happy 5 months!

Dear Grayson,

Today you turned five months old. I can't believe it's been that long! Of course, I think I'll always be saying that. Month four went back with a flash.

This month, you've really been working on a lot of skills. You love to chat and laugh. You squeal loudly. Some days you love to work on all of your consonants and vowels... all at once... very loudly. It makes me laugh out loud sometimes because you're just that funny sounding. You're getting as close to a baby belly giggle as I've heard yet, especially in the past couple of days.

You're trying to roll from back to front. You bring your legs up high in the air and roll onto your side. Sometimes you'll just stay there and look around, talking to yourself and munching on your hands. Rolling from tummy to back, both ways, is rarely a problem anymore. Soon you'll be rolling all the way onto your tummy and we'll have to abandon the swaddle. Not looking forward to that!

A few weeks ago, you started to really intentionally grab at things. You'll just study them with that intense expression you get when you're trying to figure something out. You've got a strong grip - sometimes it hurts! I can't wait until you want to hold my hand. Sometimes you'll grab my fingers and slowly pull my hand toward your mouth, your eyes wide, a little smile on your face, almost like asking permission. Those hands love to pull things into your mouth. I wonder when you'll start teething. You can be a sensitive baby, my little boy, so I'm guessing you won't like cutting teeth very much.

You started growing a lot of hair this month as well. There's new growth, and the hair you were both with has gotten a few inches longer as well. It seems to be a dark brown rather than a black like I first thought - more like mine than your daddy's. I love the little swirl on the back of your head. I hope you don't hate it when you're older because it means your hair might not do what you want it to do.

You can be such a serious baby sometimes, especially if we make a new noise or if you haven't encountered something before. You have the perfect huff with the perfect timing. I know you probably aren't meaning to, but it makes us laugh so hard. My strong-willing, opinionated, beautiful babycake.

Besides the rolling, you're sitting up by yourself for a few seconds at a time. That just happened in the last couple of days. You use your hands to prop yourself up on your legs. You're pretty good at not topping toward, but not so much side to side. I'll let you fall over (gently) so you get used to it, and you just take it all with stride. No complaining there. I think you'll be sitting up unassisted by the time you're six months. We'll see!

You love to look and survey the world around you. It's causing problems because now you don't want to nap or go to bed like you usually did. So frustrating sometimes! But you're changing so rapidly right now. Who has time to nap, right?

Love you, cuddlebug. Happy fifth month!