Hallie is 5 months

Hallie girl is growing so much each month!  Time needs to stop, or at least slow down so I can take every  moment in better.  I feel like time just flies, and with 2 kids I don't get the time with Hallie I would like.  She is such a perfect little girl and for the most part just goes with the flow.

The most memorable part of this past month would be the slight bump in the road with her weight gain, which led to more frequent eating with supplemental formal after each nursing, but at her weight check last week we saw improvemen, gaining almost 2 pounds in a month!

Here are her 5 month stats:
weight: 13 lbs 11.5 oz
height: 26 1/4 (i think...i need to double check on that)

Here is what Hallie's been up to this past month:

• Rolls over consistently from her stomach to her back
• She has really discovered her hands, and it is so fun to watch. The first time I noticed it, I saw he grasping her hands in front of her face and then her eyes all if a sudden focused on them in amazement. She started moving her fingers around each other and just watched in awe. I love watching babies do things like this and seeing them learn and discover. 
• She has the best smile and loves to show it off to whomever will smile at her. 
• She has become quite chatty and giggly, especially when you are in the room with her.
• Her baths are getting so fun. She's turned into quite the kicker/splasher.
• With the discovery of her hands, she has also started to realize that she can play with toys.  She loves her o-ball, playmat with hanging toys, and her jungle exersaucer toy (stationary bouncer with toys, lights and sounds).
• She has mastered the jumper in the matter of a week and loves spending our dinnertime jumping in it. 
• Still loves her pacifier and basically will not sleep without it or being swaddled really tightly.
• We took a road trip to Hemet while Colby headed on a 2 week European business trip and loved our time there.  Hallie did great on the trip down with the exception of she took 2 40 minute naps on the whole 8 hour journey. The return trip was a different story.  We had Lindsey to drive back with us as Colby was flying into San Jose, and Hallie slept a little and cried a lot.  I felt bad for her but wasn't sure what to do.  She is not the typical baby who will fall right asleep in the car.  I think because I have been so strict with her napping in her crib she struggles to sleep elsewhere.  However, its a price I am willing to pay. :)
• With news of potentially bad weight gain at her last doc appt, we have been back to a 3 hr eating schedule (we were close to 4) and letting her eat in the night. It kind if kills me, because she was totally sleeping through the night for several weeks around Christmas. If she woke in the night, I'd give her the pacifier and she'd fall right back to sleep, but now I nurse her. She has woken up every night since that appt. in addition to night feelings, she gets 1-2 ounces of total comfort (partially broken down) formula after each nursing. Thankfully when we took her in to weigh a month after her check-up (last week), things had improved, so we can start working back toward sleeping through the night and having a 4 hour schedule.

For my records...her schedule pre bad-weight-gain pediatrician visit..it then went back to a 3 hr schedule.

Schedule (following the EASY method)

E 7:30

Sleep 9-11:30

Eat 11:30

Sleep 1:30-3:30

Eat 3:30

Sleep 5-6:30

Eat 6:30

Catnap7:30 (40 min)

Bath 

Eat/bed 9:00
Dreamfeed 11:30

Oakland Temple Trip

Things I want to remember about today (mainly regarding Hudson):

We sing "I love to see the Temple" quite often, and he is somewhat familiar with temples, so when Colby and I decided on Friday afternoon that we would all go up to the temple on Saturday, I thought I would let him in on the plan.  He was really excited that we would be going to the temple.  He started talking in his loud, excited, intense voice saying "go to Temple, and church and NURSERY!"  He was so excited.

When we put him in bed Friday night, we told him he needed to go to sleep so we could go to the temple "tomorrow." When we woke him Saturday morning, I asked what we were doing today.  In his same excited voice, he exclaimed "Go to temple!" He was super thrilled about the outing.

When we pulled up, he noticed the temple immediately and pointed it out to us.  As we drove past the visitors center, we could see the christus through the window and I pointed it out to him.  Colby went into the temple and I stayed out with the kids for an hour.  The first 30 minutes or so we walked around the grounds and Hudson kept asking to go see the "White Jesus" (the christus is white...I don't have a racist child.) We eventually made it over to the visitors' center.  Upon entering, he exclaimed, it's Jesus!"  A bit later he said, "Mom, I want to hug Jesus."  I got a little weak in the knees.  I had to explain we couldn't hug this jesus.  We snapped the below picture of him with Jesus, then he asked to get out and stand by the statue.  He then wanted to climb up it and hold the hands.  I showed him the nail prints in the hands and feet, and he was really interested in that.  We walked around and looked at paintings of Jesus' life and ministry, and when we saw a painting of Christ on the cross, I told Hudson the story of the crucifixion and showed him the nails in His hands and feet and explained that was why he had nail prints in his hands and feet on the statue.  That night at home, Colby and I were asking Hudson what he saw today.  He told us the temple, and Jesus.  He then told us Jesus has holes in his hands and feet.  It is crazy what children learn and remember at such a young age.

I love my little Hudson and love seeing his love for the gospel.  I hope he remembers bits of todays experience.  He keeps telling us he wants to go back to the temple, which we said we would.  I hope he always wants to return to the temple.