5 months old

Dear Bennett,

I am actually writing this somewhat on time this month, only four days past your five month birthday! Unfortunately we lost a lot of photos of you when Daddy accidentally dropped his laptop in NY (everything from birth-four months that he had on his computer). I had some of the photos on mine and on facebook, but not everything, so that's a big bummer. A data recovery person is working on getting some of them back off the busted hard drive, but that may not be possible and if it is it will cost a pretty penny. But it's totally worth it because to us, those pictures are priceless. Anyway, the point is that I'm not sure if I will ever do backdated posts for the monthly updates that I have missed, but going forward I'm really going to try to keep up with this (I know, I've said that before...). I so want to remember all of the small details of our lives right now and of your amazing little personality and have them documented to look back on. (You are currently snoozing next to me in your swing and may wake up soon, so this particular post may take a few writing sessions to be completed since there is so much to talk about right now!)

swing napping with the taggy blankie Aunt Kyle made you

You continue to be the most easy going, laid back, happy little guy. I don't know if it has anything to do with me and your dad or if it's all just your nature, but we feel like you are just about as close to a "perfect baby" as it gets! That might  sound arrogant or braggy to others, but it's really true! Even Miss Norma, your daycare provider, says so. And she has certainly been around lots of babies in her thirty years of childcare experience. Miss Norma adores you and that make Mommy so happy. Every day when I pick you up she raves about how good you were and how you didn't give her any trouble, and she is so happy to get her hands on you every morning. This weekend is Labor Day, and yesterday when I picked you up she said that she will miss you so much! You seem to love her too. On Wednesday when I came to get you, you were sitting on her lap in the big comfy chair she uses to feed all you babies, and you were cracking up as Miss Norma told you, "Your Mommy's here!" You also really like her helper, Miss Maria, and smile at her every morning when we arrive. Miss Maria has five kids of her own, so she has plenty of experience too. She speaks some Spanish to you and Mommy loves that. In fact, her English is not so great, but that's okay! We also think it's pretty cool that Miss Norma is from Jamaica, where Mommy and Daddy got married and where we will take you for your first international trip. You have been in daycare now for almost 10 weeks and overall it has gone very, very well. Miss Norma is very willing to use your cloth diapers and is happy to feed you the bottles of pumped breastmilk that I send everyday (most of the other babies take formula, which she provides for free). She thinks it's funny how much you poop compared to the formula fed babies. Most days you get to daycare between 7:30 and 8:30, depending on how quickly we are moving in the morning. Mommy usually picks you up between 4 and 5:30, depending on her work schedule. The new house is only half a mile from daycare, so that will shave a lot of time off our day and Mommy is hoping to walk to pick you up sometimes when the weather is good.

When you first started daycare you were taking four 4.5-5 ounce bottles, but eventually Miss Norma said that you seemed to still want more, so now you have 6 ounce bottles. Most days you will have four bottles but some days if you sleep a lot or are at daycare a shorter time you only take three. Mommy always sends four just in case. That's a whopping 24 ounces I have to pump everyday and it's not easy! Mommy still has over 200 ounces of frozen breast milk from pumping once a day during maternity leave. We are having to use a little bit of that each day to keep up. You will be starting solids in less than a month, so most likely your breast milk consumption is as high as it will be right now and will taper off a bit once you have other sources of nutrition added in. You seem to be ready for that already as your head control is great, you are close to sitting up, are fascinated by watching Mom and Dad eat, and love taking your liquid vitamin D at night and "help" by grabbing the dropper and shoving it in your mouth! I think we will wait until you are 6 months old to start solids since that's what Dr. Albert recommends and we will (hopefully) we moved into our new house by then. As far as nursing, you usually still want to eat every 2 hours but sometimes will go 3 or even 4 if you are sleeping or are very busy doing other things. You are getting to be a bit distracted by your surroundings when you nurse and will pop off to have a look around when you hear Daddy's voice or see him walk by, or when one of the dogs jumps up to sit near us, or when Daddy turns the TV on, etc. You also get very smiley and sometimes giggly when you are very alert while nursing. Mommy thinks it is the cutest thing ever when you look up at her while nursing with a big gummy smile! You also have really started to reach for Mommy's face, hands, and hair while nursing and your tiny hands are always busy. After you nurse you love to put your little head down on Mommy's chest to cuddle while being burped. And your burps? They are something else! You are definitely a Hohwald in that regard.

The new house deserves a blog post of it's own, but Mommy is very excited about the fact that next month we will be doubling our space and will have tons more open space for you to crawl and eventually run around in! Our small living room now is completely dominated by your Rainforest Jumperoo, your swing, and your playmat. You still love to take naps in your swing (just like your cousin Sophie), though Mommy is gradually trying to get you to nap in your crib. At night you put yourself to sleep in your crib so easily (without any sort of "sleep training" on our part), but you fight naps in your crib whereas in the swing you are out in just a few moments and stay asleep for anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes. You're great at sleeping through noise and the dogs barking. Night time sleep is going really great! For a while you were all over the place, sometimes sleeping 11 hours straight and sometimes waking two or three times wanting to nurse. I think the more frequent wakings had to do with a growth spurt or you working on the milestone of rolling over. Now that you have achieved that and do it easily, you are consistently sleeping through the night at least 8 hours and sometimes 10 or 11. You seem to need a pretty early bedtime lately and are asleep by 7 or 7:30 most nights, then you usually wake anywhere from 3 to 5 am to eat, then fall back to sleep until 6 or 7. Sometimes Mommy sneaks you into Mom and Dad's big bed for that last bit of sleep and you sleep like a rock.

super blurry, but a good shot of your crazy hair and sleeping position. it's crazy how much you move around in your crib.

