5 1/2 Months

Back from Maui. The trip went by really fast. The most amazing thing, I think, was that you were absolutely fabulous on the airplane trips. We flew out of Portland and the flight there (including a stopover in Honolulu) was about 7 hours. You didn't cry once. Not even a whimper! I couldn't believe it. Then on the flight back which was only about 5 hours, you whimpered a couple times but never cried. There was even a screaming 2 year old a couple rows ahead of us. Normally that sets you off -- you don't like to hear other babies cry -- but you only frowned a couple times. You nursed, played, smiled at everyone, jumped on dad's lap, slept. Angelic.

On the trip we went to the beach almost every day, but kept you in the shade. Dad and I took turns snorkeling and saw lots of fish. You felt the sand with your toes and dad took you in the water once or twice. You weren't too sure about that, since it's kind of cold. You spent lots of time with dad in your Snugli. He took you on lots of walks -- you never get tired of that, it seems. The third night we were there you had a fever of 103. It's your first one -- you felt so hot, but you were still in a good mood, just sleepy. The next day you were fine. You never got sick, you haven't yet (yay!), so I don't know what caused the fever. Maybe you fought whatever it was off.

Yesterday an amazing thing happened -- you fell asleep on your own. I was really tired, laying in bed, and dad brought you to me because he thought you were tired too. I tried to nurse you but you weren't really hungry. So you grabbed the sheets and started chewing on them, making cooing noises at the ceiling. I started to doze off. Then about 10 minutes later I looked over at you and you were completely asleep! Yay! I knew it would happen eventually.... normally you have to be rocked, nursed, walked, or in the car to sleep. You must be maturing... I don't mind if you stay a baby a little longer, though. :)

What else... you've really become fascinated with our cat, Winston, lately. You watch him walk around, you turn your head when he meows, you even smile and squeal at him. Last night you petted him lots while he was sitting next to you purring. I think you like the way his fur feels.

You're growing like crazy. You wear 6-9 month clothes now, and are growing out of those at an amazing rate. You're the size of a 10 month old baby, it seems!!

Speaking of growing, it's almost time to start feeding you solid food -- 6 months they say is the best time to start with simple foods like rice cereals, bananas, squash, avocado, pear. You don't seem really interested, though. You reach for water glasses and like to take sips of water, but when we've tried to give you banana or applesauce you spit it right out. Sometimes it takes a while I guess. In a couple weeks we'll start trying more. You'll be 6 months on March 14th. Amazing!