Abigail is 5 Months Old

Abigail has gone and turned 5 months old.  Her sweet little personality is becoming more and more evident every day.  Easygoing (mostly).  Content (mostly).  Happy (mostly).  Sweet (mostly).  Squeezy and squishy...definitely!  If you look at her...she starts to smile.  So, with all the people looking at her around here, she is practically smiling the whole time she is awake.  

She is now wearing 9-12 month sized clothes.  The above red and white outfit is 12 mos.

Here is Abigail's official "I Am 5 Months Old" picture:

I love this colorful outfit that A is wearing in these pictures.  I think it is adorable.

It is a hand-me-down (hand-me-over?  hand-me-back?).  We’ve been so blessed with clothes.  A sweet couple at our church (he is a distant cousin of mine) have a sweet little girl named Paisley who is a buddy of Gabriel’s (she yells “Gabiel!” whenever she sees him…and now she always wants to peek at “Baby Abigail”).  When Paisley's mama Bethany found out we might be adopting a girl (before A was born, before anyone knew what her sex was yet) Bethany said that if we had a girl, she had the clothes covered. And now, every month or so, Bethany and I switch out bins of clothes.  I give her the bin we are now done with and she gives me the bin with the next size of clothes.  This has saved us SO much money….and has been such an absolute blessing for us.  We are extremely grateful for this!

Abigail has gotten big enough to use her exersaucer.  She loves it!  For a while.  And then she is done. And she’ll let you know right quick when she’s had enough.

Abigail has gotten to the stage where she can fully enjoy the hangy-down things on the bouncy seat….just in time for her to about be too big for the seat:

A has also now gotten big enough that I can wear her in the Ergo.  She likes it and is very content in it. I normally wear her in the front, but if I'm working in the kitchen, I wear her on my back.

 
And  - if you can't tell - she loves to chew on the straps...

...just like her big brother Gabriel did.



I wash the ergo frequently...but this still makes me cringe.  

Two cute little teeth have popped through.  

They arrived without much fanfare, thankfully.  She was chewing on my finger whilst sitting on my lap during church, and I just happened to feel them.  Well...what do you know?!?   G’s teeth made more of a difficult grand entrance.  I’m becoming more of a believer in this amber necklace thing…

We are getting more into a hair routine.  We co-wash ("Conditioner Only") Abigail's hair only about once every week or week and a half.  Then, in the morning I use a spray bottle to mist A's hair with water.  Then I use the Tangle Teezer to detangle a bit.  And finally, I use my hands to distribute coconut oil all over.  

DISCLAIMER:  I record our routine here not because these are the correct things to be doing or I recommend it to anyone else...but simply so that we will have a record of what I did.  This way I will be able to look back and shake my head at what (little) I knew and did at this point...and marvel at how far I've come (hopefully) and be surprised and thankful that A still has any hair on her precious head.

I waver between dying to get my hands in her hair and start doing twists or little braids…and being scared to death that it will soon be time to start all of that in earnest.  We have begun using scarves to line the back of her car seat and the bouncy seat, so as to reduce friction and breakage with her hair.  I read that I should do that…I didn’t just know it.  I am reading books and blogs and FB groups and watching YouTube videos whenever I can to learn more.  Yowzaaa…..I have much to learn!

Abigail is still playing with and pulling on her hair on the back of her head, although not quite as often.  I hope this ceases and desists before I start putting styles into her hair…because having a cutie patootie pull out styles that are labor-intensive to put in will NOT be fun!

Abigail has now had her first "solids"...although they weren't very solid.  The first food to ever touch her mouth?  Pate.  I recently gave this new pate recipe a try...and we liked it!  One day while I was holding her in my lap while eating the pate for lunch, it occurred to me to let her try it, as liver is one of the three things suggested as first foods for babies.  She has also had some of  my homemade broth (another of the suggested first three).  The book I am following for introducing foods is Super Nutrition for Babies...can't recommend this book highly enough.  (The book is not some new fangled way of doing things...in fact, it goes back to the way things were for our great grandparents - and their grandparents - before processed rice and oat flake powder were the suggested first food.  You know, way back when people were actually healthy, and not developing allergies and sensitivities and autism and autoimmune disorders right and left, and...... wait....K, stepping down from my soapbox now.)

These following pictures made me immediately think of that cute saying "I've met my prince...

...and his name is 'Daddy'."

Abigail loves her daddy.

And she loves her siblings.

And they all love her right back.

As much as Abigail loves the rest of the peeps here in our house...I am going on the record here today and declaring her a Mama's girl.  Normally (with a few noteworthy exceptions) if anyone outside our immediate family holds her, she will primp up and start to cry.  Actual tears.  Until she gets back into my arms, and then all is well again.  To see that lower lip quiver is such a heart-tugging, pitiful sight.  I wish I had a picture...but I don't think I could bring myself to induce that on purpose.

The rest of the crew here would argue about my statement that I am her favorite - she has a way of making each person feel they are the favorite - but that is my story and I'm sticking to it!