When you do wake up, either in your crib or the big bed, you let Mommy know by chatting to yourself, whispering, and squealing happily. Even when you were a tiny baby, you never cried upon waking and would just grunt. You are just not a crier. I think that you might have cried for a total of an hour thus far in your life! Although, the other night Mommy had a 6:00 visit for work and left you with Daddy for a bit. You woke up from a late nap just before Mommy got home. When I pulled up to the house, the dogs went crazy like they always do, and apparently it really scared you this time. I heard you wailing as soon as I got out of the car and ran inside to find Daddy trying to comfort you, but you were pretty worked up. I scooped you up and as soon as you were in my arms you calmed down. I love that you are a little mama's boy right now! You do love your Daddy, too and light up whenever he comes into the room. Lately Daddy has been really sick, though, and hasn't been able to spend a lot of time holding you or playing with you. More on that in another post, I think...

snuggly Mama's boy

You are chatting and cooing up a storm lately, though some days you are a little quieter than others. You can also be quite giggly at times, and other times very serious. Here's a cute video of you giggling (you were really going before Daddy came in with the camera).

You continue to be very observant and watchful and love to be carried around while we cook, clean, get the mail, feed the dogs, etc. You are also very content to play on your own for a while in your Jumperoo, bouncer, or on your playmat. You love to roll onto your belly to play and grab at the floor, your mat, your toys, etc. Of course you put everything in your mouth and I think you are becoming a thumb sucker. You've always been fond of putting your thumb in your mouth and chewing on it a bit, but lately you are doing the closed fist and really latching on to that thumb and sucking for real. You roll over both ways very easily and are getting really good at sitting up with just a little support from someone else or with your hands on the floor in front of you. No signs of teeth yet, though you do drool a lot. I think that Miss Norma uses bibs with you, but we don't at home. We just let you slime us and your clothes.

We haven't been nearly as good as we should be about spending time with Aunt Kyle and Sophie lately, because both of our families have had a lot going on. But when we do see them, you grin at Sophie and talk to her and the two of you reach for each other and touch each others' faces. It is the cutest thing ever and Mommy can't wait to watch the two of you get to know each other better and become little playmates.

Sophie will be hanging out with us four Saturdays this fall while Aunt Kyle and Uncle Israel work at UT football games, so we'll get lots of playtime then. (Mommy usually works games too but decided to skip it this year to be able to spend the most time possible with you, and to be able to spend weekends getting ready to move and setting up the new house.) It is fun to see the differences in you two babes. Sophie clearly has a lot of her dad's personality in that she is quite energetic and busy much of the time. She's pretty noisy, too! Sophie was crawling by six months and pulling up to stand very shortly after that. Now at nine months she gets around very easily by cruising furniture and is even starting to stand unassisted for five or ten seconds at a time! She might be an early walker. You, on the other hand, are much more mellow and quiet and not quite as "busy" as she was at your age. It will be interesting to see how you guys are as you get bigger. Also, Sophie went through a chubby stage but now is right around the 40th-50th percentile with her stats, and you have been in the 75th-95th, so you are gaining on her quickly and the two of you are nearly the same size!

Out to brunch after the Home and Garden Show, before we got caught in the rain and Daddy had to go for the car with the umbrella of your stroller over his head!

 Some things you are really into right now: chatting with Mom and Dad while on your changing table, trying to drink from Mommy's straw on her water cup, holding your own bottle, watching Mommy sign and sing the ABC's, grabbing the cup Mommy uses to rinse your hair in the bath right out of Mommy's hands, the bath cups Aunt Kyle gave you that rain water down on you, watching Daddy do things in the kitchen, any toy we hand you, Mommy's iPhone, being read to and helping to turn the pages, nursing/eating/sleeping, and walks in the stroller when it's not too hot (which it usually is, but hopefully not for much longer!). You are very ticklish as you have been since birth and you also like a gentle, relaxing tickle on your backs, arms, and legs like Mommy does. You like to sit in your Bumbo, both at home and at daycare. There was a big recall on them this month so Mommy ordered a safety strap for ours and Miss Norma's and got those installed, even though we never leave you in the Bumbo unattended on an elevated surface.

you love this toy that Mommy got at her baby shower. the mom who gave it to us knew you would cause her baby loves it too!

You also enjoy tummy time on the Boppy.

Your hair is getting even longer and is pretty wild, and has some wave to it like Mommy's. Your eyes are still blue and you have features of both Mom and Dad. We've both been told that you look just like us! Your dimple on your left cheek is still quite prominent. We think you get that from Grammy Debbie.

Uncle Robby was in town for a few days this past month. He is done with his regular baseball season and is still in Colorado for a bit but had a few days available to drive down  here to visit. Unfortunately it was during the week which makes it hard to get a lot of quality time together between Mommy working and you being tired by the end of the day from daycare, but we did get to see him a few times and he enjoyed watching your night time routine one night after he was over for dinner along with Aunt Kyle, Sophie, and Abigail. Unfortunately Uncle Robby's nice camera was stolen recently so he wasn't able to take any pictures of you this time and we failed to get any of his visit with our cameras. Definitely should have done that. Also this month Daddy went out of town for the first time since you were born to spend time with two of his college friends. He missed you a lot! We Skyped with him one night and you recognized his face and voice and looked right at the computer screen and gave him some big smiles. This month Mommy took you to Walgreens to have your passport photo taken and Mom and Dad took you to the Post Office to apply for your passport for our Jamaica trip! You were tired when he had the photo done so it's not terribly flattering, but it will work : ) We haven't done a whole lot this month since Daddy has been sick, yet we have been very busy with things related to the house, jobs, pets, etc. and next month is sure to be even crazier with the big move!

You are so much fun and the biggest little sweetheart, Bennett. We love you SO much!