Jon and I bought Hannah a high chair yesterday. We worked together to assemble it, which is one way to say that I started, got frustrated, and then dumped the job on my husband’s lap.

Now that the chair’s all together, it looks nice. Hannah seems to like to sit up in it during meals, where she can see all the action. So far, the tray has served as a yummy chew-toy, and the new elevated position has served as an excellent vantage point for experiments with gravity. Apparently, if you drop things, they fall down.

Here’s a photo of Hannah and her high chair (alliteration!):

I can no longer ignore the truth. Hannah is teething. She has no teeth yet, and she probably won’t for months. However, she is drooling, and chewing, and it’s only getting worse. So, I bought some teething tablets today, to take the edge off when the going gets tough.

Also, Hannah has rolled from her tummy to her back three times now. She doesn’t really have the hang of it yet–she’s still a little uncertain about what to do with those arms. But she’s definitely gaining both strength and control. She’s even making motions like she wants to get up on her hands and knees. Eep!

Hannah had a well-baby checkup at the doctor’s today. She now weighs 15lbs,12oz, so she gained a pound and a half in the last month. She’s in the 55th percentile for all 5-month-olds, which means that she’s a little above average.

Otherwise, the doctor says she looks great. We couldn’t agree more.

I recieved an email from our friend William who lives and works in London. He recounts the day the bombs went off.

“I personally wasn’t effected, but was kept in work while 3 suspect packages where dealt with around the buildings, was not quite as exciting as when we had an anthrax scare in the building opposite.

The bomb in the bus went off in front of my old flat mate’s window at his work (luckily bomb proof glass from the old IRA days) sounds a lot more horrific than what you saw on the news. One of the tube bomb went off in Aldgate where I used to work and also study (for Level 3 and Master), all Level 3 people have been accounted for but some of the students are missing,

It’s quite crazy to think that the bombers are actually UK born and bred, but I suppose we had a couple last year go and blow them-selves up in Israel, so why not … here?”

These kinds of world events aren’t just things that happen to “someone else.” It makes you stop and think about how lucky we really are.

My daughter is five months old today. To celebrate, I took the traditional monthly photo:

In the past month Hannah has grown a lot–we’ll find out exactly how much at her doctor’s appointment tomorrow. She has also become much more engaged in the world around her. She makes different sounds to communicate different ideas, plays with interesting objects for several minutes at a time, follows the cat with her eyes, and even occasionally laughs. She continues to sleep well at night, too, which is great for her parents.

Hannah was even so generous as to allow her mother to read the new Harry Potter book. Which, incidentally, is why I haven’t posted any updates in a couple of days.

Hannah has a new talent–she can propel herself around by kicking her legs. I don’t think that the movement is actually intentional, I think that it’s just what happens when she really gets going. She can’t see where she’s moving, either, because she’s generally on her back, going head-first and backwards across the floor, or her crib, or wherever we’ve put her down.

I know that intentional movement cannot be far behind. Eep!

We took Hannah down to Birch Bay for her first overnight get-away this weekend. The worst part, by far, was getting down there. The packing, the loading, and the border line-up left us feeling pretty frazzled. After that, though, it was all good. Hannah really enjoyed checking out her new surroundings, and she enjoyed all the extra attention from her parents when we have no housework or television to distract us. She slept well in her little portable bassinette, so the outing was resounding success.