5 Months Old!

It is hard to believe that Littles is 5 months old--that sounds so OLD to me! This has been a big month for Charlie--I have gone back to work and he has started daycare. Not surprisingly, Charlie has handled all the changes like a champ (he loves having extra people in his life to love on him :). And at 5 months, Charlie is starting to seem older all of a sudden. His actions (and reactions) are more deliberate and he is getting more and more interactive with us. He is still just a sweet, sweet baby and is so easy to make laugh, which makes life with Charlie especially fun. He laughs at Peek-a-Boo, being tossed in the air, being turned upside down, being tickled, being surprised with Mr. Frog (this boy LOVES his frogs), singing Wheels on the Bus, being wheeled around wildly in the stroller, getting rasberries on his belly, and just about any other funny game we come up with. He is a big talker and loves telling us stories about his day during our evening family walks--we are treated to lots of babbling and excited screeching--Charlie loves trying out his vocal cords!

Charlie is reaching and grabbing more and more. He scoots over to and grabs for toys (and anything else that his eyes land on), and puts everything in his mouth. His feet are a major source of fascination and he can spend long periods of time rolling around on his back with his feet in his mouth. He is still rolling over both ways, but after a couple bumps on the head, doesn't seem a huge fan of that trick. His biggest milestone this month is his sitting--although we need lots of padding around him, Charlie can sit straight up for short amounts of time! He is very proud of himself when he does this. :) [Disclaimer: I found out that he was sitting only after seeing pictures of him doing so at daycare. I felt like the worstmotherintheworld, but it is so hard to get him to ignore his feet and actually sit up! We have remedied this problem by cheering loudly and clapping after we get him sitting--this distracts him, makes him look away from his feet, and gets him sitting... :)] Charlie still loves standing and still looks SO proud when you help him pull up from sitting to standing (and we are still so proud of him for doing so, of course :).

Charlie's sleeping habits are all over the place these days. His good, regular naps have gone out the window since we started daycare and his night sleeping is beginning to suffer as well. We are hoping that the last few sleepless nights are an aberration caused by teething, but I guess only time will tell. Charlie has been a great sleeper since birth, so I have faith that we can get back there! He still loves his stories before bed (Green Eggs and Ham is a new favorite) and he loves to cuddle his lovie and pull it up around his face. He rubs his little eyes when he gets tired and it's just so sweet.

All in all, Charlie's 5th month has been wonderful. We just love each minute with him so much and cannot imagine life without this sweet, silly, funny little guy.

Poor Charlie--I didn't realize his ear was smashed until I saw this picture. :)

I had the bright idea of doing his 5-month photos outside, but the grass was WAY too distracting to get any good photos. Charlie is looking up here only because Clint was causing some major distractions.

Most of the pictures I got look just like this. Can you blame him??? Grass IS pretty amazing.

Quick glance up to make sure we're still around.

I thought maybe a standing picture would be cute, but again, the grass was way too distracting. Charlie loves the feeling of grass under his feet and will stand like this, picking up one foot at a time and putting it back down again over and over and over, for as long as we will let him. It's the simple things...

Congratulations on a great 5th month Charlie--we love you!!