Julia Rose at 5 months old

Rose is excited about being 5 months old.  She is such a little doll and we just can't get enough of her happy smiles and gurgles and chuckles.  In the past week or so she has noticeably gotten stronger and is pushing up really high on her forearms when laying on her stomach or holding a sitting position on her own for 5-10 seconds pretty easily before she slowly starts to topple.  If I put just a little support on either side of her she can sit up on her own for quite a bit longer and you can tell by her expression that she thinks sitting up is the bee's knees.

Whenever I take Rose's photos Clara is always hovering on the side and wanting to get in the shot with Rose but as soon as I tell Clara I am ready for her she doesn't want to cooperate (typical these days, the little stinker).  The only picture she agreed to was if she could lay beside Rose and pretend to be sleeping (who knows why that is what she wanted to do?). 

Over the past month we have been introducing Rose to solid foods and she has taken to eating like a champion.  She eats solids twice a day, usually around 7:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., and almost always consumes 2 of the baby food servings at a time, which seems like a lot to me.  The only foods that she seems averse to so far are peaches and bananas, which she tolerates but makes faces and fusses for something different whenever I give them to her.  Her favorites seem to be sweet potatoes and applesauce.  So far she has been introduced to each of the following (pretty much in this order):

Green beans
Peas
Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Bananas
Pears
Peaches
Apples
Squash
Oatmeal
Mangoes
Plums
Blueberries
Pumpkin
Broccoli
Strawberries
Raisins

I still have parsnips, spinach, rutabagas, quinoa, kale, chickpeas, lentils, apricot, rice, coconut, avocado, chicken, salmon, turkey, ham and beef to introduce her to in the next month or so.  I'm pretty aggressive about introducing different foods but I always wait 2-3 days before adding a new food to watch for any reactions (none so far) and we definitely knew that Rose was ready for solids based on her ability to hold her head up, use her tongue to push the food back in her mouth, and her interest in what we were eating (it is already difficult to eat while holding her on my lap because she just wants to grab anything and everything off my plate).  If anyone cares about it (I've had some friends ask in the past), this link from a pediatrician mom who is a friend of a friend is super helpful in giving some guidance about introducing foods to babies. 

Personality wise, Rose is an exuberant little gal.  She adores attention and as long as somebody will look at her and talk to her she still generously doles out her mega watt smiles.  Rose loves "Eensy, Weensy Spider" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and she does these hilarious little chuckles whenever I start the game with her and then at the end too when I tickle her.  She is very ticklish on her neck and under her arms but not really on her feet.  She is happy to spend long stretches jumping in her jumparoo, especially when I move it around to the garage when I have been packing boxes so she can watch or out to the yard where she laughs and jumps while Clara and I play "Red light, Green light" or blow bubbles.  And if we stand in front of Rose and jump up and down (like her) Rose thinks it is hysterical.

Clara still loves being a little momma and especially likes to be the first to open the door to Rose's room after a nap and run in to see her to "wake her up".  I let her try feeding Rose yesterday now that Rose knows what she is doing and Clara thought that was pretty awesome.

As far as sleep goes, Rose does amazing at night.  Right around 4 months old she started sleeping through the night and maybe in past month she has woken up two times, which has been wonderful.  She goes to sleep around 6:00 p.m. every night (she would go down earlier except that I keep her awake as long as possible) and wakes up around 6:15 most every morning (and even then she lays in her crib and happily talks to herself for quite a while as she works herself out of her swaddle).  Sleeping through the night this early on without any sleep training has been a big difference between Clara and Rose.  Another big difference though is that Rose isn't much of a napper during the day (probably because she gets most of the sleep she needs during the night) and forget trying to get her to take a nap if we are out and about because it just won't happen whereas Clara could (and would) sleep anywhere so long as she got three solid naps during the daytime.  She usually takes one super short (like 20 minutes or less) nap in the morning, then a really good nap of about 2 (sometimes 3) hours in the middle of the day (typically around noon to 3-ish). 

Rose is definitely getting some length to her hair - enough that I was finally able to manage two wee pigtails on the top of her head last week.  She looked so darling with them in and was a good sport about having them done.  But Rose also has a pretty significant bald patch on the back of her noggin' that is going to take a while to grow in.

Tabby sent this darling outfit for Rose and it is one of our favorites for her because it is so cute and comfortable for her.  So comfortable that I actually dressed her in this twice for the express purpose of taking her picture in it and each time just as I pulled out the camera Rose would, um, have an "accident" that required massive cleanup and a change of outfits.  But we finally got the pics that I wanted and I just love her smile in this picture.

Rose still only rolls from her tummy to her back and not the other way around but she is so, so close to being able to roll from her back to her tummy and only gets stuck on her shoulder.  She should be able to do it pretty soon I think.  I also feel like she is doing some preliminary teething because likes to chomp down on my finger or knuckle crazy hard and gnaw on it like it is providing relief to sore gums.  She also chews her own fingers and has started drooling more and I can sort of see that her bottom gums are a little swollen where two front baby teeth are sitting below the surface, but honestly, it could still be another month or two before they come up enough to break through I think.

Another trick Rose has figured out this past month is how to grab her toes and hold onto them.  It makes us laugh and Clara always points out that Rose is doing yoga because I told her that was a yoga pose called "happy baby".

The nickname Rosie Posie has really stuck and we (me, Paul and especially Clara) call her this all the time.  I like to recite the nursery rhyme "Georgie Porgie, Pudding and Pie" for her except using "Rosie Posie" and changing genders and Clara thinks it is hilarious. 

 

 

At 6 months Rose's adoption can be finalized and we only have one more (of 4) post-placement home study visits with our caseworker where we will get the last of the paperwork that will need to be filed with the court to get finalization set up. 

 

We adore our little Rosie girl.