Aspen is 5 months old! Man how time flies!

She has several new tricks up her sleeve.

For example, she sucks on her lips ALL THE TIME.

She also plays with her toes ALL THE TIME. 

(Really, who needs toys when one has toes?!?)

She would really like to stand up, but since I haven't mastered the art of simultaneously baby spotting and picture shooting, her attempts to hold herself up will have to go undocumented for the moment. Instead I give you yet another tummy time photo. :)

She has also started eating some solids every now and again. (Originally I had wanted to wait until she was 6 months, but for a variety of reasons we switched gears a little.) Towards the end of the summer we made some homemade baby applesauce from the trees in our yard and froze it in ice-cube sized pieces for when she was ready.  Well, the two times she's had it she seems to like it, but apparently it is (as you will see) a bit tart!

Also, on a similar theme, she has definitely developed the common baby attitude of "I see it, and can place it near my mouth; therefore, it must go in my mouth!"

We love our little muncher!

p.s. the movies were huge and I got impatient for them to upload so I converted them to avi's...that is why they look kind of crappy, but I think the cuteness still comes across!

My little pterodactyl.

Did you know that I gave birth to a pterodactyl?

I know that she doesn't look like a pterodactyl. I know that she doesn't eat the same things a pterodactyl eats (while I don't know exactly what pterodactyls eat, I do know that they aren't mammals so it isn't milk). I don't think she smells like a pterodactyl, although admittedly I can't absolutely confirm that.

However, I am absolutely positive that she sounds just like a pterodactyl! Especially when she is happy. Her newest trick is to experiment vocally by gleefully making loud piercing shrieky noises.

Alas, it turns out I am not incredibly fond of what peterodactyls sound like so hopefully she will move on to experimenting with other noises soon....

Note: Aspen smiles, I promise! In fact she also grins and laughs quite often. NOT, however, for the camera (sigh). In the above pics I was trying to get a smiley photo of her wearing the sweater my aunt knitted so I could send an adorable grinning picture of her in the sweater to my aunt.  Alas, Aspen continues to play coy with the camera!

In addition to playful shrieks Aspen has also rolled over and can spend a solid hour grabbing her toes in fascination.  However, these latter two skills can only be performed while naked (I think the diapers impede her hip flexors a little, something she will grow out of) so we have a lot of baby naked time at the house. Especially since she is so happy when naked!

In other big events recently we had Halloween, a visit from nana (jamie's mom), and Aspens first snow!

I'm a piggy!

Lil' piggy hanging out with puppy and lobster friends!

Aspen was very underwhelmed by the snow.