5 Months

This has been quite a month for our little Piper! As you can see from the first picture, she has grown so much and is getting to be quite the personality. This month, Piper discovered she can make noise at will and spares no moment doing just that. She squeals almost constantly, but most of the time she's happy. She is such a delight and keeps all of us smiling throughout the day. Piper is still a very happy baby. She wakes up with smiles on her face, not crying, and goes to sleep smiling too. She loves being at home and loves it even more when we are all with her. While we have heard Piper giggle a little a few times before, this month was when we were able to get her to laugh out loud. She loves to be tickled and will laugh for just Jes and I when we play with or tickle her. It is really the sweetest sound!

This past month we all celebrated Halloween. We, as a family, do not participate in the traditional activities of the day, but rather prefer to go to church for a Fall Festival type of event. This was the second year that our church in McKinney decided to have a different, but equally beneficial, event for the community, so we went to my parent's church. My parents joined a new church this year, so we were ill prepared as what to expect. We were blown away at the event that they had planned for their community! Both Caleb and Piper had a great time and P got to wear her pumpkin costume. She was the cutest pumpkin there! Here she is with myself and Caleb (Larry the Cucumber again this year!).

This month, Piper has become quite mobile. She rolled from her back to her belly just after she hit the 4 month mark, and just a couple of days ago, she rolled from her belly to her back, the harder move, all on her own. I thought for sure it was just a fluke, but she did it again just a few minutes later, proving me wrong! Piper is just very motivated to get moving, it seems. We have observed her scooting and moving across the floor just to get to a book or toy that she wants. I think that she'll be moving much sooner than her brother ever did, as she just acts like she so wants to catch up with us! Piper, just like her brother, also loves to jump! She is going to build up our biceps and triceps with all the jumping that she does when we're holding her. Some times, especially right after a nap, she is not content to just sit in our laps, but wants to be standing. If she's standing, she feels like she needs to be jumping. What can we say, she's a girl on the move!

Piper has started really eating solid food this month. We gave her a little cereal as her first food at the end of her last month, but she has really taken to eating the good stuff this month. With Caleb, I wanted to make our own baby food, but with all his health issues and the anxiety of being a first time mom, I just couldn't get it together enough to do it. I was determined to try it with Piper and that's all she's eating! We have a type of indoor farmer's market near us where I go to buy the produce for Piper's food and I just cook it and freeze it in ice cube trays. Piper's favorites right now include an apple/pear mixture with oatmeal, sweet potatoes, squash, blueberries, and bananas. She's still not too sure about peas, but that one is our current project to get her to eat!

Piper loves, loves, loves to go places! We keep a pretty busy schedule around the Mathis house, with something to go to and do everyday of the week. Lately, it's actually been somewhat cold around our neck of the woods, so I have had to bundle her up quite frequently. This blanket that you seen in the bottom of the picture above is her absolute favorite. If this is in her car seat, she has a tight grip on it and may chew on it from time to time. I have to sneak this away from her at night every once in a while to wash it so that it doesn't get too gross. This blanket was made by my cousin Ashley, so I may need to see if she has anymore of this material to make another, just in case!

As you can see from the last two pictures, Piper has this finger in her mouth quite a bit. She liked her pacifiers in the beginning, but has completely given them up in the past 2 months and her first finger has taken it's place. She doesn't really suck or chew on her finger, it's just in her mouth. It's really quite funny.

Yet again, this month has brought out many fun things in our little girl. Many moments, Jes and I are looking at her and at each other wondering how to freeze time for a little bit so that we can enjoy her a little more at each stage. Piper is a wonderful baby, hardly fussing, and is just such a joy to us all the time. She is so very laid back about most situations and just loves to watch and observe. Her mind is constantly going and you can tell that she's just taking in all of her surroundings at all time. We are so very blessed to have such a sweet spirited baby!