We recently took our first family vacation as a clan of five, appropriately for Poppy's fifth month with us. We went to Savannah, traipsed and trolleyed around the historic district, struggled to push the ill-equipped stroller along cobblestone streets, ferried across the river to steal a view of everything all at once. We spent a day dipping our toes in the sand and alternately, the ocean at Tybee Island. It was Poppy's very first ocean experience and she would have sat, splashing, and kicking in the water all day if I'd let her. Despite my best shade and sunscreen efforts she came home brown as a biscuit, with little white tanlines between her chubby baby rolls.
Our last day we scoped out Fort Stewart, exploring briefly the post, the surrounding area.
Everything is a first these days. Our first vacation as five. Our first move as five. It's too tragic to think of it in lasts. Our last baby. Our last few months in Columbus. Our last year before James starts 'real' school.
So firsts, it is.
Poppy still loves her feet.
She's still as giggly and smiley and picky as ever.
She's speed scooting across the floor.
She's getting onto all fours. She rocks back and forth, sticks her butt up in the air forcing herself into downward-facing-dog position, then flattens out and pushes off with her arms and feet.
She has the strongest legs of any baby I've ever met.
She's wearing mostly size 6-9 month clothes and has moved up into some 9 month outfits.
We've been cloth-diapering a little more now, mostly because we went a whole week out of diapers. In disposables she's up to size 3.
I was hoping to hold out to 6 months to start solids, but girls got an appetite. I bought some rice cereal for when we do. I may start it when she's 5 1/2 months and just hold off on veggies til after 6-6 1/2 months. I'm having Jason pull the high chair down from the attic this weekend so we can start putting her in it at dinner time. Start the routine.
She's moved up to the big pack n play and out of the co-sleeper. She's just so big and mobile now that she was trying to roll/climb out of the co-sleeper. She swings her little leg up against the side and it was just more anxiety than I was willing to hang on to. She seems to like the bigger bed, more room for her to stretch out.
She thrives on routine and schedules. She is the only baby I've had that takes two clockwork naps a day. One in the morning after she's been up a couple hours, and one in the afternoon while the boys take theirs. Then as soon as the boys are in bed at night, she wants her bath, pjs, feeding, and bed. If I skip any part of her routine she gets cranky and demanding.
Her eyes are brown!
Her hair is starting to grow back in and get longer.
I went through my old baby pictures while we were visiting my family last weekend and there are several that I can see her in.
She falls asleep to Bob Seger's Night Moves.
She loves playing with her Sophie the Giraffe, plastic links, and rattles. She also loves to play with the boys' trucks (the big plastic ones that don't have small parts) when we're in their room reading stories before bed.
She's the life of the party. Everyone fights over who gets to hold her.
She is doing fabulously in her carseat on road trips. She's taken so many of them by now that she's made peace with it. So much peace that she'll totally relax in the car, resulting in naps and diaper explosions.
She still refuses to take a bottle or pacifier.
She's a thumb-sucker, but only when she's trying to sleep.
We nickname her Peej, PJ, Princess P, Popsicle, and Miss Priss.
She is such a joy.
I'm struggling to believe that we're just a short month away from her half birthday.
