You Sit Up!!!

You sat up for the first time on January 10, 2012, a week and a half before your 6-month birthday. We were on a playdate with Jaxon and Lacee and went to someone's house for a baby sign language introduction. I had you propped up on the floor in front of me and was supporting you with my hand on your back, and all of a sudden you leaned forward a little to look at something, and when you straightened up you didn't lean back all the way to lean against my hand again. At first I thought it was just a fluke so I kept my hand there thinking you'd fall over in a second, but after several seconds passed I slowly pulled my hands away and said, "Lacee! Look! He's never done this before!" You were very wobbly, for sure, but definitely sitting up all by yourself! I couldn't believe it - you had never even shown any interest in sitting up before, and here you were acting like it was no big deal. I was so excited that I immediately took the below picture with my cell phone and sent it to Daddy and all our immediate family.

Nearly everyone responded over the next couple hours with their exclamations and comments. You only managed to sit up for probably less than a minute before you got tired and fell over, but then later that same day I propped you up on the floor and you sat up for about a minute again.

Unfortunately, Daddy was at a work conference and didn't get home until after you went to bed, so he didn't get to see you until the next day. In this picture below you are showing off your new sitting skills for Daddy and both of you were very proud!

It only took a few more days of practice before you were regularly sitting up like a champ! Now you can sit for over 5 minutes at a time before you get tired and start slumping and grunting, at which point we lay you down to rest. You've had plenty of falls (including a particularly nasty one in sacrament meeting on the hard carpet) but we are trying to show you that tipping over is no big deal so we cheer or give you toys when you fall over. For the most part you're okay with it although you still look at us every time to decide if you should cry or not.

I am so glad that I was there for this big milestone! I knew that it wasn't possible to watch you every second of every day and that inevitably you would do some things for the first time when I wasn't there to see it (like giving people kisses, that one you started at Grandma's house). . .but I am so glad that I got to see this one! I'm so proud of how well you are developing!

Baby Butt-prints

(Here's Daddy, hoping against hope that he doesn't get peed on)

I decided to make some creative prints. Thanks for being so cooperative!

Christmas Eve tradition

Just thought I should include a family pic from your first Christmas Eve party at Lata and Jeevan's house! It's a yearly tradition, although last year we couldn't go because I was newly pregnant and very sick. . .so Mommy and Daddy made a visit to instacare instead. We hadn't told anyone yet that you were coming to our family, but after missing the party we had to tell everyone the next day at Christmas, since everyone was very suspicious anyway! Everyone remembered last year and remarked on how happy it is that you are here this year!

1st Christmas

What a well-loved boy you are! This year the King side even decided to forego presents for each other and just give presents to you! This will probably be the only Christmas we allow such spoiling, since you're too little to let it go to your head :)

You got:

Clothes from Jeevan. Diaper pail from Ayisha. Jumper from Grandma and Grandpa King. High chair, Thor book, and Daddy's old 1st Christmas stocking from Nana and Papa. Berenstein Bears, Finding Nemo, spoons, and teether from Aunt Amanda. Christmas in the Manger book from Aunt Rachel Harris (your favorite book, by the way, you love it and so we read it every night)

. . .and much playtime and kisses from everyone.

First time swimming!

Oh my goodness, look how chunky you are in the above picture. I love it.

Today I took you to the pool for the first time! With the way those little legs of your kick, we always joke that you're a little swimmer - so I figured it was time to find out! Plus, you had this adorable striped pool romper in 0-3 month size that I never got to use because you were still in preemie/newborn size in the summer. So it was also a good way to sneak in wearing it once while it still fit! The pool idea occurred to me a couple days ago out of nowhere. Something about going swimming in the middle of winter I guess. So I scouted around until I found a rec center with daytime pool hours, then searched until I found a store with Little Swimmers diapers in stock, and we were good to go!

We went with your buddy Jaxon and his mommy. (Thanks to Lacee for taking all the pics, by the way!)

