Letter Month Five

Dear Sarah Graves,

You are now 5 months old and seem to be enjoying life so much. Your personality has begun to shine through and boy you seem to have a lot of it! You are curious about the world around you and are trying to take it all in, literally. You are so quick at grabbing things now that anything I have in my hands while I am holding you is immediately being aimed at your mouth. The other day I found you with a straw clutched tight in your little fist and sure enough, my cup no longer had a straw in it! You feel very upset when I try to remove these objects from your hands and look at me with your bottom lip curled out as though to say that I just took your best friend. The great thing about this age is that you are easily distracted and we move on to the next activity.

Your world is full of activity. You love your toys and can amuse yourself in them for quite some time. You have your favorite ones, but you are usually willing to give them all a go. Now that you are able to push up on your arms you are able to play while lying on your tummy. You are able to roll yourself with such ease now that you can decide you are tired of being on your tummy and move to your back. I can only imagine how good that bit of independence feels to you. You have discovered that being on your tummy isn’t just good for playing, but also for sleeping. It is by far your preferred sleep position.

Sleep is something that dominates our thoughts right now. We think about when you slept last, how long you slept, and oh yes, will you sleep tonight. Your napping seems to be getting easier. You take a one to two hour nap much more frequently than you did a few weeks ago and you seem to be able to soothe yourself to sleep pretty often. We have quit using your woombie now that you roll to your tummy and you seem to be doing fine without it. That’s a bit of a relief because we weren’t sure what you were going to do when you were invited to your first sleepover and needed someone to put your woombie on you!

Your Daddy and I just marvel at you. We are amazed at all the cute sounds you make, the way you smile at us, and all the silly things that make you giggle. Just tonight I was giving you a bath and you gave a deep laugh when I washed your toes. I guess those little feet are getting ticklish! Sometimes I get in the tub with you and we use our big tub that feels like a swimming pool to you. You love being in all that water and just move your legs all around. I hope that one day you will love to swim as much as I do.

I still can’t believe that I grew you. You are by far the best thing I have done. No Master’s or Ph.D. tops the kind of pride I feel when I look at your beautiful face and see how happy you are. I am so grateful to have you in my life. I hope that you can feel all the love around you.

Love,

Momma