To my silly baby boy,
Oh my word. Mommy just realized that we are only one month away from your half birthday! Daddy and I looked at you while you were sleeping tonight and decided that we don't want you to get bigger. We just want you to stay your cute little baby self forever! Okay, maybe not forever, but it feels like the last 5 months have gone by in the blink of an eye!
Mommy bought you your first pairs of sunglasses a few weeks ago, and surprisingly enough, you actually don't mind wearing them!
You celebrated your first St. Patrick's Day this month! We didn't really do anything exciting, just had some family over and made some really yummy Irish stew and hung out at the house all night. But you had fun just being the center of attention, as always.
We've moved you right along from eating just rice cereal to more baby food! Technically, your first food was prunes, because you've always had tummy troubles, but since we've given you prune juice even before we gave you any cereal, we already knew you weren't sensitive to those so we just kept moving right along. You've had oatmeal, squash, peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, and bananas. Oatmeal and fruit is what you usually eat for breakfast, and then you get some rice and veggies and fruit for lunch and dinner. Result? You love eating like a big boy! Sometimes I swear you like it better than nursing. Squash and apples are your favorite Gerber baby foods, but mommy and daddy made some homemade peas, green beans, and carrots a couple weeks ago and you go NUTS over that stuff! So once we've eaten all the Gerber baby food mommy bought, we're probably just gonna stick to our homemade stuff, except for prunes. (Thanks Nana for the awesome food processor you got us for Christmas!!)
You are getting so strong! Lately you've been rocking the tummy time and you are DYING to crawl. Sometimes when you're on your tummy and there's a toy just out of your reach, you start yelling in frustration cause you just can't
quite reach it; but you're getting the hang of pushing yourself up with your strong little arms, now we just have to work on getting you up on your chubby little thighs! You also love to stand up like a big boy; funniest part? When you start to get tired and get jello legs, instead of sitting down right away, you stand there with your little butt sticking straight out, hold that pose for a few minutes, then plop down and laugh. It's super cute.
You've found quite a few new sounds that you can make (ssssssssssssssss being your favorite), and you love having conversations with mommy and daddy. And what comes with funny conversations? Lots of laughs! You smile and laugh all the time now!
You are still sleeping with mommy and not in your crib. I know I say this every day, but we
really need to work on this. And we
really need to work on how long you sleep. During the day, I get lucky if you take even a 15 minute nap! However, you are getting better at sleeping during the night, so I will definitely take consistent night sleep over mid-day naps! But now that you're five months old, and you weigh 15 pounds, it's sleep training time. And it breaks my heart when I put you in your crib and you just cry and cry and cry, and then turn your crying into screaming, but it has to be done. You're a big boy now, and mommy loves snuggling with you, but it's time to start sleeping in your crib!
You absolutely LOVE when people sing to you! You just smile and laugh and try to sing along with us. Your favorite songs right now are The Itsy Bitsy Spider, If You're Happy and You Know It, Pat-a-Cake, and The Wheels on the Bus. And mommy and daddy have figured out that if we sing to you while changing your diaper, it goes a lot more smoothly!
We stuck your toes in the hot tub for the first time and you loved it, of course! You get so excited when we turn the jets on and you splash your toes in and out of the bubbles.
You love to go for walks, both in the stroller and on mommy, so we've been going out quite a bit lately.
Since the weather has warmed up, mommy took you to one of the
neighborhood parks and put you in the swings for the first time and
guess what.... you loved it, no surprise there!
You have turned into quite a silly little boy and one of your new favorite things to do is to be upside down! Sometimes when daddy lays you on his lap, you'll push against him so that your head hangs off his knees and you look at everything upside down.
Guess who rode in the shopping cart for the first time, sans car seat?! YOU! And you loved it, especially being able to see so much more than when you are in your car seat. And now that you're sitting up better and sitting in carts and high chairs, mommy and daddy can go so many more places with you now!
We took you to the zoo for the first time! You were such a champ and stayed awake
almost the whole time. You're favorite thing was the dolphins, and there's more about our zoo trip
here!
Mommy let you play in the grass for the first time this month and you really like it. You just sit down and grab a big ole chunk of grass with your fingers; and when you stand in it, you love to dig your toes down into it - I think you like the way it tickles your toes.
In addition to loving when we sing to you, story time is way up there on the "fun things to do" list. Daddy likes to read to you at night, and you love to cuddle with him after your bath and read a good book or two.
You got to meet your cousin Adryannah for the first time. They just moved back into town and we all went out to eat shortly after she got back!
Since you are sitting up so well now and you love to stand up and work your leg muscles, we bought you a Fisher Price Luv U Zoo Jumperoo for you to play in and it's your favorite toy ever! You love to jump and jump and jump, especially when the music plays.
And as usual, we'll end this post with some shots of your cute little toesies!
That's what you've been up to this month, and time is just flying by. Mommy thinks we're gonna have a little "half birthday" party for you next month, so just keep on growing and learning new stuff, and we'll be there before we know it!
No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you ; after all ,
you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the
inside. I love you more today that yesterday...
<3 mommy
