Time for new toys

Holly is more dexterious than ever, so I think we need to get her some new toys to keep her challenged appropriately. So the nesting box set Uncle Mike got for Holly is coming in really handy right now. She likes to smack the boxes repeatedly so she might be a little drummer. We're going to the toy store tonight to see if we can't find anything she can happily smack around or has some buttons to push (because she likes remote controls too). I was able to dig through her clothes the other day and most of the 6-9 month sized stuff we have would be appropriate in warmer weather so she might not wear a lot of it. So for the people that have been asking us, she could use more long-sleeved onesies, jammies (the kind with the snaps), and other warmer 6-9 month sized stuff. We already have coats for her.

Funny noises

I just noticed that Holly likes to sleep with her left arm across her eyes. David says she's been doing that for a little while. We still try to swaddle her as much as possible, but the arms come out almost every night. David did a 'beat-box' session with Holiday last night and she totally loved it, she's always liked singing and if you make funny noises. Her raspberry spitting noises are really extreme now, I'm completely in the spray zone whenever I change her diaper because that's simply a favorite place to be silly while mommy or daddy is changing diapers. Holly's a crack up.

More teething but no teeth yet

Holly has been scratching a lot at her gums today. I wonder if little teethies are going to show up soon. She was kind of cranky this morning, so she's had a lot of naps. That seems to be her major coping mechanism. With the big increase in food Holly has had, she gotten more baby chubbiness. Holiday is still in the 50th percentile as far as I can tell. Right now she wears size 3-6 mo. and 6-9 mo. sizes, it depends on the brand of clothing, so I need to go through her clothes again and pack away the remaining 0-3 mo. clothes. We've noticed a big increase in her physical activity and her chattering too.

Holly's 5 months old

She's getting so big now. Holly takes about 24-32 oz of formula a day now and lots of naps so she's got to be seriously growing. When she's awake she's pretty active, whenever we give her hanging toys to play with she basically smacks away with all arms and legs with rapidity. Oh yeah, and lots of screaming, but it's happy screaming I assure you. Holly was really going to town on it yesterday...had me laughing. When we bottle feed her she starting to grip the bottle, and if she doesn't want it, she bats at it with all arms and legs so you better be holding on. Below I have a YouTube link to all the little movies David has put together (his handle is MrTurtleback). The ones that appear to be an outdoor concert is Bumbershoot in which Holly was 4.5 months old in. All the other ones were spur of the moment and we didn't think to record her age at the time. Our video camera is new so we're still getting used to it. We'll try to remember to attach her age to videos in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mrturtleback&search_type=&aq=f

Bumbershoot Pictures

Girl Power!

We also had a weight check on Holly this last Friday. 2.5 weeks ago she was 11 lbs 4 oz. and about the 5th percentile, now she's 14 lbs 13 oz and about the 50th percentile. She's on mostly formula now, my milk's drying up since I've been so stressed out. The heat didn't help either. The doctor was pretty amazed, so needless to say no more weight checks are necessary just the regular check ups. We have noticed that her poop has been much more stinkier than it had been with breastmilk. I'm sure it will be worse with solid food.

Post Bumbershoot Recovery

Well we made it through Bumbershoot...all three days. I think we did pretty good, probably because we wanted it to work, even in the weather. So through proper planning and tag team efforts by mommy and daddy, Holly had a pretty good experience. I think Holly liked the visual experience the most, the art and the lights at the night show we went to. We were too tired to get to see De La Sol but we made it to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Black Eyed Peas, Franz Ferdinand and a bunch of others. With Holly's super cute pink ear phones (for hearing protection), David and I became the 'baby ear phones parents'. Everywhere we went people were asking us about them. One guy told us that he's been a sound guy for years and it always impresses him when parents take the time to protect their kids' hearing. We saw the ear phones for the first time last year at a NHRA event and later again at Bumbershoot when we were newly pregnant. It seemed like a good idea to us so we remembered it since we like going to concerts. We hung out with the Preston family during Bumbershoot quite a bit, they're always a fun family. :) I made a point to visit the Hemp booth because I needed a 'mommy purse'. I got a good one for a good price, I still have my smaller one that I got a couple years ago. They last a long time. I'll post Bumbershoot pictures when we get them downloaded.

Daddy the Artist...

and the comedian. (Probably inspired by a certain diaper change last night). :)

Well Holly hasn't rolled over on her own yet. But she's rolling around like crazy with slight assistance. Yesterday she was staring at her hand as she was moving her fingers around, she is getting much more control over her limbs so she's less likely to smack herself now. She's making all sorts of baby noises too. Little spontaneous screams seem to be a part of her conversation. Holly woke up in the middle of the night last night, which she hasn't done in a couple months. I fed her and put her back to bed, but during the feeding she was cracking herself up by looking at a certain print on the wall in our bedroom. It's the one of the little boy with a baby dinosaur on a leash with the caption "Can I keep him?" Once I couldn't get her to stop smiling and laughing at it I knew she was full and put her bed. She's a funny little thing.

Cute baby pics

Holly's so cute.

Daddy's feeding Holly at EMP/SFM.

Holly likes to play with her toys, those hanging toys were flying around when this picture was taken.

Holly practicing sitting up. I just love this outfit on her.

Baby toe grabbing Holly.

Holiday is really picking up on my personality. We went to a party with her on Saturday night and she got overwhelmed with all the sudden oohs & aahs and freaked out. We took her into a quieter area and she calmed right down. She even let daddy feed her and fell asleep on mommy so everything was alright. But it reminded me of an incident I had when I was 8 years old. I'm obviously short but when I was 8 I was incredibly tiny. This bunch of older kids surrounded me and I swear to this day it was to see how I would react. Well I totally felt small and freaked out. I ran away crying to my teacher and had to stay with her until my mom came to pick me up. I get the feeling that Holly doesn't like to feel small either.

Here's a YouTube video that David posted of Holly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m8YQW44UPY