Sweet Baby is now five months old. He is 18 pounds, 11 ounces and 27 1/4 inches. One more month, one more pound, one more inch. Isn't life amazing?He is a sweet thing and continues to refine his people charming skills. He loves to engage people -- especially women -- and has his approach finely tuned. He will look at someone until they return his gaze and then he will do a little open mouthed smile. When they smile in return he will clasp his hands in front of his mouth and then look away coyly. Then he glances back and seals the deal with another smile. He really does work at it, too. While waiting for a table at Ria's yesterday, he just stared at the two women next to me for at least a minute until they paid him attention. I sometimes wonder if I have told the people in our lives so much that he is our Sunshine Baby that it influences how they see him and they all think he is a good baby. Complete strangers, though, tell me he is clearly a happy smiley baby with a sweet disposition, so I am just going to have to believe it.
He is a terribly busy baby. It seems he is never still, even in his sleep. If you set him down he is rolling, pushing himself around with his feet, never ending up where you left him. Today he accidentally pushed himself up on his knees for a moment! If he is in your lap he is looking all over, squirming, grabbing, trying to put his mouth on something. Even in his sleep he is always trying to roll or shift himself. He will wake up and cry if he tries to roll and can't. He will wake up and cry if he does roll. He can't win and we can't win if we are trying to sleep. It can be funny to watch, as long as it is not 3 AM. His swaddled legs pop up in the air, 90 degrees from his body and then they swing to one side and -- pop! -- he's on his belly and pushing up. The only time he doesn't really seem to be so busy is when we have him in the sling.
He has the most wonderful hair right now. It has come back in and is lighter than it was before. We are speculating that it might even turn out to be a very light brown or even -- gasp! -- a blond. That would be a shocker I would have never expected. The delightful thing about his hair is that it is terribly and wonderfully fuzzy. At night I have to make sure to wipe his head as well as his face and hands, because we all seem to rub our faces against it. Also, his hair reminds me a little of a Dr. Seuss drawing of a baby. He has a few long strands of hair at his crown that just stick up.
About a month and a half ago, he stopped being a super low maintenance sleeper. Instead of waking once a night, he likes to wake up every few hours and nurse and I don't always find it easy to get back to sleep. Frankly, I think that Aaron does a better job of it, though he probably thinks that I say that just so that he will do it. Toby's sleep is also interrupted by his rolling and moving and his teething. He became a high intensity drooler two months ago, but he only occasionally seems to be uncomfortable. When he is uncomfortable, he has a hard time sleeping, he drools in his sleep and he wants to nurse for comfort. He sometimes wears an amber necklace and that is supposed to help with teething, but I don't know that it really works. He does wear it well, though! Problems with sleep always make me feel like a lousy parent. I'm hopeful that once he does finally get a tooth he will go back to be a "good" sleeper. I remember that when Zeke finally got his first two teeth, he started sleeping through the night. He is certainly different from Zeke in that he wants to be asleep a lot earlier at night than Zeke. Zeke never seemed ready to go to bed until 9 or later. If Toby isn't getting ready for bed at 7 or soon after, he will likely melt down. If I even tried to keep the schedule that I did for Zeke at five months for Toby at five months, none of us would have survived! (As a reference, when Zeke was that little I didn't even get home from work until 6:30 or 6:45!)
Because of how interested Toby is in chewing on things, because of how big and solid he is and because of my desire to see him nurse less at night, I'm contemplating starting to feed him solids now. I have it set in my mind that we will make it to 6 months and then start, but there is really nothing magic in that number. I get a little annoyed with all of the things that people say to babies, including asking babies that nurse exclusively if they want to eat just because they are busy at the dinner table. However, Toby genuinely seems interested in wanting to participate in eating with us. He'll watch me eat and then suck his lip a little or try to grab whatever it is that I am feeding myself. The pediatrician has recommended starting him with orange vegetables when we do start, so it seems he'll be getting some squash or some sweet potato soon.
Also in the extremely endearing category: Toby responds to his name with a smile. He also reaches for me which completely melts my heart. Each and every time. I hope I am the mother that these little boys deserve!
