much!

-- Spending Time with Us.  I think Lucia and I share a love of baths and early morning snuggle time together.  At least those would be my favorite.  And of course any time she looks at me with those big beautiful brown eyes.  I am not sure what Rafa's would be.  But when Lucia was first born, Rafa loved when she fell asleep on his chest  like a little ball.  That doesn't happen anymore, but reminiscing about it is always so sweet.

Lucia Kate is filling out (hehehe) and filling our hearts every minute of every day with her curious, sweet and sassy spirit. We love you sweet girl!