Dear Zelda,

You are now five months old.  And wow, it seems cliched, but it was like only yesterday we were waiting for your arrival.  Time is flying by and these past couple of months you have really come into your own.  With each new discovery, your papa and I are more in love and can't imagine life without you.

Everyone comments on how alert you are and how busy you are.  Most notably, you started eating solid foods and you LOVE them.  Your papa and I smile as we watch you eat and the enthusiam you have for food.  We are thrilled as food is a very important part of our lives too.

You've tried lots of fruits and veggies and seem to like them all.  You can handle soft chunky food without problems.  Last night I gave you your first dairy, some greek yogurt, and you couldn't get enough.  

Although a little early, we let you try a little orange the other night.  You really like it, but at this point it was only a taste. Tonight we'll be trying a little bit of steak with some sweet potatoes.  It should be a tasty dinner, one I'm sure you'll love.

In addition to food, you love to have fun!  You are so interactive with your toys and everyone around you.  You love to smile, squeal at the top of your lungs and jabber at us with such earnest, telling us all kinds of stories that make you laugh.    

You kick your legs so fast that we're sure you'll be fast once you start toddling around.  The puppies won't know what to do once you're mobile.  You love it when papa throws you into the air or hangs you upside down.  You know how to get all your toys to your mouth to really explore them.  You've started sitting up and using a walker toy which lets you stand and play.  You've even managed to "walk" some, mostly backwards. Yesterday it seems you discovered your feet. It's fun watching you decide how to get to them and decide whether or not you can get them in your mouth.  It's endless entertainment for both you and mama.  No matter what new experience we give you, you seem to like them all. This is a really fun time not only for you, but for papa and I as well.

You're also getting so big that you can go into stores and look around from the driver's seat - aka cart seat.  You really enjoy that.  You also like to be outward facing in your carrier so you don't miss a thing when we're on a walk or skiing.

Whew, there's been so much change and there's so much more to come.  The next couple of months will be filled with lots of discovery and travel (Portland, Dallas & Denver).  You'll get to go on your first bike ride next week, complete with a new helmet.  You've always been such a good traveller that papa and I are trying to take you everywhere we can.  

We are looking forward to the months and the adventures ahead with you, little z.  

Love always,

mama and papa

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Pretty low key weekend planned here. We thought we'd help everyone kick off the weekend with the pure joy that Zelda is today.

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Love that little curl over her ear.

but Zelda's first roll over on her own nonetheless.  

This morning we had a serious case of bed head.  Zelda went to bed with wet hair last night so this morning when she woke up the back of her head was a matted tangled mess.  Since we had to go into the office early, I left it as it was and her in her pjs hoping she would go back to sleep for a while (ha, best laid plans, but that's another story).  No one at the office seemed to mind, we're casual like that.

When we got home this afternoon, I decided to tame that wild mane and let me tell you there is a lot of it.  Not only is it super thick it's also long, down past the nape of her neck.  

We managed to get through the tangles and get her beautiful curls back with a little leave in mosturizer and no tears!  I have to say I am rather proud of both of us.

Getting Zelda to sit still long enough to get a decent picture of her hair, well that's a challenge we'll tackle another day and today we'll celebrate what I hope is one of many hair successes.

Purple is the color of love,
Purple is the color I dream of.
Purple is the color of passion,
Purple is the latest fashion.
Purple is the color of glad,
Purple is the best color they had.
Purple is the color of laughs,
Purple is what he said on my behalf.
Purple is the color of me,
Purple is the best, you see. 

 By Luna Moon

Zelda has been pulling her head and shoulders forward (pictured above, but hard to catch with a photo) trying to sit up in her chair, so we gave it a try.

She can sit up for about 15 seconds by herself with some bobbing and weaving of her head (hence the blurry pictures, well that and doing the snapping one handed to have the other free to catch her).

I managed to get a short video of her sitting on the bed this afternoon.

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I think she'll have this sitting up thing down in no time, which will give us lots of time to work on rolling over and crawling.

Taken by her papa yesterday morning:

Story time last night:

Well, technically 17 and a half weeks, yesterday at her check-up.

Length: 24.5 inches, 50th percentile
Weight: 14 lbs. 1oz., 50th percentile
Head: 50th percentile

Zelda is a perfectly developing baby with just a little dry skin. We'll take that kind of report from the doctor any day!

Another milestone, we're cleared to give solid food a try, but will probably wait until Saturday unless Zelda manages to actually nab some food while she grabs at our plates in the meantime.