The Life of Rob & Jess Plus Two: November 2014

Dear Parker,

My, how I can't believe you are five months already!! Where does time go, my sweet baby? You are such a great baby! You are so active and want to be moving, but haven't quite figured it out how to do that yet. This month, we really set about taking you places every weekend. We've been to the Nutcracker Market, two different outlet malls, different parks, Old Town Spring, a pumpkin patch outside of Katy, and Prasek's in Hiljie, just to name a few! Mom and Dad have to leave the house with you, or we go a little stir crazy!! You also experienced your very first Halloween and you were such a trooper! You were a little alligator/dinasour and just hung out in your stroller until you fell asleep.

You are very active and putting everything in your mouth. You smile all the time and just giggle all day long. You love the sound of Donald Duck and hearing us sneeze. That makes you laugh, even when you're crying, every time you hear it. You are doing really well at sitting and love to stand. You can push up on our arms to a standing position all on your own. However, you don't have a real sense of balance, so you are really wobbly. Stable, but wobbly all at the same time. It's hard to get you to learn to sit because all you want to do is stand! "I'm a big boy and hear me roar!" You aren't a huge fan of tummy time, but you do reach for objects while you are on your tummy and you kind of "scooted" the other day, too.

DD Nana and TePaw came to visit you over a weekend as well, and DD Nana even stayed through a Tuesday! You got to stay with her all by yourself while mom and dad went to work. You loved it! In fact, you loved it so much that when we took you to daycare they called me to tell me you weren't yourself. You missed all the attention DD Nana lavished upon you. That grandma sure can spoil you quick! DD Nana bought you a puppet that you seem to like and her and TePaw sure had fun playing around with you and the puppet. It was the funniest thing to see! TePaw laying on the floor behind a chair with a puppet on his arm, making funny sounds.

We have also started you on solid foods. I use the term solid food loosely here. So far you like pears, sweet potatoes, carrots, and cereal. You don't like peas or avocado. That's all I have introduced in you so far, so we will keep exploring! Now that you eat your solids, you aren't eating your bottle quite as well. So, I'm still trying to figure out how to make sure you get in your bottle feeding and don't let the solids take up all the room in that small tummy!

You've officially been in daycare for 2 months now. You really like your teachers and you smile at them all the time when I'm dropping you off and picking you up. You don't really cry too much in the car anymore, though you still have some bad days. Now, you pretty much just talk to yourself and play with your feet. Boy do we lose our socks back there though! Since you are in daycare, I think you have developed a permanent runny nose and a cough. It's nothing serious, but it will still sometimes wake you up at night. I'm sorry baby boy. It doesn't seem to slow you down, so there's relief in that.

At 5 months, you:

Wear 3-6 month clothing and some just regular 6 month clothing. You are long, but you are thin. So things are either the right length and too wide or too short and the right width. You're super cute in jeans though!

Sleep generally from 8:30 to 6:30, with 2-3 naps a day. Sometimes you sleep longer and then sometimes you wake in the middle of the night. I think this largely due to the solids.. so I'm still trying to get you on a good schedule that works for your digestive system.

Drool like crazy. They say its teething, but I haven't seen a tooth yet! You drool so much that you've developed a little rash under your chin, on your chest. You also have gotten really dry, chapped cheeks. Aquaphor has really seemed to help us on your cheeks. But, we're still working on your chest.

Like bath time and have figured out how to splash around. You end up soaking us by the end of it!

Love playing with your feet and sucking on your big toe. Forget the thumb, big toe it is!

Wear size 2 diapers.

Weigh somewhere around 15 lbs.

Are as curious as ever! If we are out and about, you never cry because you love just watching what everyone is doing. You can't wait to do it, too!

Love your jumper. One time, you even stayed in it for an hour! You just jump like crazy and love it when the music is going. Mom and Dad jump with you, too!

Giggle all the time when we make funny sounds and/or sneeze. You even giggled the other night when you sneezed yourself.

Don't like to spend much time on your back anymore. You can sit pretty well... falling backwards is still your downfall.

Stand all the time.. which means you try to jump yourself when we are holding you up. That's why you love your jumper.. you can jump to your heart's content and not mom's arms content.

Love your stackable doughnut toys. I have no idea what the toy is called. But its the colored rings that you stack up. Sometimes you just chew on the center of the stand, but you are really fascinated with trying to unstack them. You don't care so much about stacking them, but do like trying to unstack them.

Play with Sophie the giraff and chew on her. Yeah, you pretty much chew on anything. Your mouth is usually wide open all the time trying to get something in your mouth. When I just show you Sophie your mouth stretches open. It's hilarious.

Bring stuff to your mouth, but you aren't as good at keeping it at your mouth. We still need to work on your fine motor skills.

You sure are such a big boy! I can't wait to watch your six month! You amaze me each and every day. I love watching your face and helping you discover the world. Mom and Dad love you always and forever baby boy.