You were in the water for about 45 minutes total. At first you really did not know what to make of it. You just kept quickly looking all around the room trying to take everything in and figure out what was going on. I held you all sorts of ways and played all kinds of little games with you to see if I could get any kind of reaction. You didn't smile or laugh, but you also didn't fuss or cry, so I guess you thought it was acceptable. Once I took you out of the water, you finally started to show some reaction! I was holding you against me in a towel to warm up, and you kept twisting to be able to look at the pool. So finally I decided maybe you wanted to get back in, so we went back for another 15 minutes. When we got back in you started to smile a little bit and even giggle and talk some! So I guess you decided you liked it! I held you around your ribs and you would flop your bottom half around without moving your head or arms. It was so funny!

You in your "rubber pants" we bought at the rec center to go over your Little Swimmers diaper (which was Finding Nemo themed, in case you're curious)

After a while we decided you boys were tired so we went back to the locker room where I held you under a warm shower to rinse off, which you LOVED. You kept opening your mouth to catch the shower drops and didn't mind getting misted in the face. Then I got you changed into warm clothes and we headed home. Both you and Jaxon fell asleep within about 2 minutes and slept for about an hour and a half each. Just totally zonked from the swim!

We will definitely go back soon - and next time we're taking Daddy to see how much fun you have there!

(afternote: Mommy got very sick a couple days later with Cryptospiridium from our pool adventure. Thank goodness you were fine!)

So You Think You Can Drive

When Daddy was out of town, I took you with me into the garage to clean the car out. You were pretty fussy because it was almost bedtime, but as soon as I sat you down in the driver's seat you were as happy as could be. I was able to take a lot more time to clean the car than I had expected. I guess you just were happy to be in the driver's seat for once!

5 months old (a couple days late)

Alright little cutie! You are 5 months old! What a fun little boy you are. You really just make our lives so much happier. It's almost impossible for any kind of tension or stress to last for any length of time in our home, because a few minutes with you and the funny things you do just melt all the hardness away.

Some things about you at 5 month:

