Elsa is Five Months

Elsa turned five months yesterday, and to celebrate we finally made it a priority to take some photos of our little girl. A couple of months back we went back and forth as to whether to take Elsa to a professional photographer because we knew we wanted to capture her while she is still small, and we had seen photos friends had made of their little ones that were just beautiful. Instead of spending the thousands of dollars we likely would have shelled out for the sittings and the prints, though, Jarrett convinced me that we could take some pretty decent shots ourselves, and actually make use of the thousands of dollars we have already spent over the years on my photography equipment. And because he knew just how badly I wanted these photos, he even gave me a fabulous tripod for Christmas (one that I actually trust will hold my camera in place). So, Jarrett brought in some utility lights from the shed and hung a dark-colored blanket on some bookshelves, and there we had it -- a makeshift photo studio in our back room. We are not finished quite yet -- we are still sorting through and narrowing down -- but I will tease you below with one of the photos that came out of our shoot. I plan to share the rest at a later date.

So what is Elsa up to these days? I have yet to witness her roll over, yet I know she can do it. I guess she just doesn't find it to be that important, no matter how much I beg her to do it for me. She is not napping as well lately, and so we have resorted to letting her nap in the swing some because it seems it is the only place she'll sleep for more than an hour during the day. (Yes, I am sure we are probably instilling bad sleeping habits.) However, for the most part, she is still sleeping well at night, going to bed between 7:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and waking up somewhere between 5:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. (yes, it varies that much, unfortunately). She handles her toys quite well, and has started enjoying bigger toys, such as the ExerSaucer and Johnny Jump-Up. We went for a walk for the first time yesterday with Elsa seated in the stroller without the car seat, meaning she was actually sitting facing forward, which I think she quite appreciated (though she screamed her head off as we strapped her in). I hope to set up her highchair this evening so we can start back on the cereal track tomorrow. She seems very interested lately in what we eat and how we eat, and since she did pretty well with it the first time around and it was really just me that felt like there was too much going on at once, I think this time the food will be here to stay.

I will leave you with the photo you have been waiting for.