So much progress, so little time!!

Just a few more days until I start daycare...can you believe how fast time passes?  I am almost 5 months old, and am now eating rice cereal like it's ice cream (I hear ice cream is the tops -- but at this point, I pretty much have to take daddy's word for it).  Seriously though, I had big helpings of rice cereal ("big helping" for baby = 1-2 tablespoons mixed with 1-2 ounces of milk) at lunch yesterday and today, and I chowed it down like a champ!  (Mouth wide open, and hand "helping" mommy to shove the spoonfuls down the hatch!!!)  Meaning, I ate, oh, about 50-70% of what was fed to me, which is pretty amazing, considering my age!  (Really though, I am really anxious to make it to sweet potatoes, but supposedly need to get through rice cereal and various other non-appetizing strained and pureed vegetables first, or so I hear, so I am just trying to speed things along!)   

Me, post lunch.  Anyone have a wet-nap?
(Mommy usually gives me the spoon to play with after we are done eating.  It's very nice of her.)

Otherwise, I have been sleeping pretty well.  I went for a stretch of sleeping through the night (from 8:30pm or so to 6 or 7am) for a week or so, but the last few nights have woken up for a midnight meal, although I have almost always been able to go straight back to bed immediately after being fed and changed, which is a great relief to mommy!  She is paranoid about whether I am eating enough, so she usually doesn't mind waking up to feed me.  And during the day, I have been going down for naps without so much as a peep, and usually will fall asleep within minutes!!  I am really the BEST BABY in the world!!!  

Woohoo!!!  Jumperoo!!!  I don't look excited, but really, I am!!!  

In other exciting news, I got a jumperoo!!!  Mommy and daddy bought it for me about a week ago, and I have had great fun in it.  Just today, I was sitting in it looking mesmerized by all the many attached toys, and when mommy picked me up from it, I started to cry!!  (I stopped once she put me back in it!)  Now, I know what I want and have my own opinions, so mommy and daddy had better watch out!!  When I first got the jumperoo, my feet were several inches from touching the ground, but just today, my toes were touching!!!  Mommy and grandma Hong (who observed over Skype today) were shocked!  Did I grow so much in a mere matter of days???  Seems like it, huh?!!?  I haven't quite learned to jump in the darn thing yet, but all in due time.  I quite like it though when mommy bounces me up and down while I am sitting!

This is how I feel about sitting like a frog.  

I am growing stronger by the day, and now can stand for a few seconds with just a little bit of support!  (I know, it's amazing!!!)  I can also sit like a frog, and just today, mommy noticed that I was able to right myself (with no help!!!) in that position when I started to tip over to the side!!  Also, I can grab things in front of me extremely well, even when the things are dangling in the air!!  I am also expert at passing things from hand to hand, like my pacifier, woohoo!!  Now, I just have to get this talking thing down, and I will be all set!  

Unfortunately, however, I have developed quite a case of stranger anxiety (much too early for my time, I know, but I can't help that I am so smart and advanced!).  It took me a whole day to warm up to grandma Hong, to allow her to hold me without crying, although I was laughing a lot when she made funny faces at me the first day when mommy was holding me.  (Although, I didn't object at all when grandpa Jim held me, much to everyone's surprise!  Grandpa Jim said that it was probably because he and mommy look so much alike.)  Mommy thought that Melissa, my babysitter, was immune since I see her every week or so, but she was WRONG!  I had not seen Melissa for 2 weeks, and so when she came and picked me up just as mommy was going to go out for dinner with daddy, I looked nervous for a few seconds, looked at mommy, and then pouted and was off to the races!!!  But, I settled down shortly thereafter and was (of course!!) asleep when mommy and daddy got back from dinner.  Fair warning to all relatives that I will see in the next few days for Thanksgiving -- it's nothing personal, but I will probably scream at first!  But, hopefully I will warm up to everyone quickly!  Or else, this does not bode well for daycare!!  

I can spend long stretches of time sitting in my chair and reading on my own!!
(And I didn't even try to eat the book.  Ok, maybe just a little.  Once.)

With grandpa Jim in Central Park!

With grandma Hong during her visit last week!

Can't help but smile when playing with grandma Hong!!  I learned a lot of Chinese during her visit!!