...

So I realized I haven't written much about Allison's developments. Here are some highlights at 5 and half months:
She's still the best baby ever!

No teeth yet (that probably helps reinforce the above :)

She's arching her back and very close to rolling over, but not there yet.

Tummy time is not as traumatic as it used to be. She seems to enjoy seeing a new perspective of the world and ofcourse her musical mirror toy I put in front of her.

She has hair. Enough of a peach fuzz that I considered it sticking up one day. I don't think anyone else would describe it that way though. haha. Most still consider her a bald baby. I'm guessing the hair will come in light brown, but her Mimi/Grandma is thinking it'll have some red in it.

We never really had a problem with cradle cap, only had a couple small patches of a flaky head after a bath.

Eyes are still a dark blue/gray with a couple brown flecks. Still a toss up what they'll be.

We'll find out in a few weeks after her 6 month check up, but I have a feeling she'll be on the long side. Her onesie/sleeper outfits are a size 6-9 months and she's close to outgrowing those. but if you just put 6-9 month pants on her, those are still a little big around her waist and butt. And some of her cute onesies size 6mo that button at the crotch are a little small.

The only words we've heard sounded like a hey and hi. Usually we just get babble. But she sure is happy about whatever she's saying.

Still smiles alot - all you have to do is smile at her and she'll usually return one back at you.

I think she really likes the baby sling I have. I've used it this week more with Jeff being gone and she seems to calm right down when she's cuddled up with me :)

A typical afternoon/night for us - bring her home about 4:45-5pm, she'll get a bottle between 6 and 7, some playtime, bath every other night, walk around the front of the house (suns goes down in back), then in bed about 7:15. Most nights we get up at least once to give her a pacifier and then she's right back to sleep, then she officially gets up about 6am. Though lately I think she wants to wake up at 5 am but I pop that paci in so she dozes off again.
Yes, we are very lucky and thankful for this sleep. I'm afraid of how it'll change when she starts teething, or develops the knowledge/concept of us leaving the room.

I caught up in age to Jeff yesterday. He wasn’t here to see it though. I was hoping Allison would say mama for my birthday, but no luck yet. She does say what appears to be ‘hi’ though. Either way she greeted me with a big smile so that was good enough. I had a couple of my margarita girlfriends over last. I think they enjoyed babytime most. (They are both waiting on grandkids they fear may never come. ) Allison was really good except for a few minutes when Liz took off her glasses. This change of face must have freaked her out because the bottom lip and a few cries came out, but she calmed down and went back to happy baby soon enough.

I had a bit of a head cold last week, but it went away enough for me to torture myself with an aerobics class yesterday. That free gym membership is a little motivation to get me in there. Now, I just need some motivation on my diet. I really need to get back into my pants before winter. I can get into them, but I fear I may have panty crater lines on the rear and I would rather not draw that kind of attention. I know they say that it took 8 months to put on the weight, but after 5 months you get impatient for it go back to wherever it came from. That whole breastfeeding thing did not result in one of those magical stories I hear of women getting down a smaller weight than before they were pregnant. Whoever started those stories are evil! I am happy to report that I am back into my smaller bras. Thank the heavens my ta-tas did not get larger. I’m pretty sure my feet are the same size too. Strange how I was so greatly concerned about those 2 aspects of my body.

There is not much news on the homefront. I enjoyed some of our cooler weather and hammered in some fence nails Sunday. We learned that the previous owner built that fence himself – that explained a lot. I hope it can last another 5 years, but I’m doubtful. We tried out the baby jogger and it’s definitely nicer. I do love how our neighborhood is big enough for several different walking routes. I’m still way behind on printing photos of Allison and getting some collages up on the walls. I don’t think I’m living up to first-time-parent standards of having 20 photos of the new baby in the family room :)

Jeff’s parents will be back this weekend on their way back home. Guess we can have another Saturday night out since babysitters will be there. Friday night I’ll be lounging with a bunch of girlfriends, martinis in hand, at someone’s lakehouse. Oh how I wish I could snap my fingers and make Friday appear now. My next countdown will be for our beach trip next month. I wonder what Allison will think when she puts a sandy hand in her mouth. Haha.

This weekend seemed to fly by without any relaxation or downtime at home. Friday night I did my grocery shopping. Saturday morning we got up and went walking and came across a yard sale. I got a baby jogger stroller for $25! woohoo. Now, it's old but seems to be in good shape, I just need to spend a few more minutes cleaning it. We also bought a bicycle trailer thingy to hold a kid. (I have no idea what they are called.) It was $25 too so I couldn't pass it up. We keep saying we need to ride bikes more often so maybe next year we will. Saturday I also rode around and did a few errands, dropped off thrift store load, jewelry and Lowes. Then we dropped off Allison with a friend so we could go to Taryn & Wil's wedding shower fiesta party. They actually had a commercial grade margarita machine there :) Jeff got to hear a few conversations of moody/stressed girls taking it out on their husbands, which made us laugh, but I hope secretly he saw that I'm really not THAT bad :) We didn't want to burden the babysitter too long or get Allison too off schedule, so we left about 8 to pick her up and get home. oh, the babysitter was just a friend who has 3 boys and wanted to play with a little girl. One of her kids likes babies and evidently did a great job of keeping Allison giggling.

