Happy Five Month Birthday, Elise!

Update: I forgot to mention that all of her developmental milestones will be evaluated based on her adjusted age (the age she would have been if she had gone full term). Premature babies are said to "catch up" to their birth age by about age two. So for anyone who has baby development memorized and is trying to evaluate Ellie, this would actually be comparable to two-month-old development.

Can you believe Elise is five months old?!?! It's crazy to think about. She has grown and changed so much. We've reached the point where each day I truly love her more and more (not that I didn't love her before, but I didn't always feel the love growing each day...now I do!). I haven't done the best job at posting milestones each month but have tried to post them as she reaches them. So here's where she's at.

At five months, Elise...

• Weighs approximately 10 pounds, 4 ounces - 7 pounds, 9 ounces gained since birth.
  
  Look at her cute little belly!
  
• Is approximately 23 1/4 inches long.
• Still fits into her newborn (and a few 0-3 month, depending on the brand) clothes. Yesterday I went through her closet to see if she had anything she might be getting close to fitting, but it was all still too big.
• Smiles a ton! Especially at her daddy and at the bumble bee on her mobile (see bullet below for mobile). She also smiles when mommy sweet talks her. But daddy's her favorite person to smile at, as evidenced by this photo.
• Two days ago she and I played her first "game." She was sitting in her Boppy in between my legs on our bed. I would smack the sides of the Boppy with my hands, lean forward and kiss her and then sit up to clap my hands and say, "Yea!" And she would smile and coo. It was so fun!
• Has a bald spot the size of a baseball on the back of her head. And she still has the most hair at the base of her head just above her neck. So cute.
• Has hair that looks like a kind of mousy brown inside but is red in the sun. Can't wait to see the color when her official, non-baby hair comes in! I would love to have a little redhead!
• Has slate-ish colored eyes. She still has another 10 months (or more) for her eyes to change, but that's the color right now. And her eyes are the most beautiful shape!! They have a gorgeous slant to them and are nice and big (unlike her mommy's - though daddy would say differently).
• Has started occasionally sleeping through the night (7-9 hours).
• Is infatuated with her mobile. She could stare at it for hours and probably never realize she was even hungry.
  
  I made her this mobile during the heatwave. Our friends from the NICU, Lua and Roman, came over to take advantage of our A/C. Lua and I made mobiles in between feeding and cuddling the babies.
  
  
  
  Giving me a smile and then looking at her mobile.
• Still has her little raspy voice so she tends to grunt more than coo. But when she does coo, it's adorable! And her grunt is hilarious. She sounds like a 70-year-old (started out saying 50 but realized that since both our dads are well over 50 I should put 70) plumber with a beer belly watching television when she tries to "talk." She particularly loves to use this voice in public.
  
• Has the cutest little dimple on her left cheek. She's actually had it since birth, but we see it all the time now. In case I haven't mentioned it, I have the same single dimple (never noticed it before she was born though) on the same side. So I not only love seeing her smile, but I love catching my own dimple in the mirror and remembering that my sweet baby girl as the same one!
• Has figured out that kicking her legs and flailing her arms makes the toys on her bouncy seat toy bar move.
  
• Has figured out that she can reach for toys and hit them to make them move. We attached some of her toys to her bouncy chair using the little plastic toy chain links since the toys on the bar are a little high for her to reach. And she loves it! As soon as I put them on, she figured out that if she bats her hands at them she can have a blast.
  
• Gets peeved whenever she pulls the chain to make the musical toy on her bouncy seat play its song. Seriously. She gets this look of utter disgust at somehow being conned into pulling it again even though she does it all on her own. She does it at least a couple of times a day, and I always love watching her response.
  
  Said peeved look.
  
• Is looking more and more like her daddy every day. At least that's what I think. As her nose begins to take shape, I think it's his. And I think she has his eyes and mouth. We'll see.
• Is awake a lot more (a few hours every day) and loving (nearly) every minute of it.
• Is very social and observant. Out in public, she's always wide awake unless she's in the sling. She'll stare at all the things around her, "talk" up a storm as she observes things, and ham it up with whomever will listen.
• Visited her daddy's work for the first time last week. As soon as he was holding her, she was wide awake, chattering like the little socialite that she is and loving the attention of all the ladies (and a few of the men). She just kept talking and talking, and smiling and smiling! When we got home, she took a 4.5 hour nap because she was so exhausted from all the excitement.
  
  After her post-visit nap (and dad's 90+ degree trip to the driving range).
  
• Loves her pug. When she's upset or has any milk or medicine on her face, he loves to give her kisses. Though we don't encourage this, it's impossible to completely avoid (and the pediatrician said it's fine since his mouth is cleaner than a human's anyway). He licks and then she gets a huge smile on her face. Oh, and whenever she coughs and sputters (from her reflux), he always runs to her with a concerned look and tries to lick her face to make sure she's okay and still breathing.
• Hasn't rolled over again yet but tries. She doesn't lie flat on her back or stomach a whole lot because of her reflux (which the pediatrician said is fine since we hold her a ton during the day), but she'll be rolling like crazy very soon.
• Has great neck control. She's had this for quite some time, but she's really good at holding up her neck. At her four month appointment (one month adjusted), the pediatrician was actually surprised at how well she did. When she lies on her back or leans up against something with her back, she tries to lift her head like she's going to sit up.
  
• Isn't raising her eyebrows as much as she used to. So no worries about her wrinkling too early. Hehe.
• Is a hit with the boys. Her daddy will give me quite the look for posting this, but it's true! Most of her friends are boys, and a couple of them are quite taken with her and love to stare at her. She also seems to bring out the poop in them as they tend to have multiple large bowel movements when she's around. :)
  
  With Anthony (her NICU buddy), one of her would-be suitors. She was actually playing hard-to-get for most of this play date, despite Anthony pretty much ignoring the other two boys who were there in favor of Elise's beauty. At this point he hand managed to link arms with her.
  

Okay, that's enough. I'm sure you're all rolling your eyes at the sheer volume and wordiness of items I posted. You probably actually just scrolled through them to see the photos. And that's okay. When she's 25 and extremely interested in her development at five months, she'll be glad I wrote all of this down. Or not. But you know, I'm a first time mom and we tend to over document.