5 Months!

My sweet Luke,

You are 5 months old today!  I can hardly believe it....where did my little tiny baby go?  He's been replaced with a talkative, squirmy, always has to be doing something little boy!

You are always on the go and are almost crawling.  Your newest thing is lunging...you get up on all fours, rock back and forth for a little while and then....bam!  You lunge forward with all your strength to grab a toy in front of you.  You are SO CLOSE...I will be infinitely sad if you start crawling while I am away at my stupid meeting for work!

You also have mad 360-spin skills...you can whip around in a circle on your mat so fast.  I love watching you look at all your toys around you and then deciding which one to tackle first.

We started you on solids and you are loving it.  Cereal was first.  You get a little impatient if I don't go fast enough, but you're learning to enjoy your food instead of trying to inhale it.  Next we tried pears...what kid doesn't love pears, right?  Wrong..you had the worst look on your face!  You DO love sweet potatoes and bananas and squash.  Next on the agenda is green beans.

We bought this cool little teether thing this weekend.  It's got a mesh pocket that you can put food in -banana, slice of apple, frozen berries, carrots....Then you gnaw on it and suck on it.  You love a banana in it...you will sit and chew on it for 30 minutes easy.  You sort of like an apple but hated frozen raspberries.

You're wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes, but are in some 9-12 month too.  I think maybe you have long arms because all of your jammies fit length-wise, but your sleeves only go to the middle of your forearm.  Either that or you're just like your daddy and push up your sleeves no matter how cold it might be.

Reading is one of your new favorites!  I never thought that sitting you down with your binky and a book would calm you from one of your fussy fits, but it does.  Your favorite book is "My Daddy and I".  Lily and Stella gave it to you and we read it over and over again.  You like to help me turn the pages and touch all of the pictures on the page.

Bath time is still one of your favorites.  You splash all over the place and love to suck on the washcloth.  You don't mind getting water on your face and it just makes me so excited to see how you do during swim lessons (which start in 2 weeks, yay!).

The bedtime ritual is so set in stone now that you are fully aware of what comes next....so trying to dry you off, put on a diaper, lotion and jammies is getting harder every day because you know that bottle is next.  You are so strong I have to be really careful that you don't flip yourself right off the changing table.

Speaking of which...Dad told me this morning that he was watching you on the monitor this morning as you played in your crib.  He asked if I heard him bolt up the stairs...he saw you pull yourself up by the bumpers and peer over the top of the crib rail.  Oh. my.  I always thought Gramma was exaggerating when she said that Amber threw herself out of the crib at 6 months.  Now I think I believe it.  We are lowering your mattress.

Nighttime...oh Bubba.  I don't know what to say about this.  You are going to bed between 6:30 and 7:00 each night but are consistently waking up around 12:30.  You eat a full bottle so I think that you're hungry, but Dad thinks that you just have our number and know we'll get up with you.  I am beginning to think it too, but it is so hard to hear you cry.  Once you have your bottle, you're back in bed and sleep until 5:30 or 6:30.  All in all, it's really not that bad but it would be so wonderful if you could start sleeping through the night.

I have so much fun with you....I love you more than words could ever express and I still get a little teary remembering back to the early days when you were so little and fragile.  Sometimes I miss that...knowing you would snuggle up with me in my bed for a nap, falling asleep on my shoulder, putting you in one spot and knowing you'd be there when I got back from the bathroom (ha ha).  But I just love how independent you are now, watching you take in the world around and you and learn more and more each day.

My heart is filled to the brim with love for you Bubs.  We made it through your first 5 months and we haven't done too bad....I can't wait to see what the next 5 months bring!

I love you,
Mama