The baby was 5 months old yesterday, a fact I reported to Josh only for us to have an insane conversation about how age is counted—Josh insisted he should be 6 months old, not 5, since he is beginning his 6th month of life. He's not wrong, per se, hence the title of this post. But he's not correct, either. I don't know, Dear Reader. I guess we just need to leave the house more often.
Anyway, however old he is, the baby is growing fast! Already busting out of his 6 month clothes, and somewhere around 18 pounds. It's helpful that he now grips onto my shirt when I'm carrying him because he's getting heavy to cart around. Sometimes as he sliiiiides down my front while we're walking around the house he gives this little squeak that I find very adorable. I also carry him sideways a lot because I find it funny, and he holds himself straight as a board—he's got great core muscles! Carrying him sideways also helps keep the droll on the floor rather than on me.
Big things that happened this month: we took a trip! A 9 hour car ride (18 hours round trip) to the east coast. I was more than a little stressed beforehand because he had never been in the car for more than an hour at a time, but he did really great. Slept a lot, was happy to eat in a moving car, did not scream much at all. There was one major diaper blowout that resulted in me having to throw out a very cute onesie in a Sheetz bathroom in rural Pennsylvania. I am still sad about this—the onesie had a sloth on it and I love sloths! But as I carried him back out to the car in only his diaper the very country lady in the next car gave me a look and said, "I been there, Mama." I love when people say stuff like that to me—it makes my day.
So we survived the trip and the baby got to spend a lot of quality time with his grandparents, which made them very happy. It was particularly fun for me to see my Mom and Dad with the baby. My Dad, who is Very Serious, was constantly on the floor making funny noises and trying to get the baby to roll over. And my Mom, who is somewhat neurotic, insisted on boiling the water for his formula because their house might have lead pipes. I didn't have the heart to tell her that boiling water does not remove lead. I think I gained a lot of insight into my childhood.
Other things: the baby has been eating solid food for a couple weeks now. I find this process entirely mystifying, mostly because he has NO interest in eating solid food. Like, I put some in his mouth, he makes a face, and then he spits most of it out. And we do that for 5 minutes until he starts to fuss and I give up because we're both covered in baby food. At this rate he might be eating pizza by his 18th birthday?? Also I gave him some pureed sweet potato, which is the only food so far that he actually seemed to enjoy, but it definitely upset his stomach. At what point does this solid food thing begin to pay off, exactly??
In general the baby is just more this month: he coos more, he moves more, he smiles more, he plays with his toys more, etc, etc. He did not seem to care at all that we left him with his grandparents for a couple days but he's so easy-going it's hard to tell. Josh thinks we may have done the unthinkable and spawned an extrovert. I am sure it's too soon to tell but I guess anything is possible.
