18 March 2009

Five Months Old

Everyone said that you would be off to college before I knew it and while you are not exactly packing your bags (you still don't want to roll over from your back to your belly) I cannot believe how fast this last month flew. Suddenly time seems to be moving more quickly. Perhaps it is because spring is coming and there is more light and the birds are singing now when I get up in the morning to nurse you. Perhaps it is because you are doing new things all the time and that makes the days go by faster. You are now eating rice cereal and sweet potatoes. The first few times we tried this most of the food ended up on your face and your bib but you seem to be getting the hang of this eating thing and now you bite down on the spoon with vigor. Your father and I are planning the garden, starting seeds and counting the days until we can eat our first tomato. I cannot wait to start making you new foods in the coming months.

We finally decided to bring the Ferber hammer down a few weeks ago because I was tired of nursing you four to five to six times before you would finally fall asleep for good. So we bit the bullet a few Saturdays ago and I nursed you, feeling rather weepy because I knew you were not going to be happy when you realized you weren't going to be getting out of your crib again until the next morning, and then put you down awake. You instantly started crying but I steeled my heart, walked out of the room, set the timer for one minute and poured myself a glass of wine. One minute, three minutes, five minutes and ten minute timers went off and still you cried. Then about six minutes into the ten minute mark your father and I looked at each other and muted the television and all was quiet. You had actually gone to sleep on your own. It was like magic. We sat down to crab, garlic bread and more wine. You are the light of our lives but you sleeping through the night is so fabulous and we feel so lucky to have such a good little sleeper.

This past month you finally found your feet and now the moment I put you on the floor you throw your legs up in the air and reach for your feet. At night you love hanging out in your diaper and sucking on your toes as I read to you. You are working on sitting up too. Most of the time you fall over after a few seconds of balancing but sometimes you manage to balance forward on your hands and make little grunting sounds as you work to stay put. Somehow tiny bits of your personality are starting to come out. You seem pretty easy going but also so intense sometimes. You will hook your finger behind your pacifier, pull it out and examine it for minutes at a time with a furrowed brow as if the pacifier contained the answers to a complicated math formula. You study new peoples' faces with similar concentration. You also now recognize Buddy and I think you might love him more than anyone else in the family. You just light up when he walks by and when he actually deigns to lick your hand you giggle and wiggle around in happiness. Buddy is still working on loving you but the other morning he came into your room and lay down on the floor next to you and you both just looked at each other and it was perfect harmony for a little while.