news from chicago: 5 Months!

Happy 5 Months James! I know that we say this every month, but it's true - time is flying by. It's bittersweet really - It's so exciting to watch James grow up and learn new things and make so many leaps and bounds developmentally but at the same time it's a little sad because our little baby isn't so little anymore! We've already caught ourselves saying "When you were a little baby..." or "When you were first home ..."

This past month has been packed with little adventures, new skills, and new things James has been doing. We've gone to the Botanic Gardens twice now. James really enjoys it and it's nice for Mom and Dad to walk around and enjoy the beautiful surroundings too. We've brought the stroller each time, but next time, I think we're going to bring the Baby Bjorn too so that James can see more of the gardens.

James is now blowing bubbles with his mouth - I'm not sure the correct term for this but - it's essentially when you put your lips together and sputter. When James does this, he has about oh a gallon of drool behind it and it's loud! It's actually quite funny. One day, James was doing this during a feeding. He would take a bite of food, blow some bubbles, and in the process sputter some of the food out on the highchair and Mommy. This would make me laugh, then he would smile, the rest of the food would come out and then we'd start back from the beginning again. This was the longest highchair feeding so far clocking in at just under 45 minutes. It was hysterical.

James is also the king of hair pulling. Mommy now is very very careful. Mommy may or may not wake Daddy up by letting James loose right next to Daddy in the big bed. Little hands that grab one's face and hair are quite effective at saying "Good Morning! It's time to get up!" With this, James has also starting to grab our noses, mouths, eyes, cheeks and chins. It's adorable - especially when he does this while he's falling asleep in our arms. He's our little explorer.

James has also mastered the art of sucking his thumb. We don't have a history of thumb sucking in either of our families, so this is just another one of the mysteries of James. We do have to admit that it is adorable. Fun fact - his thumb is smaller than the length between Mom's knuckle and tip of her thumb.

The bouncer. Oh the bouncer. This has got to be the cutest thing ever. We've posted pictures of James in the bouncer before, but now he really bounces in it. I mean really bounces. He loves this toy. In fact, if I put him on the play mat, he actually turns his head to look at the bouncer and whines a little. We put him in the bouncer and he's off! It's got music that plays and he has 4 different 'stations' to face. We put a bib on him while he's playing because of the copious amounts of drool that escape his mouth. He also likes listening to music and 'dancing' while in the bouncer. This has got to be the best so far. We'll play all sorts of music and start to dance and clap and then James' little feet start moving and he just lets loose. It's fantastic! His little feet shuffle back and forth and he bounces up and down and his face goes back and forth between earnest concentration and huge smiles. It's just so much fun to watch!

James is also 'talking' up a storm! And, he could possibly have the cutest voice ever. The sounds we hear the most often are aahhhs, ooos, eeeeeehs, mmmms and "umba" and sometimes we get a mmmma and g sounds. Not so much "ga ga" but g sounds like the g in "go". We also think we've heard "hi" but we're not sure.

Oh Green City Market, baby food and eating solids. We are having so much fun with this! I am going to make a post just for this in a week or so. We want to get through a few more foods. At this point however, things are going well (knock on wood) and James is a very good eater. Doug and I are both making James baby food and we're having a great time doing so. Doug and I love cooking together and we did so very often before James but since his wonderful arrival, our time to cook together has been minimal. So this is way we can enjoy our time together in the kitchen and do something great for our son.

As we embark on month 5, I leave you with some of our favorite photos from this month!