5 Months Old

Ava is 5 months today!
Chad and I were looking at her last night and just remembering how tiny she used to be when we brought her home and how much she can do now compared to then. She is just growing and learning so fast!

Here is what she is doing at 5 months!

• babbling like crazy. She loves to just make a sound and sometimes gets a very serious look on her face like she is concentrating SO hard on what she is saying.
• getting up on her knees for crawling position ... without the crawl. She is SO close to crawling, just can't get everything moving at the same time.
• starting to get a routine of morning nap, afternoon nap and bedtime around 7:30-9ish. 
• eating solids! She has had rice cereal, peas (hated!), carrots (loved!) and sweet potatoes (liked) so far!
• reaching for everything. If anything is anywhere near in her reach she is going for it. She even lunges for it if she is in your arms. 
• chewing everything. Not only does she reach for things, she chews whatever she reaches for. AND her hand AND the surface she is laying on AND her clothes...
• right now she is chewing one finger most of the time.  Just the pointer finger. She was doing her entire fist but has moved on. It's so darn cute!
• rolling over allll the time. As soon as you place her down FLIP and she's over!
• laughing. Not all day long or anything, but she has her occasions where she gets a big ol' belly laugh going. Chad can get her laughing so hard most of the time.
• riding in the car better! She either entertains herself or falls asleep. The car rides of screaming the ENTIRE way are very much less often. (notice I said less often, not over haha)
• wanting to stand up all the time. Around 4 months she was able to pull herself up from a sitting to standing position holding on to your hands, and ever since then she wants to do it all the time. She loves standing up like a big girl.
• TAKING STEPS! This is our proudest achievement so far. The past week/ week and a half she has been stepping when she stands up! Especially if she is chasing after cocoa or something she wants. She takes big steps and sometimes steps on her toe but she's 5 months and walking -- awesome.
• starting to have more regular dirty diapers (sorry, but I want to remember as much as I can haha)
• responding to sounds and her name. She whisks her head around quickly to see where the sound is coming from.
• pushing up (when she is on her tummy) VERY well. She gets her whole arms stretched out and looks around everywhere.
• drooling all-the-time.
• she is wanting to look out at anything/everything going on. When you hold her she doesn't cuddle up with you much anymore, she pushes you away to try and get a look at what all is going on around her.
• watches all her older friends with a look of "how are they doing that?". Last night she was watching a 1 year old walk around and just looked like she wanted to go join her so bad, but couldn't figure out how to get up and go!
• she LOVES being outside. If she is getting cranky or anything you can just take her outside and it magically makes her quiet.
• she is loving animals. When she is at my Mom's house she watches cocoa no matter where she is. She loves the geese when we go to the lake. She kind of likes Winston? but hasn't had a chance to get to know him too much yet...he's just too big.
• she crosses her feet at the ankles. This is the absolute cutest thing! No matter what she is doing she crosses them and I just can't help but smile every time I see it.

...more to be added as I think of them!