baby food coma

so, i'm visiting my family in florida. they are all completely insane. it's true. (and by no means am i exempting myself from the insanity.)

however, my niece makes it all worth it. she will be 5 months old in just a few days. i remember holding her in the hospital and when she first came home and she was tiny. she fit on me without legs hanging over every which way. now when i hold her to feed her, her little chunk-master legs wrap half-way around my body. i bet if she tried she could grab her toes on the other side. and she pushes all over the place, hands and feet going at the same time. when you put her on her tummy she twists and scoots, almost crawling, i CAN'T wait! when you put her on her back, she sings. she's got the crazy purr/gurgle thing going on. it's the cutest thing!!! (i am not biased.) but my favorite thing is when she's laying in your lap eating. she gets so wound up before she starts to eat that she does this "mmmaaahhh" sound like she's being tortured - even though there's a full bottle hanging out of her little mouth. then she settles down and closes her eyes. but not if there's any noise around; she bolts up and flaps those eyelids open at the slightest stimulation. the best, best, best moment is when she's totally asleep, still sucking on the bottle and you try to take it away from her. she will, without opening her eyes, force a scowl on her face, open that little mouth and tell you, forcefully, to put it back. she's truly a master. she is 100% in control of everyone who is in her vicinity. it brings me such joy to see her manipulate everyone to do her bidding. my little girl, she's going to be such a heart-breaker. of course, she's got several years of training, but she shows such strong skills already.

her latest trick, sticking her face in the water when she's in the pool. her grammy dunked her for the first time the other day. she came up with a look that said, "hey, what was that??" but no coughing, choking, or swallowing of water. she's a natural...swimming lessons here she comes! shortly after the dunking, she was in her floaty rafty thing and faceplanted into the water. twice. or maybe even three times in a row. totally on purpose. when we got her sitting up again, she just smiled at us like we did exactly what she wanted. she's just about freakin' perfect.

it's so cool to look at her with those tiny little hands and think that's 1 complete person in a tiny little package that's going to grow into an adult eventually. holly crap, i think i just scared myself out of having babies...