Dear Irelyn: Month Five

Dear Irelyn, 

You just turned five months old yesterday and I am already getting your five month post up! Shocking, I know! :] This is just such a fun age and I want to remember all of it! 

This month you have started to learn lots of new things. You had a couple of grumpy weeks and Mimo {Grandma Olmstead} said that she remembers her babies would get grumpy just before they learned something new. That turned out to be just the case of you! You were grumpy just before you learned how to grab your toes and then you were grumpy just before you learned how to sit up! You are not totally sitting up on your own yet but you can go for quite a while before you fall over. I just make sure you are always surrounded by pillows so you don't bonk your head. You decided to try this whole sitting up thing yesterday {on your five month birthday!} and then today you pretty much have it down for up to about twenty minutes at a time. We are all super impressed with your skills! You have rolled over a few times from your stomach to your back and just once from your back to your stomach {and I didn't even see it happening!!} but you are not all that interested in rolling over and you really aren't a fan of tummy time. We're not too concerned about it though since your big sister didn't roll over regularly until after she learned how to crawl! It has been so fun watching you learn these new things and you are definitely a happier baby once you add these tricks to your book! 

This month you went to the doctor for the first time. Haha. I didn't take Holland until she was three months old and then we barely got you in before your fifth month! Clearly, we're really good at going to the doctor. Hopefully from here on out we'll keep you on track though! You did great with the doctor and with getting shots. You fell asleep within about two minutes of nursing afterwards and even slept while I transferred you to your carseat for the drive home. It was shocking and such a relief! At the doctor we found out you weight 17 lbs. 3 oz. {85th percentile} and 24.5 inches {24th percentile}. I think you are going to be like Holland and just go down in the weight percentile from here on out though. We will see though! We sure are enjoying your chunkiness!!

Some other notables: 

-You have started doing this cooing/screaming sound and it is the funniest, cutest thing ever. It cracks your dad and I up every single time! 

-You still blow little spit bubbles all the time. 

-You are super good at holding onto your toys so you can chew on them. 

-You've decided you have no need for a binky anymore. Mostly I'm sure this is a nice thing {no weaning you from it later on} but I do miss it sometimes! 

-I figured out that I had been wearing our Ergo carrier wrong {I needed to move the back strap up} and ever since then you {and I} are so much more comfortable and happy in the Ergo. I have started using it a lot more and we are big fans! I used it at church yesterday and you even fell asleep in it {only for a few minutes though because then sacrament meeting got out and it was loud--sad!}!

-I have started putting you down for naps without nursing and the first couple of times you weren't a fan but you've been doing great the past few days! I am attempting to get you on a little bit of a better schedule and since we started doing naps without nursing you have started sleeping longer in the night. I'm not sure if they're related but they happened around the same time. It works for me! 

You are such a sweet, beautiful little girl and we love glimpsing more of your personality as you learn to do new things. We are so happy to have you in our family! 

Love, 

Mom, Dad, & Holland

Falling over

Sitting skills! 

The cutest chunky profile. 

Gorgeous blue eyes. 

More sitting and some spitting of course!

Goodness I just love this little girl of mine! I am the luckiest!

Holland's Fifth Month in Instagrams

In conjunction with this post, here is Holland's fifth month in Instagram photos. {These are not in the right order because I am lazy!} 

Holland tried rice cereal a few times this month--she's not a fan.

Holland played with her egg toys from Mimo lots. 

Hanging out in the airport with Dad after flying back to Idaho from a fun AZ trip.

Holland spent time with her cousins in AZ.

Christmas with AZ cousins. Holland is lucky to have lots of adorable cousins! 

Holland met her Aunt Helena's boyfriend Cory at AZ Christmas.

AZ Christmas stockings!

AZ Christmas morning

Holland waiting at the airport to meet her Uncle Angus for the first time. 

He was away serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bulgaria for the past two years! 

Holland with Uncle Angus. He wasn't quite sure how to hold a baby as this is his first time meeting all six of his nieces and nephews with two more on the way!

