5 months old

On May 4, my little man turned 5 months old. I took his Toby pictures in the morning, knowing there was no way they'd get taken that night.

One of his new favorite places to hang out is the Bum*bo chair. I put him on the bathroom counter in the morning (within arms reach at all times!) while I brush my teeth and put on make-up. We have a pretty good time most mornings but when I got the camera out, he'd had enough - it's time to eat Mommy!
Here's the little guy after his bottle & in a much better mood.

So, what's 5 months brought us? Size 6 months clothes (Carters) size 3-6 month in every other brand. He sleeps pretty well- he falls asleep most nights between 7:30 and 8:00 and sleeps until sometime between 5 and 6 AM. But he also likes to sing to the ceiling at 4 AM some mornings.

He was eating 6 oz five times a day but I think we're switching to 7 now. He's also eating solid foods like a trooper - he really likes carrots and sweet peas.

He enjoys his soft toys, he has a lion that makes crinkly noises that he plays with in the morning and blanket bear that goes everywhere with him when he's in the car seat. He also likes to play in his exersaucer at home and day care. He got to start riding in the buggy at school too.

He smiles a ton - even with a pacifier in his mouth or asleep. He giggles a lot too - unless I am trying to get him on video!

He loves his sisters! And they love him. Rob & I both picked up kids from day care yesterday so we could both use the HOV lane and Laney was so upset to not have her brother in the car!

Updates

We're busy - such is life with a 15 year old, a 3 1/2 year old and a 5 month old, plus two full time jobs and two houses. Our house finally sold. We were due to close on Friday, but it may be delayed a few days. We had to put siding on to make the bank happy and the re-inspection process delayed us a bit. All goes well, we move into the new place on May 22! We're surrounded by boxes, packed boxes, unpacked boxes, flat fold boxes.

To top it off the boxes arrived at work today as well. Friday at 3:30 my computer gets shut down and I officially no longer work at my current address. As of Monday morning I work in our downtown office. I get to change commutes twice in 2 weeks!

We've had some fun & some milestones over the past few weeks, so I plan to put together some more posts tonight. I'll delay the release a little to stretch out the fun.

In the meantime, here are some Alex pics. I get such a kick out his little buddah-belly that I had to take some pictures yesterday before he got dressed.

Look what he found! Toes are his new favorite play thing.

Easter

Easter morning started out with checking out the baskets - from The Bunny & Aunt Katy & family
After church we took this years azalea photos - hopefully our last with these particular azaleas. (they're one of the few things I will miss about this house)

Then it was time to hunt the eggs left by the Easter Platypus (it's more feasible than an egg laying rabbit. :P)

Alex promptly opened this egg and eyed the chocolate like he wanted to try

We decorated eggs on Sunday afternoon - we don't hide boiled eggs - it would be really bad to forget one.

Hope you had a Happy Easter Weekend!

I Think We'll Keep 'Em

Since we did not do portraits at Christmas, we went last weekend. Here are the best ones of th kids, the new family portrait is on my side bar.

Last Hurrah

Today was my last day of maternity leave. Done. Over. Finito. Sigh . . .

So what did we do? I took my munchkins to the zoo. Luckily the weather cooperated. It was cool, but not cold and sunny. The animals cooperated for the most part and were out to be seen. And the field trip kids, while numerous, were well behaved.

Here's Alex & Laney are ready to see some animals.
Laney & one of juvenile the giraffes.

As usual, Laney got to take a ride on the carousel. Today she picked a tiger.

The obligatory I took it myself photo. Alex spent a few minutes in the front carrier but mostly he was in the stroller - I think he might already be too tall for the carrier! He was bumping my chin today.

I actually managed to get a family shot thanks to a nice lady on the carousel.

It was a good morning. The grind stone awaits.

Visiting Grandmama

Valentines weekend we drove a few hours to visit my Grandmother ("Grandmama" to Elena) and introduce her to her newest great-grandson.

We got the complete tour of Grandma's assisted living center (laundry room and all!). She had a great time showing the kids off to her friends and the staff. And Elena got to ride in style.

I post this for it's cute value. I tried Elena's Valentines outfit on Alex, after all he managed to wear some of her Christmas outfits. Not so much with this one. It was about 3 inches too long.

Statistics

Alex is now 2 months & 1 day old. We went for his 2 month well baby check up yesterday. He’s 24.25 inches tall and 11 lbs 7 oz. For those keeping score, he's grown 5.25 inches and gained 3 lbs 7 oz since birth.

The other statistics make me sad. I have one full week left before I return to work part time. I have a total of 1 Monday & 1 Wednesday left, 2 Fridays, and 3 Tuesdays & Thursdays left of maternity leave. Sigh. That's 3 more Story times and only 2 more Mothers of Young Children bible studies.

Turning away from feeling sorry for myself, some Laney pics. Here she is finally getting to make a pinecone bird feeder the way that Special Agent Oso taught her. We've had these pine cones since October, I think.

The finished product:

And on Saturday Elena got to do a couple of things she's been waiting for - first, I let her feed Alex a bottle. I nurse primarily, but he gets the occasional formula bottle for convenience. Also in this picture is her Build-A-Bear wearing her new Cinderella costume. Elena had purchased the outfit that day with her Christmas gift card.

We also caught up with Kayla, Elena's godmother, at last. Elena got her birthday and Christmas gifts from Kayla and we gave Kayla's son, Andrew his Christmas gift.

Kayla meets Alex.

And a Kathryn update, she brought home Honor Roll certificates for the second & third six weeks, which makes the entire first semester that she made honor roll. Right now much of her energy is focused on the Solo & Ensemble competition in 2 weeks. We'll see if she makes ones for the fifth year in a row.