5 months!

So, I'm a day late... but little man is 5 months now! It's incredible how much time has gone by already, and how big le little man is getting now.  I'm amazed every day at how much he's grown and how much he's learning...what he's able to do now.

This kid...he's rolling and scooting around, reaching and grabbing for things, (sort of) holding up his own bottle, and imitating noises we make. We enjoy sitting up and playing in the exersaucer and bouncy chair and completely fascinated by all kinds of things.

This long holiday weekend, we spent a lot of time hanging out with people...

Friday night we spent at Ms Jenni's, while madmommy got more info on how to be a Mary Kay consultant. This extra money is for your future little one...

watching madmommys fingers wiggle

 Saturday we hung out at Mama's...

We like to wake up at 5am even on the weekends.  Madmommy wishes that was more like 7am. Oh well. 

Laughs and kisses early in the morning :D

Then some quality Ayi time.  Who has taught him how to blow raspberries...and will now he won't stop.  Unable to control the amount of spit that comes with it since he has no teeth, it makes for a huge mess.

Ayi Rhea challenged him to a fist eating contest :P

 We have a serious interest in anything bottle shaped, and that goes in your mouth. 

can i have rootbeer mommy?

 Sunday we hung out at Lola Marielou's with our cousins...

happy LLM with Jocy and Mady

And Monday we went with Mama, Papa, and Ayi Rhea to Lake Geneva for a day trip.

look mommy i can hold my bottle!

LLM was almost able to hold his own bottle, being able to hold it but not quite lift it high enough to be able to drink.  Yesterday, Jill said he held it on his own while laying down and finished it himself! So proud of my little bubby :D

hanging out w mama and trying to eat sophie's face

chillin with papa

We drove and walked around for the afternoon, and on the way back, LLM wanted to drive...

.oO(papa, if you push the pedal i'll steer!)

We've also started to flip over and sleep on our stomach during naptime and at night.  That's just the MadMommy in him, since I prefer my stomach too. But then this happens...

oh boy.

He wasn't even crying...just grunting. Almost like he was attempting to free himself and not wanting help.

And here's our 5 month face...

as you can see...he's still blowing raspberries. Silly GOOSE!

Silly Silly

I just realized I never updated with his 4 month weight/length!  So he weighed in at 13 lbs 13.5 oz and measured 26.5"!!! Just to give you some perspective, he's in the 90th percentile in length...

GROWTH SPURT!!

And as far as weight, he's pretty lean, in the 40th percentile..

Right on track...

The doctor mentioned that so long as he's on the right track, I don't need to worry about his weight.  He eats like a beast, and I'm sure it's all going into his height right now.  But I'm sure as he grows more, it'll even out.

Little Man has been enjoying himself, watching, learning, laughing.  I love that he's so friendly and doesn't mind when new people hold him. Last night we were playing with different noises...

Hahaha. We had fun.

He's started to roll over from his back to his front more often but hasn't really tried to roll himself back from his front as much.  Even though he doesn't really like being on his tummy.  The past 2 nights I've woken up to his screams.  Which is really unusual for him, if he wakes up hungry, he doesn't typically scream so I rushed to see what was wrong.  And the past 2 days I've walked in and found him on his belly.  We put him to bed on his back, but I guess somewhere in the middle of the night he flips himself over...I'd been already starting to find him in different spots and positions over the past month, but the roll over is new. Hopefully he'll get better about being on his tummy or every time he wakes up on his tummy I'm going to have a heart attack that takes a year or 2 off my life.

How I found him this morning. So not happy.

In a week, we'll be 5 months old. It's amazing how time seems to fly.  It's even more amazing how every once in a while I'll look at him and think...how did you get so big already?! 

<3 <3 <3

Silly baby.

LLM's First Road Trip (picture reel)

Note: LLM's limit in the car is 8hrs. Then the tantrums begin.  He was smart enough to realize on our long travel days, that when we put him in the car seat, he was going to be there for a while.  It really didn't help that his schedule was abruptly changed for the weekend.

