5 months old

Yes, Jay is now 5 months old! Here are some of the things about Jay at this stage:

• Looking at him, his right bottom front tooth is through and his left bottom front tooth has just broken through the gum, too. He has bitten me a couple times when nursing, so that has made me a bit more motivated to continue the transition off breastfeeding and more on to solid foods.

• He is eating rice cereal, butternut squash, sweet potato, and applesauce, as well as drinking breastmilk every three hours during the day. He'll try his first taste of avocado tomorrow.

• He sleeps a continuous 8 hours at night, wakes up for a feeding, and goes right back to sleep for another 3 hours.

• During the day he is very scheduled. He wakes up and eats, has wake time/playtime, then at the 3 hour mark from when he woke up, he is tired and takes anywhere between a 30 min., 45 min., or 1 hr. nap. We repeat that routine six to eight times every day. If an errand needs to be run, I take him to do the errand(s) during his wake time and try to be back home when he is ready for the next nap.

• He sits up and is fairly steady, but still needs a hand on the back to steady him. He enjoys standing if you hold his arms or support his body.

• He loves playing patty cake and enjoys any kid song you sing to him (i.e., Itsy Bitsy Spider; Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes; I'm a Little Teapot; Jesus Loves Me; Old McDonald; You Are My Sunshine, etc. - he LOVES hand motions). His favorite word is "zoom." He many times smiles really big when we say that to him.

• His favorite play activity would be the exersaucer. He'll stay in that for 20 to 30 minutes and is perfectly happy. He especially likes it if someone is right there in the room watching him. He can really get that thing rocking as he laughs and moves around. He gets bored in the swing after about 5 or 10 minutes, and lasts about as long (5 or 10 minutes) on a blanket with toys during tummy time.

• He gives me really big, slobbery, open-mouthed kisses. More often than not he'll give me those kisses when I pick him up from the diaper changing table (kisses me for the clean diaper, I guess) and he'll return kisses to me on my cheeks and chin after I play with him kissing him on his cheeks, neck, tummy, and feet.

• He continues to get a 1 ml dose of his medicine every 8 hours (3 times each day). We see the cardiologist in January and will determine whether to take him off the medication or not at that time.

• I've started transitioning him this week into 6 month clothes. Many of his 3 to 6 months items are too small now.

Here are a couple photos I've taken this last week I thought you might enjoy seeing. This first one is a picture of him in his costume - this time looking at the camera and smiling.

The above photo is Jay's first time sitting in the highchair (thank you so much Mike and Shawn for giving it to us). He looks thrilled to be in it, huh? :)

I like this photo of Jay in the highchair. Matt had just come home for lunch from work yesterday so there is his smile and reaction to seeing his Dad. What a nice greeting, huh? I had just finished feeding and cleaning up Jay after his lunch of sweet potato and applesauce.

And the photo above is part of the work I've done in the kitchen making Jay servings of his vegetables and fruit. I roasted the butternut squash and sweet potatoes in the oven on October 25 till they were nice and soft. Then I put the softened vegetables in the food processor to puree them till they were nice and smooth and then froze the puree in my ice cube trays. The ice cubes make the perfect serving sizes. I took 5 apples (4 varieties) and cooked them down in a saucepan November 1, pureed them, and froze them in the ice cube trays. I love opening up the refrigerator freezer and grabbing a cube, sticking it in a bowl and microwaving it for 30 seconds to defrost it and to bring the puree to room temperature. These frozen servings can be in the freezer for around 3 months - so plenty of time for us to use them. I like making his food. It is so easy, and when it comes to serving it to him it is fast, nutritious, and it saves us money having his food homemade.

One other new thing happened this week. We left Jay with the nursery care workers at church this past Sunday while we attended our Sunday School class! I knew the last time we had him with us in Sunday School that it was time. He had a runny nose/cold that week so I didn't feel I could leave him in the nursery, but that Sunday he was VERY distracting in class. I felt bad about that and knew next time it was time to put him in the care of the nursery workers. The little turkey was tired when we handed him off, but he didn't take a nap and then didn't want to eat from his bottle when they offered his lunch to him. Other than that he was a good boy and the nursery care workers said they are looking forward to watching him again. That does a mother's heart good.