Ethan at Five Months

Our youngest is now five months!  It is so exciting to see him grow in so many different ways!  His little personality is really starting to shine through.  He is a VERY opinionated little boy.  He lets you know what he thinks all the time.  Sometimes it's in his talking to us with many and varied facial expressions.  Sometimes it's when he is mad and will "yell" at us to get our attention.  It's not a cry, it is truly a yell. :)  And other times it's when he cries and cries for Daddy, but the second he's passed to Momma he stops instantly!  Move his bottle in front of him instead of giving it to him and he'll follow it with his eyes and complain at you.  He will also smile like he knows he only needs to melt your heart to get what he wants!

Ethan is still the charmer when we go out!  He smiles and coos and giggles at everyone he meets.  This past week he got sick and he was miserable and not sleeping due to a nasty cough so we headed off to the doctor.  His crying and whining stopped as soon as we got to the doctor and he was smiling and cooing at everyone!  It's hard to get the doctor to take you seriously when your child seems to be doing just fine!

We almost thought that Ethan had learned to roll over, but he was just teasing us!  One day he was on his back, rolled to his side, and then rolled all the way to his tummy.  He still does not like being on his tummy, so he immediately cried!  Momma rolled him back over and he did it one more time.  And...that was it!  He hasn't done it since!  Ethan enjoys sitting so he can see things better and is getting really close to being able to sit on his own.  We can often let go and he'll sit for a while before we have to catch him.  Though he also tries to sit up in his little chair and swing so we now have to belt him in because he's almost fallen forward a couple of times.

In just the past couple of weeks Ethan has gotten much better at his eye-hand coordination.  He can actually get his pacifier back in his mouth (though I must say, that he often gets a bunch of fingers in there too or gets it in upside down and makes himself mad) and can hold toys in his mouth.  This helps when we go on our walks so that he can hold his cold teething toys to lick on rather than Momma having to prop them up on his mouth!

Unfortunately I can't tell all of you that Ethan is sleeping through the night yet.  We were SO close!  He was sleeping nine hours with only every other night waking up and crying for ten minutes.  Then he got sick and now Momma's lucky if he'll sleep three hours without waking up and needing to be rocked back to sleep.  His cough wakes him up and then he can't relax on his own to fall back asleep, so I have to rock him until he's asleep.  Ah well, maybe next month!

Bathtime is still a joyous part of the day.  He's finally gotten used to having water put on his skin and has begun kicking his feet in the water.  He splashes all over and then stretches out and then splashes again.  Smiling all the way!  It is so much fun to watch!

Ethan's all-time favorite toy is now his toes!  He LOVES to kick his feet up and grab on.  Usually it is really cute to watch, though it does make some things harder like changing diapers, strapping him in the car seat, picking him up. 

All-in-all Ethan is a joy and delight.  God has truly blessed us with two wonderful boys!