It's here! 5 months. 
It feels very grown up, right? Like a real kid.
This month mainly brought lots of fun with Beck, maybe even more than last month. Every day she experiences more and more new things and enjoys more and more new things, and it's just the most fun to watch. I basically bully her into feeling the same feelings I feel, so I'll get all dramatic when I shove toys at her, like WOW BECK, LOOK AT THAT!! IT'S GORGEOUS!! about some shitty rattle or something. As a result, whenever I say WOW, she gets this hilarious surprised face like she's really into it. And, the best part is, she is really into it. She's started spending more time sitting up in this little chair we have and working on grabbing and manipulating toys on the tray. She's terribly clumsy at it, but works really hard at it. 
That's a big thing we've noticed in her development this month - she seems to get bored. She'll still watch me cook if she's in a good mood, but gone are the days of her hanging out quietly while I watch TV or Insta - this girl wants to be entertained all the time, and I'm perfectly happy to oblige. It also means I'm on the lookout for some good, affordable, new toys for her. Not many because she's an effing baby, but some things that can help her work on some development and keep her entertained when I'm not available to be all up in her grill 24/7. Mama's gotta shower, after all.
Speaking of toys, we lost our fav car entertainer this week, named Myrtle the Turtle. Myrtle hung above Beck's baby car seat, which we passed on last week to my BFF. Remember how I said I thought she was going to have that baby? She did! On 39 weeks and 1 day, just like I did with Beck. He's basically perfect, and he got our infant carrier set, so Beck has upgraded to convertible car seats! We got 2 of the Chicco ones at a great discount, and she seems to like them so far. But, I need a toy or 2 specifically for the car that makes some good noises for when she's fussy in the car. She escalates a good bit right before she falls asleep, and noisy toys are one of the only things that keep her distracted while she's working on sleep. What are your fav big-baby toys? 
Segueing beautifully into sleep, it's still not really happening for u, s. Our pediatrician said to wait until 6 months to sleep train, and, while there are many opinions on when and how sleep work should be done, we love him and I like that number. Right now Beck will occasionally put herself to sleep from awake in her bed (she's still in the pod in the pack n play next to our bed), but a lot of times we end up rocking her to sleep, which of course means she'll end up being a terrible entitled child and we are horrible parents, right? Unless we let her cry it out, and then we're the real monsters. 🙂 I'm kind of in the middle camp, I think that sleep is really important and can be gently taught, I also think it will at some point come naturally, even if it's in 4 years, and I also think that I'm pretty lazy so I might be worse at any sleep training than Beck. Currently Beck wakes up every 2 or 3 hours to eat at night, and takes 3 or 4 short naps during the day depending on what we're doing. I could kind of be OK with all of that if she would eliminate just one feeding from night and sleep 4 hour stretches. But, I think that involves actual work, so I'm avoiding it by listening to the pediatrician and waiting another month. Unless I get fed up and just let her cry for 3 hours tonight. Which I won't.
New skills include rolling from front to back, actual laughs which are GREAT (remember that Friends episode where Emma laughs? "just like that, but way less creepy...."), a little bit of object permanence (howling when I walk away if it's the right time of day), and very intentionally grabbing for things. Everything goes directly into her mouth, which people like to say means she's teething but also is an actual developmental milestone, so I'm not sure about that one yet. She also spends a lot of time cramming both fists or an entire foot into her mouth, which makes her look incredibly foolish. 
BTW, Jay and I have this game where we pretend she's an adult, and she's really bad at being an adult. We aren't really saying she's foolish, it's just entertaining for us to imagine it: what if I sat on your lap, gnawed on your fingers, drooled down your arm, then pooped and it got on your pants? You would not think it was adorable, I can all but guarantee it. Anyway, don't worry that we really think our child is dumb, we don't, but we do find it entertaining to call her such.
I'll tell you all about NYC in a separate post (spoiler alert, it was one of the worst trips to NYC for some outside factors), but that trip involved Beck on a plane, cab, bus, and ferry all in one day, all for the first time! She was a champion city baby, as we assumed she would be, and luckily doesn't seem to have ear issues with flying yet, and a lot of you pointed out how easy flying is when babies are still immobile and napping a lot. You were SO right, and I can't imagine the difference when they want to wander around the plane/airplane, need frequent stops to play, etc. Beck is still pretty content being in a stroller or Ergo all day, which makes travel a breeze with her.
Up next, I'm ready for her to say Mama (which will clearly be her first word), and start sittingup on her own. I don't think she's remotely close to either of those things, but the baby babbles are just so cute and I can't wait until they mean something. 
Seeing my friend's baby this weekend drove home how MUCH Beck has changed in 5 months. Sometimes I forget because I see her all day every day, so the change is so gradual, but a 1-day old compared to Beck in the hospital was just insane. She looks like a toddler next to him! I was telling Heather that I'm always so conflicted when I look back at old pictures and write these posts; I miss her from days past and I'm so excited FOR HER for all of the things that are about to come. Life is excellent as a baby, and I want her to have all the experiences in the world, which obviously can't happen at this level of development.
Jay and I are still obsessed with this kid, and I will say it feels completely normal to say "the 3 of us," and I think half the time people forget who our third is because she's not a person yet, even though she totally is. I, for my part, love her more every day because I feel like I know her better, understand what to do to make her happy, all that cheesy stuff. There is a good amount of muddling through, but I think we're lucky to have what seems to be a normal baby with a pretty good temperament and normal development. 
And that's 5 months! Tell me what toys to buy her. She deserves it for all the sleeplessness, right? You can tell me your thoughts about sleep training too, I really like hearing other people's experiences so I can sort through all the information!
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