We started off probably on the wrong foot the day we left because we started off with our 4 month appointment and agreed to go ahead and get his shots done instead of me coming back with him after the trip.  He wasn't happy and he ran a bit of a temperature.

Then, I took him with me to the salon to get my hair done.  He was rather good there 'til he got bored. Good thing Grandma was there to entertain him.

He was looking at me with foils in my hair. Probably wondering what the hell I had on my head

And instead of relaxing for a bit, we hopped right in the car and started the 6+ hr drive to Lexington. It was alright since it was naptime anyway and he started off in a pretty good mood.

Good mood to start

The trip to Lexington was fine for the most part, got a bit fussy around his usually dinner/bedtime but once we got to Grandma Karen's we were ok.

Here we are watching everyone eat

After dinner, little man was still rather wide awake so a short stroll around downtown Lexington seemed in order.  He didn't seem interested in the fountains however.

chillin in the stroller

The walk seemed to calm him down enough to the point where as soon as we got back and I got the bed ready, he fell asleep quickly.

The next morning though, we were off again on our way to Atlanta. We enjoyed a fatty breakfast of the most amazing fresh donuts at Magee's in Lexington.

I highly recommend this place if you're ever in Lexington, KY

Leg 2 of the trip to Atlanta began well...

But after about 6 hours of intermittent napping and only having portions of meals, little man started to really get crabby.  It really didn't help that somewhere in Tennessee they ran a 20+ mile detour through the mountains keeping us on the road for another hour!

Eventually, he really needed a good nap so I tried to give him a little fort in his car seat...

asleep and still holding on to his travel buddy

But, that didn't last very long and he still wasn't able to get a good nap in, because we arrived at the hotel and went to meet Great Grandpa Ray and Patty before getting dressed.  (Those pictures are still on my camera)

Dad took a well needed nap, and although we tried to make little man comfortable enough for a nap, he really wasn't having it.  Instead he wanted to hang out with MadMommy while I got ready.  But, he was really needing it when we got him ready for the rehearsal dinner and just threw a fit when I got him in his outfit...

"get me out of this monkey suit!!"

He passed out on the way to dinner and we let him sleep for a while, but then Grandma decided she wanted to wake him up after dinner.  He was good, tired, but not crying too much.

zonked

I should have insisted that we go back to the room earlier to get him to bed, because he ended up not sleeping well at all that night. Which meant, I didn't sleep well at all that night either.  The next morning, bright and early, we ventured to a donut shop that we'd read about in an article listing the "Top 10 donut shops" in the country.  Sublime Donuts.  Totally worth it.  And yes, donuts for breakfast 2 days in a row. This was not a low calorie vacation.

After breakfast, instead of getting to nap, we went to visit the Badgers, our neighbors from home who are moving to Atlanta this year.  Mr Badger and Kinnari already moved down there so we stopped by to visit and have lunch.  He was happy to see Kinn again it seemed...

Kinnari's Pic

He thankfully slept through lunch and wasn't crabby when we took a short stroll around Historic Roswell.   But after a short 20 min nap on the trip back, we had to wake him up again and it was a mad rush to get ready for the wedding.  All the trips in and out of the car seat, and he started adamantly protesting getting in again.

He REALLY needed a good nap at this point, and when we got to the church it was clear he wasn't going to be able to handle it. So, basically, I didn't get to see much of the ceremony and we hid in another part of the church to eat and sit in a quiet place to try and nap.

Alas, that only lasted until we got back to the hotel room and grabbed the stroller to go down to the reception across the street.

Poor little man was quite uncomfortable yet again but there were plenty of people to talk to and things to see so it kept his attention.

