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Evan Pictorial Update-Five Months

Yea...this is my foot. You can't have it.

My favorite goof.

Those Feet!

Evan is grabbing at his feet! Yesterday he grabbed them and started to nibble on them for the first time. I thought my heart was going to melt!!!!!!!!!

Sleep. The Final Frontier...

Sleep is something a a rare commodity around here these days. Evan does great with his naps. It is like clockwork watching him as he starts to wind down to take a nap. Right now he takes four naps. One in the morning about an hour or two after he first wakes up and then pretty much every two hours or so after that throughout the day. I can even get him to sleep without being on me now.

Night time is another story. We didn't plan on being a co-sleeping family. It is just something that happened. Those first few weeks of all three of us on the sofa will be something I always remember. Steven and I didn't want to leave Evan's side. So-we didn't. We have tried to put him in his crib since but find that with the transition from our arms to the crib wakes him up every time. I keep trying too. So-it is to our bed he goes. I have to admit it is fun to sleep with him. It makes all the breastfeeding during the night easier too. He is pretty much waking up twice a night now to eat. The feedings don't take long. He wakes up asks to eat and within 10 minutes is asleep again. If he was in his crib I think the feedings would take longer because by the time I got to him he would be more awake and maybe harder to put back down.

Right now this is how we manage our sleep. I am hoping that soon we can put him in his own bed and establish good sleeping habits for him. They say that you can't really start sleep training until the babies reach six months. So-I guess we are spoiling him big time until then! This arrangement works for us. Its funny how people respond to it. I find that it isn't a regular style of baby rearing.....but it seems natural to us. He is so happy in the morning to see us staring over at him. I find if I go to bed earlier I get the sleep I truly need and we all function well the next day.

Dear Evan - Five Months Old

Dear Evan-

You are five months old today. Happy Birthday!!

We are on such a journey together. This month has zoomed by. You had your first plane ride to visit Grandma this month. 

You are becoming so aware of everything. You really take things in. You have a serious face like the one above. Mr. Serious then will become the happiest little boy. The serious comes out when you are seeing things for the first time and trying to figure them out. You give me this face when I sing to you! I don't know if its my selection of a song or my voice!

You love trees. You get lost in them. Your eyes stare up at them and don't even blink. It is like you are trying to take every part of their outlines inside and figure it all out.

You do not like to face inward when carried. Oh no! You need to look out and see what the world is doing!

Yesterday was a hard day. I lifted you out of your stroller. You were sitting inside your car seat part of the stroller. I picked that up with you inside it and slipped. You were fine. I held on to you tightly and placed you down on our stoop. You just felt the thud that came when the seat hit the top step I sat you down on. My knee was throbbing but the rest of us was fine. I don't know if it was my reaction to my knee being messed up or the sound of the seat hitting that stoop but you screamed. Something scared you so much. I have never heard you scream like that before. I felt terrible. It had been such a good day before our spill. You took a nap overlooking the ocean at our bluff while I surfed the net trying to find a table for a client. Always multi-tasking....that's me.

You are so much better in your car seat and stroller. You have no trouble anymore in the stroller except for when you are hungry. You want out and you want food now. I am glad that time of hating the car seat is passing. It was rough on both of us!

Today you found your feet for the first time. This was a big deal to me. I have been waiting for you to find them. I have dressed you in bright colored, patterned socks in order to help you see them and want to reach out and touch. Today it happened. You were on your changing table and I reached over to grab your clothes to dress you for the day. I looked back to you and you were looking at me holding your left foot. I was thrilled! I think you were too!

We are going on walks twice a day now. Once in the morning and then again in the late afternoon. We meet all sorts of people on our walks. Today we met this German couple with their 8-month old daughter Audrey. We compared notes and they gave plenty of compliments to you about how cute you are. There was a thunderstorm approaching and we kept hearing thunder overhead so we all went our separate ways. Maybe we will run into them again someday.

I love getting to know you and I absolutely love being your Mommy.

XO-

M

Drumroll....Please!

This is Phillip!!! Evan loves to play with him all day long and hear his nose squeak.

Evan's First Photo (by Evan)