Daniel at 5 Months and Showing Signs of "Independence"

We can't believe Daniel is already 5 months old! We've been enjoying him more and more as he has been doing more things and becoming more aware of the world around him. Yesterday was my "day off" with him and we had fun, though by the end of the day I was completely wiped out - it's so much harder being with him all day than working outside the home! :-) I have so much respect for full-time mothers with multiple children, how do they do it!?

Here are some recent photos of Daniel and his new found love: his feet!

Daniel is an energetic little boy!

He loves to hold his feet with both hands and tries to eat them!

Look at his concentration and how he folds in half!


He does these new things as if he's always done them, so matter of fact!

He is thriving staying with Azad 3-4 days a week, thank God it's working really well. He naps sooo much better there than at home. The other day he slept there for 3 hours and at home it's rarely more than 30 minutes!? The main difference is that there he sleeps in the same room as other children (usually with one other, sometimes up to 3 depending on the day). It just seems weird that he would sleep better with more people around... I don't know, it's so strange! He's always happy when we pick him up and now we leave him there completely at peace.

One big thing that's happened in the last few days that has been difficult for me to accept is that he has started to prefer the bottle over nursing. Only a month ago he did not like the bottle! He still nurses but quickly gets impatient even though he is hungry... When I realized this this past weekend and we tested it by giving him a bottle which he quickly consumed, I was devastated... I had had all these dreams about nursing him until he was about 1. But I guess that with the bottle he can eat much faster and so it's much less work for him. Apparently this is quite common for babies who have several bottles a day. Oh well, I'm starting to accept this transition though I still have not given up on nursing just in case he learns to enjoy them both... My little boy is growing up so fast! But as Jonny likes to remind me, our goal as parents is to bring him up to be independent, so I guess I'm already seeing signs of that happening. It just seems too soon! Oh well, I'm thankful that at least I have been able to nurse him for 5 months and I will always cherish that experience.

On a more lighthearted note, we had a funny experience on Tuesday night with Daniel pooping in the bathtub. Since he was only a few weeks old, we have been bathing with him every night and we cherish our bath times with him. But on this particular night, Daniel decided to poop during bath, and oh, how he pooped! This night it was my particular turn to bath with him. I was holding him upright playing with him a little and suddenly I saw some poop floating around me. I said "Jonny, we've got a problem here!" He then pooped AGAIN and AGAIN! In between the first and third poop our door bell rang and Jonny went to answer the door. After the third poop when I realized that the quantities were vast and it was all around us and starting to stick to our bodies, I started calling for Jonny and shouting "HELP!" I could not get out of the bath because I was holding Daniel and trying to keep his hands down because there was poop on his hands and he was trying to put his hands in his mouth! When Jonny returned, he was shocked to see that we were literally surrounded by poop! Jonny said "I can't believe this little boy can produce so much!" "Yes, he can, and what timing!" :-)