Grandma Karen soothing a crabby little man

However I did insist that I take him back to the room after dessert because I knew without a doubt how tired he was.

happy with all the people to talk to, but you can tell he's exhausted

I'm glad I did take him back early, he went right to sleep and slept for a good several hours.  But that still didn't mean I didn't wake up every time he moved, shifted, grunted, sighed, or made any other kind of noise...including farting.  (I'm pretty sure the 3 days of fast food meals were getting to him)

The next morning he was well rested and happy, but I was anxious about the 13 hour car ride ahead. We left early, hoping to get home around dinner.  By lunchtime, little man was done with the car ride. Unfortunately, after lunch we hit some major traffic in Kentucky near Mammoth Cave, adding 3 hours to our travel time, and more traffic coming into Louisville.  I think at that point we were all done with the car. 

So, my mother's day dinner was...wendy's. At least, when it was time to try and get little man to go down for the night he seemed in a better mood...

changing at a rest stop, soo happy to be out of the car seat!

When he was fed, dressed in pajamas, and covered in his car seat fort, he protested a bit but eventually fell asleep and stayed asleep for the rest of the drive home.  Hooray!

Things to remember for future roadtrips: don't bring too much crap. bring plastic bags for dirty diapers. bring a roll of paper towels. forget bringing all the diapers, bring enough for a few days and if you need more, you can always buy more. it's not necessary to bring all the baby bottles you can fit in a bag. bring a few...you can always wash them.  In fact, you should wash them...after a day of milk scum on the inside, it reeks.

Well, that was an adventure.  On to the next one!

LLM's first road trip?!

We're taking LLM to Atlanta for the weekend and we leave tomorrow afternoon.  I'm used to preparing a vacation checklist, so putting together a list of what he's going to need is no big deal.  But I can't shake this rapidly growing anxiety about the trip.  I feel like I'm going to either forget something or completely over pack.  Knowing me, probably both. I'll bring far too many diapers, wipes, or clothes...and then completely forget enough bottles or something.  That's kind of how I am even for myself.  LOL

I'm trying to take deep relaxing breaths to combat the anxiety, however the more I think about it, the harder it is to remain calm. But, here's my list so far:

Clothes (pants, shirts, onesies, pjs, sweaters/jackets, socks, shoes, hats, bibs...), burp cloths, towel, shampoo, sunblock, diapers, wipes, hand sanitizer, diaper rash cream, blankets, activity gym, crib mattress cover/sheet, night light, toys, sling carrier, pump, batteries for pump, milk, extra bottles, first aid kit, small bag for garbage/soiled clothes...

Seriously, I feel like I'm missing something. I should have started packing 2 days ago, ugh.. ::head meet desk:: help.

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Ok, not really.  But we rolled over!  It may have been an accident, but it happened twice...so I'm going to go with "we're at that point".  LOL  Yesterday, I had little man on his belly for some tummy time and was getting his attention above his head so he'd have to push up a bit to see.  Well, we pushed up and turned, trying to get at the toy and *flop* over he goes! The look on his face was priceless.... He didn't cry but he was wide-eyed and shocked at the sudden change in scenery.  I laughed, kissed him, and told him he'll get used to it.

I could probably spend hours on the floor watching him attempt to roll over from his back. He's almost there, he gets to about halfway onto his belly with both his legs flipped over but his arm is still in the way.  Once he figures out how to move that arm out of the way, that's it.  Actually, I could probably spend hours on the floor just watching him play and talk.  I did.  We watched Jurassic Park together camped out on the floor and he started making screechy noises that sounded very raptor like...



It was awesome. I love, love, love him.

**UPDATE** This evening, while playing under the activity gym, we've officially rolled over from back to front! Little man is getting stronger every day.  What a big boy!! MadMommy's so proud!

I knew it...

When the going gets tough...watch silly youtube videos.  This one had me laughing at the end.

I knew it.... I can't get enough of the baby laughter at the end.

Seriously though, one of the best tools I have to help me deal with my depression is to find things that make me laugh.  Laughter is one of the things that reminds us all that life is worth living.  Seeing little man smile when he sees me when I pick him up from the sitters, and when I kiss him before bed...that's worth living for.