Five months!

Five months!

Your exuberance for life has exploded this month. They don’t call it the four month wakeful period for nothing. You’ve started waking up throughout the night again. Don’t get me wrong, I love every minute I can hang out with you, but I would actually prefer to spend our time together during my waking hours. When you do wake up, you’re not terribly interested in going back to sleep. You’re so much more aware of the world and want to spend as much time as you can taking it all in.

You continue to be huge. At your doctor’s appointment this month the doctor called you a “big ol’ moose.” Your dad couldn’t be more proud. You’re off the charts for height and head size (which you get from your dad. You and your dad both owe me for that one!). Your weight is around the 90-95^th percentile. A few weeks ago we took you in for your 4 month check up and you’re measuring in at the average size of an 8 month old. You’re outgrowing all of your 12 month clothes. I was hoping to wait until Christmas to get you more clothes but you may be running around naked by Christmas if I do that. On a sad note, you had to get your next round of shots at that appointment and you spent the next 24 hours sick and miserable. There are few things that make me as sad as seeing you sick. The one positive thing that came out of that is you wanted to be cuddled. You’re getting so active and alert that you’re not as content to snuggle with your mama, so I’ll take the cuddling where I can get it.

Your time is spent exploring the floor and your toys these days and especially flinging your limbs. You are really into grabbing anything and everything. You especially like faces. If it’s your dad’s face and he’s wearing his glasses, JACKPOT. You also do this new trick I call “the vampire” where you wrap one arm around my shoulder and throw the other one around my neck and attack my neck. I adore that. Recently you’ve started constantly rolling from your back to your stomach. Then you realize you’re on your stomach (which you don’t really like) and get upset and forget how to roll back over, even though you’ve been rolling from your tummy to your back for a good four months now. You often throw your head into the air and fling your arms behind you and lift your legs in the air like shamu or a seal skimming across an icecap. It is so stinkin’ cute! However, the back to stomach flipping/squawking does make for a really difficult nap time. I have found you in all kinds of crazy positions in your crib this month. The other night you rotated yourself 180 degrees and wiggled into the corner. That is so not how we put you in there.

Your legs are still quite strong and your balance is getting better but luckily (for us) you haven’t gotten down your muscle control. We are in so much trouble when you do. You’re sitting up supported by your arms and only occasionally faceplanting. All you want to do is stand. Getting you to bend at the waist takes some convincing. Putting you in your swing, strapping you into your car seat, and keeping you in the bathtub are all daily challenges. When you’re not standing, you’re kicking. Bath time is hilarious. We don’t really know if you’re annoyed or happy or quite angry, but you’re expressing something or maybe just trying to splash out every single drop of water.

We suffered through our first household illness this week. It started with you getting a little sniffly and sneezing last week. Then I got it. When mommy gets sick, it’s game over. Friday morning we hung out with your grandma and everything was fine but by mid-afternoon I was very miserable. I had to tough it out until your dad came home. We laid on the floor together, you playing and rolling, me just trying to breathe and make sure you didn’t roll out the door. By Friday night I was really quite sick and I spent the whole weekend that way. I tried to keep my distance from you except to feed you and it was so tough! In addition to being miserably sick, I was just as miserable to be missing out on a weekend with you. But that misery was nothing compared to the screaming resulting from clearing your nose. Oh THE SCREAMING! You can’t yet blow your own nose, so we have to hold you down and use a bulb aspirator which is a crazy contraption that sucks the snot out of your nose (just one of the many joys of parenthood). You ha-aaa-aa-aaa-ate it. And I absolutely hate doing it. I usually do the sucking and your dad holds you down. We try to make it this fun game and use upbeat tones but it doesn’t work. You will have none of it. The screaming that comes out of you doesn’t even remotely resemble a human, and it’s especially troubling coming out of a small infant. You fling yourself wildly trying to swat away our hands. It’s seriously like trying to tackle a windmilling octopus.

Oh and you prefer rap music. We’ve tried all kinds of music and dance parties with you and your preference is hip hop. Gettin Jiggy Wit It is your favorite song, which you’re not allowed to listen to by the way. Don’t tell your dad, but you like country too. Classical, eh, not so much. You do seem to like it when I sing to you. I mix it up, lullabies and classics and some personal favorites. Jack Johnson, John Mayer, the occasional DMX on the more challenging days (Y'all gon' make me lose my mind up in here, up in here). You’re not allowed to listen to that either.

We celebrated your first Halloween a few weeks ago. You were dressed like a tiger, in honor of your auntie Anna and the RIT tigers. We spent part of the night at the Harvest Festival and you spent the time in a kangaroo pouch strapped to your dad. You tried to eat the pouch the entire night and loved your new vantage point. Again, much cuteness abounded. I went pretty low key this year and got some tiger ears, so together we were the mama tiger and the tiger cub. And your dad was the kangaroo.

You are loving life baby boy. And we are loving life with you. You have filled my heart in ways I didn’t know possible.

Love,

Mama