• We decided to move you to 3-6 month clothing today. Really, your 0-3 month things still fit fine, but you've been in them for 3 months now and the next size up doesn't look ridiculously big on you anymore, so it's time for a change!
• Along those same lines, we moved the straps on your carseat up one notch on your 5 month birthday! The straps are still about half an inch above your shoulders but you are much happier.
• Also, last week we moved you to stage 2 diapers. The stage 1 diapers (up to 14 lbs) still seemed to fit okay, and these new diapers seem a little bit, but they do help contain "the madness" better since they go further up your back and tummy.
• Today we tried a stage 2 - medium flow- bottle for the first time. The last time we tried it, at 3 months, you seemed like you were drowning. But Grandma gave you that bottle today and said you did great and really enjoyed getting your food faster! (As you can see, I had used your 5 month mark as the timeline to upgrade you in all kinds of areas - clothes, diapers, carseat, bottle!)
• You have started to really notice the puppies. Up until recently you didn't really pay them any attention, but within the last few weeks you started to understand that they are potential playmates for you. You smile and laugh when Pocket and Red come up and lick your face or fingers, and a couple times they have started wrestling right in front of you and you have had squealing fits watching them because you thought it was so funny. This also means that we need to start watching you more carefully around them though - there have been a couple times where you've grabbed a handful of fur or pulled hard on an ear and made the puppies yelp.
• You are a pretty confident thumb sucker now! You can usually make it to your mouth without jabbing yourself in the face first. You keep all your fingers flexed though, like putting a little turkey hand in your mouth. You also don't suck on your thumb as much as you gnaw on it.
• You're starting to differentiate between the people you see a lot and change your personality accordingly. You love your grandparents and you have such special mischevious playtimes with your aunt Kavita and Ayisha.
• For the last month or so your hair on the crown of your head has just stuck straight up like a ducktail. Within the last couple days though it seems like it has started to get just long enough that it's started to lay down a little. We'll see what it decides to do!
• Somewhere in the last week you've gone through a growth spurt and have really rounded out all over. It makes you look like a traditional chubby baby and not a tiny wisp of a thing. With that comes new strength - if we just hold you steady you can sometimes push up on your legs and support yourself standing up! You also seem to have gained new strength in your arms and can pull some heavier things toward yourself now.
• You still babble and laugh and shriek and squeal as much as ever. We love it!
• You're very good now at aiming your reach. I can hold something a few inches in front of you and you'll concentrate and shakily reach out to grab it, and then immediately pull it to your mouth. Everything goes in the mouth these days. :) You especially like grabbing your binky and then chewing on the side of it rather than the nipple.
• Your curiosity for the world has taken over! You are very interested in looking at new things, but you also seem to get bored quickly. This means that if mommy needs to get something done, we can easily cycle through all your toys - bouncer, swing, jumper, activity mat, walker - in an attempt to keep you entertained.
• We have a bedtime routine where Daddy gives you a bath and puts you in jammies, then Mommy reads you a book and rocks you to sleep. We try to start around 8pm so usually sometime after 830pm is when we get other things in the house done, while you sleep.
• You love splashing in your little tub. You can't sit up on your own very well but you like to slump against the wall and splash your feet.
• The last couple times we've video chatted with Nana and Papa you have seemed to understand that they are talking to us and that it is different than tv. You watch them on the screen and will even smile at them sometimes when they talk to you.
• You are very social and quick to grin at anyone who looks your way. You win people over very quickly with these smiles. You're a very happy baby and that really makes it so much easier. Sometimes you get shy though; you'll grin at someone and then immediately turn and bury your head into the shoulder of whoever's holding you. You'll even do this to Mommy and Daddy sometimes!
• You are - *fingers crossed* - starting to try to sleep through the night. A few weeks ago you went almost a whole week without needing to eat during the night. I did have to get up 3-4 times each night to pop your binky in your mouth when you started to fuss, but then you'd go right back to sleep without me even needing to get you out of the crib. Then you went a few days where you slept TERRIBLE and I was up with you at least once an hour. (You slept in our bed a lot those few days because I was just too tired to keep going into the nursery to rock/feed you every time you woke up, it was easier having you in the same bed) We suspect that those few days were maybe due to this most recent growth spurt and it just somehow messed up your sleep. But then you slowly started getting back to normal. Two nights ago, on December 20th you slept through the night for the first time! I didn't have to even go in your room at all from about 9-7! There were a couple times that you woke and started to fuss but then you fell asleep again within a few minutes. And then last night I didn't go in your room until 5:30am when you woke up hungry. So I am thrilled with how well you are doing and hope you keep it up!
• You are still so fascinated with your hands. Sometimes you catch a glimpse of one and then you hold it in front of your face and turn it around and examine it.
• You can grab your toes when laying on your back! You've only done it a few times in this last week but it is very adorable!
• Toys you like: you have a little blue puppy that plays rock a'bye baby that I give to you whenever you're in your carseat; you love to snuggle it and hold onto the ring it's attached to. You also like playing with anything shiny (currently, a christmas bow) or anything little that you can get your hands around. You can still only hold things if you can wrap your fingers around it, you're not strong enough yet to hold things with a partially open hand. You also love these fabric cubes that are filled with crinkly plastic.
• I still swaddle you to sleep. I've tried not swadding you sometimes for naps, but it never goes well. You can't control your arms well when you're tired and it gets you overstimulated and mad.
• You're still on a 3 hour feeding schedule. I decided not to change your feed schedule until you were doing better at sleeping through the night (one thing at a time!) So even though the doctor's office at your last appointment said you could eat 6oz every 4-5 hours, you still eat about 4oz every 3 hours. Besides, you still act like it's the end of the world if I make you wait an extra 10 minutes to eat so we'll just stay on our short schedule for now.
• You still do not care for naps. Never have. You stay awake for 1 1/2 - 2 hours at a time before you get tired enough for a nap, and then once I put you down you rarely sleep longer than 30 minutes.
• Your eyes are still blue. Have I mentioned that recently? With every day that goes by we get more and more hopeful that those gorgeous blue eyes are here to stay!
• You are also still very white. :) Olive skinned, at most.
• You like the "Christmas in the Manger" book aunt Rachel got you for Christmas. You seem to pay better attention when we read that one.
• You love the "shark song" (baby shark, mama shark, daddy shark, etc) that we learned. Often when we are driving and you get fussy, I will sing you that song and you'll calm right down.