5 months old!

This week Daniel celebrated his 5 month birthday, and he's as happy and healthy as ever. 

First, here's his 5 month picture:

And another which shows his lean form a little better:

Here's a recap of where we are these days:

Eating: Daniel is still an exclusively breastfed baby.  I get up to nurse him in the morning before work then we nurse 1 or 2 times in the afternoon/evening before bed.  He'll usually take 2 bottles of expressed milk during the day while I'm at work.  We'll introduce solids in a month or sooner if he shows readiness.  We haven't been in any hurry to do it so long as he's still thriving on just breastmilk.  The immunity the milk provides him is nice this time of year, especially since he's still too young for the flu vaccine.  Plus, it's convenient not to have to pack food for him when we travel next week for New Year's Day and it'll be nice to get a few weeks to settle into our new child care situation before throwing another change into the mix.

Sleeping:  He gets a gold star on his chart for his sleep habits!  He goes down for the night around 7 and on a weekend, will often sleep till 7 the next morning.  On a weekday I'll get him up about 5:45 if he isn't already up, but after a diaper change and meal he'll go back down for another hour or two, so he's generally good for about 12 hours a night.  He's always been a good night sleeper but for about the last 6 weeks he's also been a good napper too.  He usually takes a mid-morning and mid-afternoon nap, each usually 60-90 minutes but occasionally a little shorter or 2+ hours.  We had to stop swaddling once he started rolling over in early November but he sleeps just fine in his Halo sleep sacks, or as we call them "sleepy sacks," since we put him in when he gets sleepy.  He even naps pretty well when we travel, in his little tent:

Developmental milestones:  He's learning how to sit up, though he isn't there yet.  We just started him on his Exersaucer, which is like a walker but stationary.  It'll help him strengthen his leg muscles so in a few months, he'll be ready to crawl and walk.  (On a related note, guess we'll need to start childproofing the house soon!)  We put him in for the first time yesterday and already today he had learned how to swivel around in it to get to his favorite toy.  The activity mat is still our old reliable play area but I think he'll enjoy the Exersaucer too.

He's also started babbling just in the past few days, and it's really cute to hear.  He likes to do it when we put him down to bed, he'll just lie there talking to himself for a few minutes.  We haven't captured it on video yet but we'll try to soon.

In another development, he has finally shed the last of the reddish newborn hair and is now all blond.  Until this week he still had a patch of it at the base of his skull but tonight I realized it's gone.  Now his stork bite birthmark is more visible, but once his hair gets thicker I think it'll be harder to see.

Child care: Kevin has been home with Daniel since I went back to work in mid-October.  He admitted the first few weeks were a bit challenging but since then they've settled into a nice routine together.  It's been great for our family for the boys to get this bonding time.  Daniel's face lights up like the Christmas tree when he sees Daddy.  But just as mine did, Kevin's time at home with Daniel is coming to an end.  When the new year rolls around, Kevin's mom will start watching him during the day.  I'm hoping that'll give Daniel and Grandma a chance for a special bond too.  And since her house is so close to my office I'll be able to drop by at lunch to visit.

So, that's a snapshot of life these days.  This past January when we were putting up our Christmas decorations, we talked about how when we put them back up this winter there would be a baby in the house.  Now we're about to celebrate baby's first Christmas!