5 months old

Wow, wait - what? Almost half a year? Already?!. I don't know what scares me more ... that you are growing up so fast or that I'm quickly approaching the window of time where I said I'd like to start having another baby.
Obviously, in light of how fast time travels, you're future li'l sis or brother is on hold for another half a year.

So this past month is the month of first solids! Who-pee! You took to rice cereal like no big deal and then did the same with apples last week. Tonight, it was carrots. I think you really love carrots since this was the first time you actually opened your mouth for each bite and didn't pump your arms continuously while grunting (ungh! ungh! ungh!). No, you were quiet and patiently watched each spoonful. In fact, for dinner tonight you must have had 2T of rice cereal and 2T of carrots followed by 1T of apples and then washed it all down with 4 oz of formula. We don't measure anything. Should we be arrested for over feeding you? Or maybe we can finally get our 15 minutes of fame by putting you on the Maury Povich Show for fat babies.
I'm sick, I know. I hope you grow to not only understand but love my twisted, dry sense of humor.
Shortly after hitting month four, you began having more control over yourself when we hold you. No longer slamming forward into our chins (clunkers), you started either holding onto our shirt sleeve or pushing off with your hand for balance. I thought the moment you did this was a sign of brilliance. I think I will be an easily impressed mother. You have it much better than I did, Evie.
In fact, speaking of Grandma Bob, we went to Greensboro for your first Thanksgiving! The drive down was OK... a few fits and spurts from you as you wrestled with the notion of sleeping before finally succumbing. We had hit the ground running at 6PM on Wednesday, after I came home from work (thanks AGAIN to Kelly and Kelly for entertaining you long enough so we could pack and load up the car to even make such a timely departure possible). Our drive back from GSO, the following Sunday, proved a little more trying as you slept the first half but fussed the second half of the trip. We stopped 3X's for the 3.5hr drive.
While at Grandma's house, she desperately wanted you to eat applesauce ('cause, apparently, rice cereal just wasn't enough for her). I managed to talk her into putting the adult applesauce down, much to her sadness, and your dad later went out to buy you the baby food variety. So, to her delight, Grandma Bob does get to claim that she is the first one to feed you apples. Not to be outdone by Grandma Ullman later this year during Christmas, she was later seen shoving you over a few times on your activity mat hoping to get you to roll over for the first time while at her house. Alas, you didn't fall for it and you waited until coming home before doing this for.... Puck. Yes, Puck witnessed your first roll over at our house just today... but I digress.
You met Santa Claus for the first time. I knew you wouldn't cry - you really aren't like that (well, not yet, at least). But, I didn't expect the blase calmness you had while Santa shifted you around on his lap 5 or 6 times trying to help us snap a photo of you smiling. I simply love that you just sat there looking blankly into the camera. I also love how you grinned a huge grin when I walked over to pick you up off his lap when all was said and done. My glee was heightened by the fact that you frustrated my mother by smiling AFTER the photos were done. Good girl.

Drool, drool, drool. I really do not think you are teething yet. You just drool a lot. In fact, I held you as you konked out for a short milk coma last night before bedtime. I watched silvery streams of drool spill out the side of your mouth as you dreamt quietly. Ah, you did inherit something from me - my salivary glands.
You took a brief liking to screeching recently. You really screeched while at Grandma's house. Dad woke up on his birthday morning to you kicking and screaming (with delight) at the sight of his face. He said it was a pretty awesome birthday greeting. I think that's spectacular. You've been less enthusiastic ever since, but you do still belt out some loud sounds.
You still have a very horsy, dry laugh. Just today I flung you up in the air and then pretended to drop you again and again while dad got your dinner ready. You LOVED it. I remember testing you at 3 months and you'd steady your arms afraid if I was going to drop you or not. Now you seem to love the brief weightless flight right before I catch you again. You had a huge grin and you chuckled a few times before I realized... you are very heavy and I am very out-of-shape.
You simply LOVE baths. We still keep up with our every-other-night routine. You could be half-asleep and cranky before I walk into the bathroom and you just light up in anticipation. You love the freedom of nudity on the bathroom mat before I plunk you down in the warm lavendar bath. I scrub key areas before letting you just sit to kick, kick, kick! Your frog-like belly does wonders for your buoyancy. You float to the top and begin to roll to either side before I need to station your butt down again. You never seem to mind when you begin to slip into the water either... I think you like the weightlessness of the water this much. I can't wait till next summer when we can take you to a pool. You're going to be a fish.

You truly have reached that stage where everything goes into your mouth. Last month was just the beginning. You get this feverish look of determination right before your mouth forms a perfect "O" shape sucking in anything it can like a big, wet black hole. Things do come back out—soaked. Last week you sucked all of my fingers on the way home from Greensboro and the saliva just ran down my hand. You enjoy sucking on your fingers and then touching my face to pull open my mouth... where you will then stick your wet fingers. Its funny to think how GROTESQUELY AWFUL I would have found all this to be just one year ago. Your spit tastes like water and it really doesn't bother me in the slightest that I know this.
You are getting big. We've already begun retiring 3-6 month wear and we really do need to start dipping into the 6-9 month clothes. Again, it amazes me to think you will never wear some of these things ever again. This makes me both sad and jealous. Why the hell do I have to keep the same clothes year after year? I'd love a new wardrobe every 2-3 months.

You've developed new frustrations at sleeping. You are increasingly more difficult to get down for naps (although you slept for hours at Grandma Bob's. She thinks its because her house is so relaxing... I think its because she wears you out). You rub your eyes and fuss endlessly signaling you are tired but you keep POPPING alive trying to stay awake. This makes for long days for dad. I have also noticed this weird left leg "stomp, stomp, stomp" you do when you are overly tired. You pick up your leg and throw it down (hard!) against the mattress almost like a temper tantrum. You bury your face in your hands (everyone who knows you has seen you do this - you have always covered your face when eating a bottle or trying to sleep) and then stomp your leg multiple times before finally wearing out. I'm not quite concerned, hell, I had to sleep on my stomach with my butt in the air when I was a kid. But I do hope this isn't a sign that we let you get too frustrated. I'd hate to think we are causing you to get this upset.
Finally notes of interest: We bought a Flip camera and a new digital camera to capture more moments in better quality.
Dad's latest nickname for you: Piglet. It was Munchie around 3 months and Birdie at 1 month.