Full Speed Ahead To 2nd Quarter

In looking back over the past month, I'm just amazed at how much Emma has grown! My God, it's like she's almost ready for high school! C'mon... she now has two road trips & three hotel stays under her very small belt. Actually, I have yet to find her a belt... but I'm looking. Anyone? Anyone at all? Perhaps if someone left a comment... (just a suggestion) ... But I digress... (always looking to use digress in a sentence). Anyhow, I just read Charlene's baby book for Jeff and realized I need to jump on mine. I've been pretty good, but not great. And, as we Blum's know, it's always a competition. That said, I'd like to re-cap young Emma's fifth month...

Favourite Toys: How quickly we forget the ones that used to matter so much... Our former love, Squishy, the adorable pink elephant, the one that was always there when she needed him, has been replaced with the funny looking stuffed red cat with the yellow face and magnet hands & feet, and a blue star-shaped teether thing for a tail. Other top picks are that multi-coloured little ball-like-thing with the face & mirror on the inside - it's neat, it's by Tiny Love. And the little stuffed monkey from her young beau, her first gift from a man other than her dad, the older and oh-so-handsome Zachary. I think she secretly calls him Zack. It's more mature, y'know.

Favourite Pastimes: sleep - they say when babies sleep they're growing. We're still waiting.
Personally, I'm getting quite tired of hearing just how small Emma is. She is in the 10th percentile, meaning that 10% of all little girls her age are her size. So there. Take that. And this creates a nice segway to my next point... a runt of a daughter loves, yes loves, to eat. All the books say babies stop eating when they're full... NOT true! Emma would eat all day long if only we'd let her! From the first day of rice cereal (on March 27, if you're keeping score), our LB went against the grain (pardon the cheap pun) and sucked it back with such gusto you'd think we'd been depriving her of food her whole life. I guess technically we had. And here I thought she was a spoon protege.

Tearing paper seems to rank pretty high on Emma's list of favourite things to do, that is, when she can get her hands on any. She's quick. You'd be surprised. Right when you think she's not paying attention, she's busy playing with her monkey, you're deep into your Vanity Fair article about how the Desperate Wives are at each others' throats, BAM! She strikes! Quick like lightening! Out comes the page with Bree & the pinking shears! And into Emma's mouth it goes. And that, my friends, brings me to Emma's next favourite pastime - shoving everything and anything at all into her little mouth. From stuffed animal limbs to strangers' fingers to plates to the table under the plates (yes, really), and all things in-between... if she can reach it, in her mouth it goes. Very attractive! Hopefully she'll stop that before she enters JK.

One skill she has picked up pretty quickly (ever since we got her the clip/string rig) is putting her plug in & out of her mouth ALL BY HERSELF!

What else? Our little white daughter has discovered the joy of the DANCE . Yes, she's a dancer. Not quite professional...yet. It's truly only a matter of time. Okay, fine... it's really more like the joy of the BOUNCE (but shhh...)

The remote control makes a great teether. Shame it hurts so much when she bashes it into her head.

And finally, she's quite the little laugher. Yup, the full gut-laughs. It's awesome to be able to make her little body shake with laughter, but even better is when she makes herself laugh! I mean, she can crack herself up! The only day she was playing with a tube of my hair goop - holding the thin end and trying to get it into her mouth (gee, really?). Well, poor thing kept dropping the bottle (tube) just inches away from gumming it to death. After the 23rd attempt, she just looked down at the tube and bust out laughing! And then, to make the story even better, she tried again, would fail, and kept on laughing!

Emma... you're the best!