5 month progress report

This picture was completely staged.

This isn't an excuse for not posting as regularly as Sunny probably wishes I would, but Natty appears to be in a state of suspended animation. I don't get to spend as much time with Natty as I want to (because of this whole job thing I have going on during the weekdays) so I may not pick up on the subtleties of her growth and development. She appears the same to me at 5 months as she did at 4 months. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about that. On the contrary, while I look forward to her walking and talking, I want to soak up all her immobile and mostly silent cuteness for as long as possible.

Unlike me, Sunny spends ALL her time with Natty and she raves about the changes in her. So here is a progress report for Natty at 5 months:

• She weighs over 10 pounds


• She is getting a lot more snug in her clothes
  
• But she ranks under 10% (and usually less than 5%) in weight/length
  
• She babbles and squeals especially when left alone
  
• She sleeps 11 hours (from 8pm to 7am) regularly (YAY!)
  
• She hasn't learned to roll over
  
• She doesn't crawl
  
• She can grab objects
  
• She can raise her head when on her tummy
  
• She smiles and giggles more
  

That last item is a tough one for me. Natty makes me WORK to get a laugh from her. I think she is like me in that aspect: I don't laugh very easily. (Sunny is really the only person that can make Natty laugh with any consistency but even then, Sunny still has to put in a lot of work.) But it gives me tremendous joy every time she smiles when she sees me for the first time in the morning or when I come home from that job thing.

Here are a couple of pictures of Natty kickin' it on her boppy:

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One of her favorite toys is the talking Cookie Monster given to her for Christmas by her Uncle Wei. Actually it is hard to tell if she really likes it or not because she doesn't really smile or laugh at it; she just wants to eat Cookie Monster's eyes.

This next picture is when I dangled a doggie treat in front of her and asked her to beg.

Just kidding. That never happened.

Speaking of doggies, this picture is from our day trip to Santa Barbara last month:

We went to Santa Barbara to eat at one of our favorite breakfast spots, Sambos, and to catch up with my old friend, Eli. That's NOT Eli in the picture with the dog.

Eli was my first boss, back when I used to work at a monthly comic book convention. Yes I used to be a comic book geek. I don't read or collect them anymore but I still have a soft spot for them. I enjoyed panned movies like Daredevil and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman even though I can't think of anyone else who did. I'm hoping the new Iron Man movie won't disappoint...

It was a beautiful day to go to SB. It was such a nice day that I simply stuck the camera out the car window and took this picture:

This was our first trip with Natty and we had to get used to being parents on the road. Sunny nursed Natty in the car (parked of course) and we forgot to bring any sunblock whatsoever. We'll get better at this but we had to cut our trip a little short. It was still refreshing to get out of the house and out to the beach.

On a final and totally unrelated note, Natty is really excited that the Lakers got Pau Gasol and dumped that Kwame guy.