These Little Piggies

Not only can Josiah touch his toes...

He can also eat his toes...

Mmmm...toes are tasty.

Hands also taste good.

Happy Birthday, Anna!

Around 14 years ago...

Almost 14 years after that...

Happy Birthday, Anna! We love you!

Five Months Old

Josiah turned five months old today. It's hard to believe how much he's changed. As you can see from the pictures, he's smiling and laughing a lot. It's a great belly laugh; I'm going to work on videotaping it. My pictures are always a little off-center because I'm trying to get him to laugh, but I can't seem to do it when I have the camera in front of my face.

Not too many undocumented changes from four months. He has started sleeping through the night pretty much. We normally put him down between 7 and 8 p.m. Some mornings he likes to wake up at 5 or 5:30, which is not really awake time for Mommy. He's definitely learned to self-soothe. I'll hear him stir, but he'll go back to sleep in a minute or two. Still no luck with the bottle. Jonathan and I can get him to take one at home, but nobody else seems to be able to do so without him freaking out. So that kind of ruins the point of a bottle... Oh well, just a month until solids anyways!

Eye of the Tiger

Whenever I put Josiah in this hoodie/toboggan combo, he looks like baby Rocky to me.

My game face...You lookin' at me?

Adrienne! Adrienne!

Rocky ate the raw eggs, but I prefer my hand to maintain my fighting weight.

Where's Josiah?

This is the peek-a-boo game I play with Josiah...

Where's Josiah?

There he is!

Pursuit of the 180

Josiah has been rolling on his side a lot and has done a complete 180 before, but hasn't done one in a while. I think he just lacks incentive. His long arms can reach almost everything. Yesterday I spent some very specific time on this skill. I'm not really worried about him developmentally: he's moving and active. I know he can; he just chooses not to. So I set about to frustrate my baby.

My strategy was to, of course, put things out of reach. He's very resourceful though. He can wiggle and move enough to get within grasp of the desired object. In this case, instead of rolling to get the duck, he pulled the blanket to move the duck to him. Pretty smart baby.

Use the force, Josiah Luke, use the force.

Ultimately what incentive got him to flip over? Plastics. He loves plastic bags, cups, crinkly paper. He has toys designed to replicate this sound, but they don't seem to be quite as good. So I held this (clean) plastic bag over his head, crinkling it until he flipped. Just needed the right motivation I guess.

Finally, satisfaction for both of us. He flipped the other direction and back again.

And yes, I closely monitored his time with the plastic bag/choking hazard. The other day I was grocery shopping. I keep him in the cart and stuff groceries around him. He reached over and grabbed a bag of cheese to chew on. He was very upset when I took it away. Screaming baby in a grocery store, every mother's dream.

Sitting Up Like a Big Boy

Here's some better pictures of Josiah sitting up. The title of the post is what Jonathan and I are always saying to him: "Look at you, sitting up like a big boy." Or standing, pushing, rolling, etc. I just think he's so cute when he's doing it.

Sometimes he's pretty upright, but a lot of time he's leaning really far over his feet. It's so cute!

Look, Mom, I can touch my toes!

Jordan and Dara's Visit

Our dear friends Jordan and Dara came down from Chapel Hill to visit us this weekend. It was just like old times, except with a new addition. Jordan and Jonathan met in med school, and Jordan took an extra year to do get a MPH (Masters of Public Health). So they're in the process of applying for residency and finding out where they'll be next year. We had a great weekend, playing games and catching up. Jonathan's mom and sister were in town as well, so we got to have a babysitter on Saturday night and go out to eat sans baby. The babysitters were pretty thrilled with the opportunity as well.

Now we've been hearing some complaints that Josiah wears too many Carolina outfits (as if that were really possible). So we decided to cave and put him in some red sportswear this weekend...

Go Cornhuskers! Josiah wore his Nebraska jersey in honor of Jordan and Dara's visit. They're originally from Nebraska and subsequently are big Cornhusker fans. They gave him this onesie several months ago. After Jonathan and I went to Nebraska for their wedding, we became nominal fans because Nebraskans are so endearing.

This picture just came out too cute not to post!

Alabama Blizzard

I'm a little tired of hearing my brother and sister-in-law gripe about the snow up in Boston. 10 inches...yada yada. Check out our accumulation. Close the schools, stay indoors, folks. We've got about 1/2 inch on the ground here! Our friends from Nebraska are here, too, and they're a little concerned about traveling back. (I hope everyone can read my sarcasm.)

Here is the baby boy's first encounter with snow!

I know, good mommies shouldn't take their infants out in snow in only their pajamas, but it was just for a minute on our porch. He survived with just a slight frostbite. :)

Me and the Boy

I was taking this picture to send to the friend who gave him these overalls. I'm in it because, well, Josiah can't stand up on his own to properly show them off and Jonathan's on call, so I had to take it myself by setting the timer on the camera. But I thought it came out really cute. I love my boy!

Saturday Morning

It's a little late, but we had a great Saturday morning. Jonathan had the day off (his days off are not always Saturdays), and we had lots of fun hanging out, eating waffles and watching Carolina wallop State (thus Josiah is in his Tar Heel apparel).

Flying. I was trying to capture the elation on Josiah's face when he flies. This is close, but still not quite there.

Josiah does this often. He takes "talk to the hand" very seriously. It kind of hurts, but it's so darn cute you don't want to stop him.

Jonathan's watching the game, thus the intense look.

Mom saw this picture and said, "Oh Jonathan, always thinking outside the box."

Close Up

Sitting Up...Almost

He's pretty much there, but still a little wobbly.