Jeff has not been sleeping well, so he took two Tylenol PM at 10pm, for the first time ever. Well, Allison got me up a few times, meaning I didn't sleep good, so Sunday morning Jeff was still groggy, I was cranky and we had to get ready to go see Aaron at the lakehouse. We somehow got out the door about 9am and made it down there at 11. Aaron and Karen's baby Owen, is just 5 weeks younger than Allison and both were concieved in Alaska. He is a cute lil chunk and weighs more than Allison. He was not feeling very good between a cold and stomach issues. I knew Karen was exhausted and had a much rougher night than I did. I couldn't help but think if I were her, I would hate me. Here I come to visit and I have this smiley happy baby that only cried for the minute before she got a bottle. The guys got to play in the water, while Karen and I chilled out in the shade. Allison ofcourse didn't want to take a nap, but she did fall asleep for much of her first boat ride. We had a good visit and next time the kids should be old enough to play together. We got home about 8pm, gave Allison a bath, fed her and bam our weekend was over. Seems like it was a quick flash but I guess we did alot.

Tonight is supposed to be concerts in the park, but I'm not sure if the rain I'm looking at right now will make it muddy.

I wonder if she could be a little overstimulated? :)

No, that's the look she always give for the camera.

Jeff's really belated birthday present came today. I signed us up for Thai cooking lessons at a nearby restaurant. It was good to learn more about the owners and overall have a better appreciation for what you eat. We made Shrimp Lemongrass Salad and Pad Thai with chicken and shrimp. It was really good (even if I left the onions out of mine). The salad part we made at a table set up in the restaurant, so I was excited to hear that they were letting us back in the kitchen to cook on the stove in a skillet. Jeff even showed off some flipping skillet skills. It was fun and I'm glad we did it, but it all reminded me of how much you have to chop up and prepare to cook and then you eat it all in a matter of minutes. I think I'd prefer to just pay a little more and go out to eat. So they didn't loose any of our business by offering the class :)

(photo taken with my new Iphone - I love having it everywhere with me :)

Allison discovered her feet a couple weeks ago. I think she still prefers her hands since they go in her mouth easier. It's so cute when she pulls on her feet like she's trying to stick her booty out. She has not mastered rolling over yet, but she's close because she's always arching her back. She's still a happy smiling baby. My next fear in parenthood is the teething process. Right now Allison sleeps so good - from about 7:30pm to 6 am with only one or 2 trips in there from us to give her a pacifier. My sister scared me when she said that her kids started sleeping in their bed when they were fussy b/c of teething. I guess only time will tell.

On the feeding front, I'm very close to closing down the boobie milk factory. I had arbitrarily picked a goal of 6 months to make it in breastfeeding. Well, that got shot down when I went back to work and had a boss that holds 3 hour meetings. A couple times I left them early for fear of leaking through my shirt. So I survived one month of pumping 2 or 3 times a day at work. I thought that was pretty good - she was 4 months old almost exclusively breastfed. Then I gradually cut out a pumping session at a time and now I'm down to just mornings. And that will get shut down next week, right around her 5 month birthday. I never had a strong opinion for either side of the breast vs bottle debate, but I did go through 2 AGONIZING weeks of learning to breastfeed with some pain beyond that, so when it did become easy (about 2 months later - ha) and I didn't want to give it up just because of work. Then I went to work and changed my mind again :) I gave it my best shot for a while, and I'm proud of myself for as long as I made it.
Now Allison is getting cereal at daycare once a day and thank goodness, those ladies are getting most of the bad diapers, b/c OMG, they are bad. I know it's just going to get worse later and both Jeff and I are in trouble b/c we both gagged this weekend. I thought of that America's funniest video clip of the compilation of 20+ dads gagging, pinching noses, wearing protective armor, while changing diapers.

Other parts of life are just rolling on. I did have a ladies jewelry night at my house this week that was alot of fun. I think I had 11 friends over and served blueberry lemonade martinis. oh yummy. I still don't think I've had more than 2 drinks in one night though. I'm a lightweight after going so long without during pregnancy and breastfeeding. I think I need some practice before our beach trip in September. Greg and Claire's babysitting duties may run over into the next day. haha.