Five Months Old!

My darling baby is five months old today.

I can't believe it. In one more month he will be half a year old! And so much is changing so quickly it's hard to imagine what he'll be like in 6 more months when he's nearly a year old!

Some of James' new things this month are blowing raspberries/spit bubbles. As if he didn't drool enough already, now he can send even more massive amounts of liquid out of his mouth. He sure is proud of himself when he does it, too, LOL!

While I wrote last month that he has just rolled over for the first time the day before, now a month later he still has yet to do it more than say, half a dozen times (from front to back). He has not yet rolled back to tummy either (but I think he is getting much closer!). He IS getting slightly more fond of tummy time but I've neglected to do it very often, so that's a goal for this month, hehe.

He is getting better at sitting, needing less and less support from us or cushions and chairs. I think he is THIS close to "tripod sitting" (supporting himself with his hands).

He now REALLY REALLY loves his bouncer, and has now figured out that he can turn it totally around to sample the different toys that are there--he is really into it. We still need to prop a book under him so he can reach the ground (and blankets around him so he doesn't topple), but he is really loving it.

And he LOVES "standing", with his legs straight and his arms and/or body supported. Sometimes when we try to make him sit he refuses to bend and will only stand, LOL.

He is also getting better and better at using his hands--he can grab, say, the handle of a cup with a targeted motion with both hands. And he LOVES his Tommee Tippee Sippy Cup. It's almost too stimulating for him--he gets frustrated and over excited with it after a while and I need to take it away to let him calm down, haha.

He is starting to get better at "playing" with food, as I wrote about before . . . he's still not really to the eating stage but he's nearly there!

We've continued his nap routine (change diaper, read books, nurse, rock to sleep/put in swing) with some diligence. At the very least he is definitely getting more patient and focused about reading. Now we can read for short periods from books with hardly any pictures. For example, I read him a mini-chapter of the Little Prince during many of the reading sessions. He really loves the simple squishy page books, or board books, though. James was telling me that he would even turn the pages himself if presented with them . . .

He continues to be an interminably happy baby. He barely ever cries and just laughs and smiles and plays and is a baby all day long. Cutie.

He is starting to be a distracted nurser...

...(look for my Wordless Wednesday post tomorrow for more), which means that for a lot of his feeds he is not getting a full bellyful. I guess he makes up for it at other times? Unfortunately that often means during the night, but it's okay.

I am now a pro at nursing lying down and pretty much exclusively do that at night. We are still swaddling him but I'm THIS close to stopping swaddling and starting to transition to full-time bed-sharing (he's up until now been in an on-the-bed co-sleeper, swaddled).

Everyone just loves him so so much.

I've been falling more and more in love with him recently, as his personality grows and his good humor shows through more and more. Sometimes we snuggle and he just laughs and touches my hair and face, I LOVE HIM!!