Penelope Jane, 5 months

Penny is 5 months old.  Every day I marvel at how beautiful she is.  Sometimes I can't even believe that she is ours and that she is here.  My pregnancy with her seemed to last and eternity and I am just so grateful that she is with us now and healthy!

She is such a happy girl.  Her smile is contagious and her little laugh is so sweet.  She literally lights up when she sees her brothers or when I go in to get her from her crib in the morning or after a nap.  When she gets really happy she kicks her feet, grins from ear to ear and wrinkles up her nose....make my heart melt! I love that toothless smile!  She has started to show a bit of separation anxiety, but not much.  It usually happens if I try to hand her to someone without letting her warm up to them at first.

She loves to be held and I love to hold her :)  She is content to play in her excersaucer, on the floor or in her swing.  When she want some attention she will "yell", not cry, but yell.  I think it is kind of cute, even though I tell her not to yell at me.  Her favorite toys are her lovies and Tiny Love.  Tiny Love was also Charlie's favorite toy at this age.  I think he is a keeper. 

Just recently she realized that she had feet! It was in the middle of the night and I had just finished feeding her and was changing her diaper, in the dark on our bed.  I could barely see her but she was awake and making her raspberries and speaking softly to me.  Then all of a sudden she reached up and grabbed her foot.  She was so excited and started squealing and laughing.  It was such a sweet moment.

We also just started her on baby food.  I tried a few weeks ago and she had no interest at all so we backed off.  I always hold her on my lap at most meals and last week she was very interested in my pancakes!  I gave her a little nibble and she was hooked.  So now, if I don't feed her while we are eating she yells at us until we feed her.  You would think the poor thing was starving or something :)

In the last 2 weeks she has also started sleeping longer stretches.  She is down from 3 naps to 2 naps.  Usually around 9am and 1pm with her afternoon nap being about 2 hours.  She was doing 3-4 45minute naps a day.  She is still putting herself to sleep between 6-7pm and eating every 3-5 hours with longer stretches in the early evening and at night.  We also just started having her sleep more in her crib and less in our room.  Even though she still sleeps about 2-3 hours each night in her bassinet by our bed.  I am not ready to have her away from us for the whole evening yet :)

We are just crazy about this girl! She is such a sweet addition to our family and we love her dearly.