5 Month Update

Some highlights from month 5:

• Avery is a rolling machine!! The minute you put her down she starts rolling over - She can now go back to front and front to back in both directions. She prefers to roll to the right and will just keep going until she hits a wall. Her activity sheet from daycare usually says "I rolled over and over and over today".
• She had her first bad cough/cold this month (happened right after day care started). She seems to finally be getting over it but we have a feeling there are many more to come given that it's flu season....Mom and Dad got sick too. We are told this is pretty normal for the first few months after you start day care.
• She is very chatty and loves to play with her voice - squeals, low mumbling and everything in between. Sometimes she will just look at you and babble and babble some more. It's very cute!
• Avery is very smiley and is starting to really like peek-a-boo. Every once in a while we get a good giggle or belly laugh - usually when Dad has her in the Bjorn and she is looking in the mirror.
• After 4 weeks of daycare she is really getting the hang of things. Her teachers tell us what a pleasure she is to have and that she just "gets it" now. She is napping better and taking 4 oz bottles (much improved from her 1-2 oz the WHOLE day the first week) and really likes looking at the other babies - apparently she loves to watch them take their bottles which may be why she is better at taking hers.
• Her eyes are still grey/blue.
• Avery got her 2 bottom teeth and the top two may not be too far behind given how much she is continuing to drool and chew on EVERYTHING! She loves to put strings of any kind in her mouth - If you are wearing a hooded a sweatshirt she is happy.
• She is still loving books and has more patience to look at the pages
• Avery seems to be getting closer to sitting up on her own
• Avery loves to sleep on her tummy now - we put her down on her back and she typically flips over within a few minutes. She is still not the worlds best sleeper but she goes down easily between 8 and 9 and usually wakes to feed once. She stirs a bit in the night but is much better at putting herself back to sleep and is usually up for the day between 7:30 and 9.
• One major difference we are seeing is how much longer her attention span is. She can play with a single toy on her own for 20 minutes or more and be happy. I took her to a basketball game at UHS on Friday night and she sat for the whole game in Grams' lap playing with one toy and never fussed or cried or needed to be walked around. This is a huge difference from the early days!! It makes it much easier to take her places.
• Her weight gain seems to be slowing - probably a combination of how active she is, her age, and the fact that she had so much trouble taking bottles for several weeks.
• We can't believe that next month she'll be 1/2 a year!! Amazing how fast it all goes....