London’s 5 month photos! Again, a bit late, but I think I’m past caring about that.

Ooooohhhhh, this darling child. She has so much of my heart!! So expressive, so loving, so joyful. I told Buck the other day that she fills a space in my heart that I didn’t know was missing, and I’m just SO thankful.

London updates:

• Girlfriend is sitting! REALLY sitting, and for extended periods of time! She did almost 45 minutes today, and only fell over once!
• I have a feeling she’ll be crawling before our next update. She hangs out on her hands and knees a lot.
• She has the sweetest giggle.
• Aaaaaand she has discovered her voice. She’s gone from a quiet little thing to a screecher! She’s so funny, making noises and loving her voice.
• I had hoped that London would suck her thumb, but it seems instead that she has found her BLANKIE the thing she wants to suck on! It’s partly adorable, and partly disgusting… her blankie smells of morning breath most of the time!
• She sleeps on her belly, all curled up with her legs crossed and her bum up in the air, and it melts my heart every time.
• Getting her up in the morning is the absolute best thing ever. She looks at the door, giggles, and buries her face in her blankie before beaming back up at me. Oh, my heart!!
• She reaches for us now, and recognizes her own name, and is attempting to give kisses. Cue all the heart-melting.
• She loves to stroke my face while nursing, and it really is the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.

I’m so happy to see her growing and learning new things, but part of me wants to tell her to just slow down! I’m so not ready for her to be on the go, but so excited to see it happen at the same time!

She pays such close attention to detail!

Motherhood Update:

Good and hard and full of ups and downs. I love being this girls’ mama, and I love my job, and I love my marriage, and sometimes it’s hard to know which should take precedence.

• We’re alllllll off schedule after vacation. I have a feeling it will take awhile for us to get back on it, between trying to drop night feedings and teething and arms and legs getting stuck in the slats of her crib. It’s making work a bit more challenging, though.
• Still trying to think and pray through what a long-term schedule would look like. Our nanny schedule works for now, but I think I’ll need more time in the coming months.
• Buck starts traveling again soon, and I’m mentally gearing up for half of wedding season spent while juggling motherhood and work without the usual help.

Our vacation was so sweet, but even though I knew that vacation with a baby would be different, I wasn’t quite prepared to come home as tired as I did. I overwork, overbook, over-schedule, and attempt overachievement in my everyday life, and look forward to vacations and rare weekends off to “make it up.” But what I’m learning (at such long last) is that I need to build regular rest into my daily life as a matter of habit, so that those trips and weekends can be spent investing in memories and relationships.

I have about a dozen other thoughts about motherhood (and rest) tumbling around in my head right now, but most of that will have to wait for another day.

And just in case there is ANY QUESTION as to who London favors… London on the left, Buck on the right. They could be TWINS.