Month Five

Dear EC,

Yesterday you turned five months old. What an awesome month! You have hit so many milestones in one short month that I now expect you to get your masters degree from Harvard. You are growing like a weed and your personality is shining!

This is the month that you have learned to YYYYEEEELLLLL! You yell in several different ways, all of which are hilarious. You have a deep yell and then sometimes it is really high pitched like an opera singer. I think you are going to have your Daddy's singing voice. To make sure that you are getting maximum decibels, you throw your hands down to your side and stiffen your legs, putting your whole body into it. After each yell, you look at me and smile. Then you giggle, because, well you know, yelling is fun! You think that it is hilarious when we make yelling sounds back to you and then you smile and say, “Oh yeah? Well, whadaya think about THIS?? AAAAAHHHHHGGGG!”

You are giggling much more now, especially when someone is going to GETCHA! I love to getcha! Now, I don’t even have to touch you, I can just say, “I am gonna getcha” and you go into convulsions of laughter. Daddy says that I scare you into laughing, because when I do my ‘getcha voice’ I sound like an old, scary witch. I told him to shut up and go wash the bottles, because we were playing GETCHA!

You have decided that you don't like pants, so you kick open the bottom of your outfits when you wake up.

On Thursdays you spend the day with your Nuna. I love Thursdays. By the end of the day, you are so worn out that you usually go to bed early. Nuna’s house is usually so overflowing with your cousins that you have someone to play with all the time. January 22nd was a rare day in which Nuna only had you to baby-sit….so she took you to work. She and her co-workers didn’t get much done though, because they kept watching you try to roll over. You would throw your legs up in the air and swing them to the side. You would roll on your side, but never quite make it all the way over. She said that you were just teasing her.

When I got you home that night, I practiced with you, but you didn’t seem that interested. When I finally gave up and went to sit on the couch……..there you went! All the way over! Then you got TOTALLY TICKED-OFF THAT YOU WERE ON YOUR STOMACH! If you had known the result, you would have never rolled over! So I rolled you back to your backside……..and you proceeded to roll over two more times!!! You got mad every time, but we were so excited!

The next night, I was going to take some pictures of you rolling over….and you refused to cooperate. You knew the result of rolling over was being on your stomach and you just weren’t having it! YOU HAVEN’T ROLLED OVER SINCE AND THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY! Your daddy says that rolling over is overrated and that at least we know that you can roll over, so we shouldn't be worried.. When I try to practice with you, you just giggle and roll back onto your back again. At least you are having fun!

Grammy and Granddaddy were planning on coming to see you this month. They hadn’t seen you since Christmas and they were starting to have EC-withdraws. Then they got hit by a major ice-storm in Kentucky and were out of power for eight whole days. As soon as the power was back on, I loaded up and you and I went to visit.

You have always been a good traveling baby. You usually sleep the entire two and a half hour trip to Kentucky. I left Friday night around your bedtime, hoping that when we got to your grandparents, I could transfer you from the car-seat to the crib and you would continue sleeping. Man, was I wrong! As soon as you opened your eyes and saw Grammy and Granddaddy, you were WIDE AWAKE! You knew that days of milk and honey were upon you! You were so happy to see Grammy and Granddaddy that you didn’t go to sleep for over an hour. It didn't help that they yanked you out of the car seat and loved all over you. So much for my genius plan.

That Saturday (2/7/09), you were a little fussy. When you started to gnaw on my finger, I knew exactly why…….YOU HAD GOTTEN YOUR FIRST TOOTH! That little sucker is sharp too! I really should not have been surprised, because you have been chewing on everything in sight for over a month. The second tooth followed on Wednesday. You have already left teeth marks on Daddy several times and it is funny to watch the vigor that you put into biting on Mortimer’s moose antlers.

Speaking of teeth, you LOVE LOVE LOVE eating baby food. I can’t shovel it in fast enough. You are pretty good about keeping it in your mouth, but you were really spraying me with it when we were in Kentucky. Carrots are still your favorite, but so far you have eaten green beans, sweet peas, sweet potatoes and squash. You tried bananas for the first time this weekend and you really liked them. I can’t wait to try more fruit!

You loved eating bananas! Now if only we can keep Daddy from eating the banana baby food!

By that Sunday, the fussiness was over and you were back to my normal, happy baby. We went to church with your grandparents and everyone at Symsonia Baptist was excited to see you. The nursery was closed because of some power problems in the building, so you went with us into the regular church service. I was so nervous, but you were good the entire time. There was one tee-tiny fussy bout, but a bottle satisfied you quickly. Just as I was thinking that we were going to get out of church without an incident, you let out a HUGE burp during the closing prayer. People in the pews in front of us were giggling and I know that my face was bright red!

Not all of your milestones are quite as monumental as new teeth or rolling over. You had your first “being a boy” moment this month. You tooted in the bath tub and the bubbles caught you off-guard. Then you laughed so hard! A true boy…..farting is funny. The actual funny part was that you were trying to do it again. You would thrust your pelvis forward and make a funny grunting noise while scrunching your face. The toot never happened again…….and I am thankful that nothing else happened because you were trying so hard.

Oh, EC, I love the way that you have flipped our world upside-down. You have a magic smile and infectious giggle that just seem to wash all of the day’s frustrations away. I look forward to running home to you and Daddy every night.

You are my Tiny Valentine!

I love you!
Mommy