5 Months

I say this every single month, but I can't believe Leo is FIVE months old!!

This is my most favorite stage yet.
If he could stay 5 months old forever I would be a-okay.

What I love so much about 5 months is how interactive he is, but still also a baby in many ways.
He's sweet and squishy and learns something new every single day.
This month he went one week from finding his toes and chewing on them, the next to sitting up, and the next to crawling backwards.  It was insane.

Mornings are by far the best time of day.
When Lee leaves for work he usually brings Leo to me to nurse and then we cuddle in bed for a little while.  Sometimes he falls back asleep, sometimes he coos sweetly and touches my face, and other times he "donkey kicks" and makes dinosaur noises.
I love his squishy cheeks and sleepy eyes in the morning.
Once he wakes up he is so alert and pleasant.  His most smiley time of the day is about 30 minutes after he wakes up, but really he's usually pretty smiley all day.

I also love his face when he's concentrating on getting a toy into his mouth.
Lately every single thing goes straight in his mouth - which is good and right on track with how a baby 5 months old should be developing!
It's funny because as soon as he sticks a hand in his mouth or chomps down on a toy everyone around comments "oh he must be teething".  People love to say that.  But really, babies just like to chew and suck on things.  No teeth for us yet.

He has become so much more interested in toys, which is a lot of fun.  Lee wants him to be his playmate and they practice "catching" balls together...
Leo actually has caught it a couple of times.... when it lands perfectly on his chest and stops right above his little gut and then his hands grab it :)

He likes books, especially books with photos of other babies or animals.  He's less interested in cartoon ish books right now, but he still goes nuts for the lion mommy drew in his room... which is why I'm working on a little project for him.  And by working on it I mean 5 minutes here and there... maybe it'll be done by Christmas.  Just in time for him to out grow this stage.

This month we've also begun introducing sign language a bit.  I'm trying to teach him mommy, daddy, milk, and bed. They say by 6 months they should be able to understand some... so I'll let you know.  I'm not holding out hope of him communicating with us for a couple more months though.

Other things he likes -
running water
cars driving by
riding in our car (rather than the van) and being able to look right out the back window at the sky
being outside
flirting with old ladies

Things he LOVES -
music - all music, but especially when we sing to him

He loves bath time - it's really kind of defeating the purpose of giving him a bath before bed because he loves it so much it gets him amped up.  He no longer likes his whale tub.  I think because of the incline  He doesn't like to be half sitting up.  So I've just been running a bath with a couple inches of water and letting him lay in the tub that way.  Dude goes nuts splashing.


He loves chasing Lee and I on walks - we  figured this out about a week ago when Lee was walking in front of us and I sped up an said let's get daddy and Lee said oooh no!! and Leo giggled and giggled.  So.... we do that a lot now.  The neighbors think we're nuts.


He loves when Daddy comes home from work!
And he LOVES to be scared!  He likes to be snuck up on and he's like mommy - super jumpy, but mommy hates it!

What he doesn't like? Bedtime.
Naps are usually ok.  Unless it's Sunday and our whole schedule gets thrown off and Leo takes like 3 cat naps and snacks here and there..... ah anyway.
For bedtime we are finally into a good routine, I think anyway, we go for an evening walk around 6-6:30, Leo has a bath at 7ish, nurses, story, prayer, bed.
For bed I have been laying him down awake, giving him a pacifier - he only gets it at naps and bedtime, I pat his little bum for a minute and kiss him goodnight, and then leave the room for 10 minutes.  I've read that they should be able to start putting themselves to sleep by now and should do so within 10 minutes.  Probably twice a week Leo falls asleep within 10 minutes.  The other nights I go back in, retry the pacifier (sometimes he just doesn't want it), pat him, and the leave again.  If he still isn't asleep I only wait like a couple minutes before going back in because by this point he's usually almost asleep and if he's still crying he'll just work himself up and then it'll be harder to calm him back down.   But usually it just takes one or two more times of patting to get him to fall asleep.
I think we're getting better and better.  He has been sleeping about 6 hours, 4 hours, and 2 hours.  I'd REALLY like that first stretch to go longer... or skip the second feeding of the night (which on rare occasion we will) but I've also read a lot of breast fed babies just don't sleep through the night well until they are weaned..................... insert frazzled, scared, emoji


In other Leo news, he is sitting up now.  He can sit up for a long period of time unassisted, but if he gets excited he'll propel himself backwards, so I keep the boppy around him to protect his little head.  Now that he can sit up he hates to be lying on his back, unless he is being actively entertained of course.

He is getting closer and closer to crawling every day.  It's kind of scary, like why is this baby in such a hurry to grow up?  :(  The closer he gets to crawling away from me the more I think about having more babies #oldwomaninashoe
But seriously, he is moving backwards with more speed now, even more so since I took this video a few days ago, and today he was up on all fours rocking back and forth.  We did a little photo shoot this past week and it was actually really hard to keep him in place! and to keep him from destroying my "set"



This month he went to the Dr for his 4 month appointment.  We were a little off due to the move, but at about 4 months and a week old he weighed 19lbs and was 26.5 inches long!
I don't feel like he has gotten much chubbier since then, but probably longer so he probably weighs even more!  He was 97th percentile for weight and 85th for height.
He's going to be tall like momma and daddy for sure.


Alright, long enough!
Pictures!

His 5th month started with a visit from his cousins from Kentucky! 

Then his first Canada Day and 4th of July!!

Sporting his shirt that his momma made... last minute with a sharpie marker.

Party on the beach!

First Fireworks! 

Then his crazy mom made him dress up like a cow to get free food at Chickfila...

but it was worth if because a. I got a free meal and b. chickfila commented on this photo on instagram :) lol

baby jeans.are.the.best.

he mysteriously got under this table one day... 

love this football! 

And he's a baby with many faces... 

 Going on a nice long walk in the morning is our favorite.
It's not yet super hot and we get to explore and get exercise.  Good combo. 

My baby and me. 

more about this photo shoot later :)