5 Months Old!

SJ is five months old today - hard to believe, but true!  The past five months have just flown by, and SJ has definitely "grown up" a lot in the past few weeks.  He's really changed from a passive baby into a little person with his own likes, wants, and opinions!  He is such a sweet, smiley baby who loves to play, talk, and eat, eat, eat!  His favorite person is definitely his big sister, and they play together all the time.  He also loves to look at Abby and Ginger.  Unfortunately, he's still not sleeping through the night consistently, but he makes it from 7:30 - 4:00 between feedings on most nights.  I still have to get up once or twice between those times with him, but I can usually settle him back down to sleep in a few minutes without going through the whole changing and feeding process.  He's a very slow eater - especially at night! - so giving him a bottle usually takes around an hour in the night/early morning.  During the day, he eats baby food, rice cereal, and takes bottles, too.  He's currently wearing 9 months clothes most of the time, but he fits comfortably into a lot of 12 months things, too!

In honor of his little five-month birthday, I took a lot of pictures - and a video! - to show some of the things he loves to do these days.

At five months, SJ...

 has learned to roll over front his tummy to his back:

In that video, you can also hear him talking ... he talks all the time!  SJ has lots of different little "voices", and you can really tell his emotions from the tone of his baby talk.  He loves to have conversations with everyone and tries really hard to mimic the tone of the person that's talking to him.  Normally, he kind of waits his turn and has a little "conversation" with you, but when we're in the car on the way home from school every day, he talks loud, long, and non-stop.  Katie Anne tells me all about her day in the car, and I say he's telling me about his day at school, too.  Katie Anne gives him a minute or two to talk, and then she wants her turn - but he just keeps on going!  It frustrates Katie Anne to no end because he'll just talk louder and louder to try to talk over her.  She says, "SJ, stop talking!  It's my turn to tell Mommy about my day now!"  I think we're going to have two very chatty kids on our hands when SJ really learns how to talk!

SJ has also decided that he can sit up.  He grabs his little feet and tries to hold himself straight up.  He actually does pretty well if he has a little support from the bed or couch, or if he's sitting on someone's lap- he can hold himself up in a sitting position for a good while.  On the floor, he can't do quite as well, but he still tries and gets very frustrated when he can't do it the way he wants - or when someone tries to help him!
Here we go...

Grab the little feet and struggle up:

Mom, don't help me - I've got this:

See?  I'm up!

Whew - and I'm down.  Too hard!

Along that same line of thinking that he's a little man, SJ has decided that he is too old for his bouncy seat.  As soon as you put him in it, he's trying to sit up and get out.  He grabs the edge of the seat and pulls himself up into a sitting position, and he just about flips the seat over.  He's a daredevil baby!  So, these pictures were just for documentation purposes, and now the vibrating seat is put away!

How many times have I said I'm not a baby?!  Let me just get out of this silly seat...

 I'll just grab the edge and work my hands down...

A little further and I think I've got it!

 There we go!  Now I'm sitting up!

 Now, if I can only figure out this darn buckle, I'll be out of here!

At five months, SJ is such a happy, cheerful baby.  He has the sweetest smile and a great little laugh.  He smiles at everyone and loves attention from his big sister!  SJ also loves to play with toys.  He loves to grab and manipulate things - and like any baby, everything goes straight into his mouth!  This is his present from Ella and Colin, which he plays with while I get his dinner ready every night.

 SJ is a great eater who loves his baby food.  He's eating a Stage 1 fruit and cereal for breakfast, a Stage 1 veggie and cereal for lunch, and either a fruit or veggie and cereal for dinner.  He also takes 6 oz bottles throughout the day - he goes about 4 hours in between feedings.  He loves to eat - especially the fruits!  He doesn't like green vegetables at all, but he loves all the yellow ones like squash and sweet potatoes.  SJ is a very neat eater - he eats quickly and doesn't make much of a mess at all.

I had my finger over the top of the flash, but I love this picture of his little face!

 Yum yum!

 All done!  SJ cleans his plate every time.

SJ also has this new "motorboat" sound that he makes.  I thought at first that he was making this sound when he was hungry, but I actually think he makes it when he's showing his displeasure about something.  It is kind of confusing because sometimes he laughs while he's doing it, and sometimes he gets upset and cries.  He does his little motorboat periodially, but he consistently does it when you feed him rice cereal without baby food mixed into it, and he definitely doesn't like it when they're not mixed together.  This is the only time he makes a mess when he's eating!

SJ has turned into his own little man at only five months old!  We can't wait to see what he'll do next!