Holland just adores her cousin Madison!

Gram and Granddad Ashby and Aunt Teal came for a visit and we all headed up to Sun Valley for a fun day in the snow! 

Christmas morning in Idaho! 

We went to see reindeer {they really are somewhere back there} and Holland slept the whole time.

Holland dressed up for Christmas Sunday and then proceeded to wear this outfit for the next three Sundays as well. And I made her a fancy new Christmas bow!

Another fun Christmas morning face!

This is a still shot from a video of Holland fake coughing and talking to herself. Also, she inherited her long tongue from me. Everything else is from Race!

Holland, Madison, and Aunt Teal in their matching red onesie jammies!

Holland grew up in a day! I don't know why but she just looks so grown up to me in this picture!

 I love it though!

Holland made lots of funny faces. Her personality is just showing itself so much these days!

More rice cereal trying! It looks like she really likes it but she doesn't--that's why it's all over her face!

Holland wore lots of cute outfits and jammies. Jammies might just be my favorite baby clothes! 

Holland turned five months old!

I love taking photos of this cute girl! She brings me pure joy! I am so grateful for a phone that I can take photos with because I want to remember every fun stage with my cute girly! 

Five Months.

Dear Holland,

I can not believe that it has been five months. I'll be honest, the first couple of months you were here went by REALLY slow. But now time is FLYING! I just want it to slow down! Your dad and I are having a blast watching you learn and grow though so I guess you can keep growing up. This month was eventful because you got to go to AZ again to see your Uncle Angus get home from his mission! You were the sixth niece/nephew that was born while he was gone and there are two more on the way. It was fun to dress all of you kids up in shirts with your names on them so that he knew who you were! It was a fun week home with the Olmstead family and you did okay on the flights. You just think that you need to be moving around all the time {at night mostly} so the flight back was a little rough. Everyone loves to see your smile though so no one got too mad at you for being so rambunctious. I am so grateful for your smiles because you are not always the easiest baby. You don't sleep much at night and refuse to go down for the night until one in the morning. Crazy girl! {We're hoping to work on the whole sleeping thing once we finally get into our own place--we're not sure when that will be just yet} You don't like to sleep too much during the day either. You definitely like to be out and about and I can tell that you just need a change of scenery a lot of the time. Hopefully when the weather gets a little warmer we can start taking you to some parks. I know that you would just love to watch the kids play!

This month your dad and I have noticed these exciting things about you:

-You fake cough and it's also kind of a laugh and it's hilarious. For the longest time we thought you were actually coughing but on Christmas day you were "coughing" all day and then laughing about it. It's pretty funny!
-You still stick your tongue out all the time. Especially when you're doing your silly fake cough.
-You like to hit your mom while you're nursing. Oh, and scratch. It's not my favorite.
-You talk to yourself a lot. I love to catch you talking to yourself or your toys. Once I took a video of you talking and then when I showed it to you you talked at the video. Pretty funny stuff! Now I just need to get a video of that!
-You somehow know when I am reading a book or using my phone while I'm nursing you and you try to turn all the way around to see what's going on.
-Your cousin Madison cracks you up. You love to watch her dance to her movies or just play. One day she was throwing a pair of your socks and then running and picking them up and you thought it was a hoot! It's so fun to watch the two of you together.
-You started grabbing your toes and trying to eat them. I didn't realize this was a "stage" kind of baby thing--I just thought some babies did it and some didn't so I was so excited when you started doing it because I think it is stinking cute!
-You have started playing with your ears. I think this is something you may have inherited from me because I have always loved playing with my ears. I think it is so cute when you just hold onto your ear while you are nursing. {But as you can see from all the bullet points above I think pretty much everything you do is really cute!}

You have been a joy in this fifth month and I look forward to this next month with you! Having you around makes your dad and I so happy!

We love you Holland girl!

Love,
Mom and Dad

Four months.

Three months.

 Two months.

One month.