5 Months

One of the things about having a baby that I didn't expect (but totally should have, given my years of teaching experience) is the gradual way that things change. I think to myself: "Oh, when did he start doing [thing?] I should write about that." But then I'd think, it's just one small change, and I have plenty of time to try to capture more of his milestones in writing.

And then I turn around and I realize all those tiny changes accumulate, and all of a sudden he's 5 months old as of yesterday. He can support his weight on his legs if we hold his arms, and he's sitting up (with judicious use of pillow support, of course). He has all these… facial expressions. And sounds! So many different babble sounds. And the other day I gave him a tiny taste of hachiya persimmon on my finger, and when I offered a bit more, he LUNGED at my hand and stuffed it in his face and sucked madly on it. Uh, okay dude, apparently you want to taste more food.

And I see him chilling out on his stomach pushing up alternately on his knees and arms… he even does that when he's shifting position while sleeping, like his body KNOWS it needs to try to crawl, even when it wakes him up and he screams because he doesn't WANT to be awake.

I have a feeling we really can't procrastinate too much more on the childproofing of our house.

Everywhere I go, people constantly comment on how alert and aware and interested he is in what's going on. I don't know if this is because he's small for his age, so people peg him as younger, or if they say that about all the babies, or if that really is a noticeably more intense part of his particular personality. Sure, there are some things he just hates -- being in the car seat for a long time being chief among them, as we learned after the drive to and from Yosemite last weekend. But we've yet to find his tolerance limit for being carried around outside while looking at things. His favorite directions are Up and Out, and he'll often crane his neck into crazy contortions to see more trees and sky.

Oh yeah, that hat? The reason it looks so weird is, uh... we sort of lost his hat on the way to Yosemite. And it was seriously chilly. But never fear: a rubber band, a spare pair of baby pants, and a bit of MacGyver creativity resulted in a brand new hat! Well, close enough, anyway.

Finally, he's figured out that Colin and I are important. When Colin brings Kai upstairs after he's had him in the morning, it's all gummy grins and giggles for me. And when Kai hears Colin's voice after he comes home at night, he cranes his neck around until he sees him, and more gummy grins and drooling and gleeful giggles ensue. Like we're some kind of celebrities. It is DAMNED delightful, people.

I'm not sure what we did to deserve that kind of adoration - we did THIS to him for Halloween, after all.

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[duck]

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