Elias is 5 Months!

Today is of course the 4th of July, but it is ALSO Eli's 5 Month Birthday!!!

Wow, it is so hard to believe that we are coming up on half a year with our little guy! He is a true delight as he continues to develop and we see more of the little person he is! He is pretty happy and content although lately he has been a little bit more upset so we think we are in the beginning stages of teething.

He is now weighing in at 14 lbs 2 ounces. That means he has only grown by 5 ounces in the last month and drops him back down into the 5-10%. We will see if he gains any ground before his next doctors appointment in a month. He is a pretty lean little guy and is probably going to take after his daddy!
He is sleeping great at night which we are very thankful for! He goes down around 8 and doesn't get up until between 8-11 in the morning! He is not however, a good napper anymore. He prefers to take 2-3 20 minute naps a day and then he is recharged and ready to take on the day. But as long as he is sleeping so well at night, we can't complain about this!

This month he has sampled more baby foods in addition to the apple sauce and cereal he tried right before he turned 4 months old. Now he has tried sweet potatoes, green beans, and carrots. He has not been a huge fan of the veggies thus far. He does however love his fruits! He gobbles down the peaches and pears. He also sampled a tiny bit of ice cream this month and he loved that too! We will keep working on those veggies. He still averages 4-6 ounces a feeding and eats 4-5 times per day.

After falling a bit behind with neck strength, after a lot more work and pep talks he has caught up great in that department! He can now roll over both ways and has discovered that sleeping on his side is his favorite way to sleep. He also moves around so much now! He pushes off the floor with his legs and moves all around the house. He also turns in circles constantly. It is fun to wake up in the middle of the night to see which way he is turned and by the time I wake up later, he is completely turned back around the other way. He sure has some strong legs (track star!?!)

He loves to play under his toy bar and he is also discovering that the jumperoo is fun! As long as mommy or daddy are in sight he is pretty happy. He also really enjoys watching Elmo with his big brother. It looks like we have another Sesame Street lover on our hands. But the greatest find of all this month were #1) His Thumb and #2) His voice. When he combines the two together he is a happy boy! He babbles just as much and almost as loudly as his brother (which is loud!) so we may have two very chatty boys on our hands (fun fun fun!)

Another change we are working on is the transition to formula. We have officially started the weaning process as of last week and he is doing great! We are transitioning very slowly since we still have at least 4 more weeks of milk in the freezer, but I wanted to make sure he handled formula well before I started cutting back on the pumping and so far so good!

Elias continues to be a great joy in our lives! His personality is starting to come out and we love that! We do everything in our power to make the boy giggle and smile (and look like total fools in the process)! This is truly my very favorite age of babyhood - still small enough to cuddle but big enough to show their personality!!!