5 months old

Time is flying here in Caroline's world! She turned five months old on March 6th and she's growing like a weed -- both physically and cognitively. My favorite time of the day with CJ is bathtime. She loves to look at herself in the mirror and play in the water. She's taking a bath in the big tub now, and can sit up to play with her toys. Then she gets a big lotion rub down and its time for bed.


She's also playing like crazy. Her skills at grasping and reaching keep improving and she tries to grab everything within arms-length (and sometimes farther) -- toys, certainly, but also my dinner, the newspaper, hair, jewelry, blankets, clothes -- you name it. We spend a lot of time naming all the things she puts in her mouth and describing their textures.

Caroline's personality sharpens everyday. She's a strong willed little girl. She likes what she likes, and she lets us know it right away if its pleasing to her. The utter joy she demonstrates with her whole body when we show her her bottle or Madge the Ladybug toy is completely adorable. Likewise, she is darn clear about what she DOESN'T like. She doesn't transition easily, but can be a good sport in a new situation, once she gets used to it. She always wants to be right in the thick of things -- sitting in her chair or buggy watching the action isn't good enough, either -- she wants to be held so she's at people height to see all the goings on.

She's very expressive. Both sad ...

And happy....

The two most common things Caroline hears are the sounds of kissing in her ear (from ALL members of the family, all the time) and "Patience, Caroline, patience".

She's drinking up to 36oz of milk a day, and in April we'll start cereal. She's no longer swaddled at night (that was a harder habit for mama to break than CJ). She's making all sorts of noises -- lots of yells, but also "bwah bwah bwah" and the untypeable sound of bubbles being blown. Caroline is just amazing. She changes every day, and every day is a treat.