five months.

let me just say, preemptively, that i am about to post an embarrassing number of pictures of our daughter.  it's not my fault.  i am truly defenseless when it comes to this little monkey.  every slight nuance of her face, every tweak of her smile...i feel like i just need to have it all on here.  it's for our family book for 2011, right?  so just please excuse me (and scroll faster if you aren't interested in the overload of cuteness - ha.).

so, (four days late), emme kay turned 5 months last thursday!  unreal.  she is doing fabulously and is a real sweetheart.  last week, she didn't poop for over 6 days, so i brought her to the doctor.  i'm sure when she's older she will hate hearing about this - friday morning i had numerous texts from friends that just said "poop?".  i think it's hilarious how tuned in we all are to our babies' ins and outs, so to speak.  anyway, the doctor said it wasn't a huge deal and to give her prune juice and other solids with fiber (beans, berries, oatmeal).  she said it was likely due to starting solids and that it happens to lots of babies.  i don't feel like she's had a ton of solids, and i had tried a few different tricks, so that's why i was worried...but in any case, she finally had some success on friday night and the relief in our house (and at kk's house) was palpable.  because of that whole experience, though, i know that she now weighs 14 lbs, 11 oz.  still hasn't quite doubled her birth weight, but i bet she will by 6 months, and i've read breastfed babies are slower to double, sometimes.  regardless, she is super healthy and happy, and we are so grateful and blessed by that.

emme loves tummy time and loves to roll.  now that she's figured out rolling back to tummy, she occasionally forgets that she can go tummy to back, too, so it will randomly surprise her sometimes and it cracks me up.  she scoots like a little inchworm and motors her chubby thighs in a crawling motion which helps her creep a few inches forward here and there.  she's surprisingly mobile (well, i'm surprised  because she still seems like such a baby to me) and is always in a completely different place in her crib than where i've put her down.  she's still a great sleeper, and with her sleeping through the night now, i could not be happier.  she's using her thumb to soothe since we robbed her of the pacifier, but she's not obsessed with it, so i think that bodes well for her not being a life-long thumbsucker.  it's still really hard to make her laugh, but she gives us some giggles now and then and we pretty much swoon.  she likes to dig her heels into her mattress and slam her body down onto it when she's excited to see me after a nap.  she does the same back bend with an arch and a twist while we're doing diaper changes and gives us these grins like "let me make this easier for you".  she loves when we sing songs and she loves to play superman in either our hands or by resting with her belly on my shins while i lie on the floor.  she thinks baby yoga on sundays is the greatest.  the spitting is still full throttle, but i feel like it's starting to dwindle a little bit (some days).  i've been told she'll be done with it by 6 months, so i really hope she is in the realm of normal for that.  she can stay sitting up for a few seconds before toppling over.  she has tried banana, avocado, and pear so far, and pear is the clear winner at this point.  we're taking the solid foods thing kind of slowly because of the spitting and the lack of pooping and the jamaica trip this week.  when we get back, i imagine we'll move into proteins and other fun new things for her to try.

thursday, we take emmeline on her first (of what i hope will be many) international trips to jamaica for mike and kim's wedding.  we are sooo excited to introduce her to sand and swimming, as well as to have some days of relaxation and vacation for us.  this is our first "family vacation" with just the three of us.  we also can't wait to see mike and kim tie the knot - i love a wedding.

so, now on to the pictures.  i apologize again.  i took some on the 7th and then justin and i took a bunch more yesterday outside.  all total, we had about 290 pictures, so i hope you can appreciate the whittling i did to get it down to this many....