Ok, so it seems like not that long ago I was writing about how Victor had just turned 4 months old, and now here we are, at 5 months! Time might be speeding up a little bit (or maybe it's just me feeling too busy and less organized...) Regardless, I figured I'd better update before I forget everything that has gone on in my little bébé's life in the last month.

So here we go:

*First off, the feeding/sleeping report: He's been doing great in the sleep department, he has slept through the night about 4-5 times (meaning he slept for around 6 hours or more...he once slept from 10:00pm to 6:00am!), but usually stays down for 3-4 hours at night. During the day it's still pretty unpredictable, he'll usually go down once in the morning for a little bit (after his morning workout in the JJ), and then in the afternoon and evening he'll probably have 1-3 naps of at least an hour. It's only been very recently that he's been getting harder to put down, for awhile there it was super easy, just a bit of rocking and then putting him in his crib, still awake in many cases. As for eating, he has been doing really well too, we're pretty much set on a 3-4 hour eating schedule (longer at night sometimes or if we're busy), and he has gotten super quick, he can finish in about 10 mins. Still using the shield, but I've pretty much given up on the idea of not using it. We're still exclusively breastfeeding, but will probably consider starting solids soon. All in all no complaints!

*Of course he's still not sitting on his own, so we bought him a 2nd hand Bumbo from a friend and he loves it! It's very handy to have, it allows him to sit and watch us as we eat supper or as I fold laundry (and it's a nice break for us too). Although he can't sit on his own yet, he definitely can move! Especially when he sleeps, we put him down with his head at one end of the crib and when we go to get him, he's completely flipped around to the other side, he spins himself around with his feet without any problems. He can roll from back to side easily and from tummy to back sometimes, but still not back to tummy. He LOVES to stand; in fact, I would say that he's standing at least half of the time he's awake (on our laps or wherever). His legs are crazy strong, people say he'll walk early...I'm in no rush for him to move though! When he's on his tummy he can hold his head quite high, it's quite cute, but he doesn't like being on his tummy for more than a few minutes at a time (this will probably be the case until he can roll).

*As you can see above, he has found his feet and finds them quite yummy :)

*He still enjoys the Jolly Jumper, looking in the mirror, being tickled and held, as well as all his usual games, but most of the time he just really likes to chew on things. Everything goes straight into his mouth! His motor skills are getting quite good (especially his grabbing/grasping/hand coordination), so we have to be careful at what he's grabbing at now. He's recently gotten into grabbing our faces, which sounds cute but actually hurts a lot of the time! He has a set of plastic keys that we got from a co-worker, these are by far his favourite chewing item as of late, but he'll take anything.

*Another 'game' he likes to play now is to sit in his Bumbo with a bowl of his toys next to him and pull them all out (which apparently is a skill he shouldn't have until 8-9 months, but who knows...) I try to let him play with whatever's around (as long as it's safe) so that he experiences objects other than his toys (my bead necklaces, a watter bottle, the remote control, yarn...)

*Recently we've re-discovered his little swing, which is good, it's a nice calming thing for him to do. I like the idea of not using items for awhile and then pulling them out later, I think he gets bored of using and playing with the same things all the time (like we all do).

*He drools. Oh my does he drool. No teeth yet though.

*Cloth diapering is still going really well, despite him being a bit more frequent with his 'morning surprises', ha!

*In the past couple of weeks he has found his 'skriek-ey' voice and uses it often. He squeals and screams quite loudly, even though he's not upset. He makes many noises and 'talks' with people, it's really fun (even though the screech-owl routine can get old pretty quick).

*Weight and Height: Will find out at his needles on Tuesday.

*He went through through a little 'stranger danger' phase, in which he became afraid of new people (and even people he knew like my parents), and would scream and cry if they came near him. Luckily I think it's mostly over, but at the same time I don't think he could just be held by anyone, he's wary (I guess that means he's attached to us, which isn't a bad thing.) It was kind of hard to have him scream at people like that though.

*It's sad to say, but my little rocker baby been losing his hair quite a bit in the last month, it's very very thin all around except for one strip on the top of his head, and it will probably fall out at some point too :( It makes me sad, I love his hair and am very careful not to rub his hair when he takes a bath or when we put clothing on him but he has cradle cap and it's been causing a lot of it to fall out. I just hope that it grows back soon! His skin is still so-so, he had some bad breakouts but it's mostly under control (with his parents I don't expect him to ever have good skin, honestly, ha!)

*He smiles every time he sees either me or Dan. Every single time. And I never ever get tired of it.

*Overall, July was a great month for us and for Victor, he handled the heat like a champ, learned new things, improved on skills he already had, and in a way, really seemed to go from an infant to a baby in my eyes. I looked at him often in the last few weeks and thought 'my, how he has gotten big/old'. It's the first month that I've thought that.

Sorry for the lack of good photos, I haven't done a 'proper' photoshoot with him since he was 3 months old, I really must get out and do one soon, I'm not taking enough pictures of my own baby it seems!

I can only imagine the changes that will be coming in the next month; he'll be getting more needles (boo), we might start solids, we're travelling on a plane for the first time, sitting, hopefully getting into the water more...it's going to be a busy and exciting 6th month of life for this little guy! It's been a wonderful trip to far though :)

Oh, and I need to work on his baby book. BAD.

Until next month,

G.

PS-The baby in the pics with Victor is Eli, my friend Sara's little guy, he's 7 months old...also, I made that owl blanket they are playing on :)