5 months and growing fast

The picture on the left was taken at 1 week old, the picture on the right was taken today - his 5 month birthday. He's dressed in the exact same outfit to give you some perspective as to how much he's changed and grown! He's at 15lbs now and very long (haven't actually measured him recently).

5 months is another huge change from 4 months, at 4 he was just starting to do various things, like play with toys and roll over, now he's doing all those things with gusto and some. He hasn't yet rolled from back to front, but as soon as you put him on his front he rolls onto his back, and when he's on his back he'll roll onto his side or do some sort of weird shuffle that I haven't quite figured out, which somehow gets him from one end of his blanket to the other in a few seconds. He is also grabbing at everything and holding things really well. He can hold his own bottle, he'll grab at food on my plate if he's on my lap and he can entertain himself with a toy for quite a while (playing with it generally meaning eating it).

He also laughs and talks a lot now, constantly really and sometimes very loudly, quiet is now a rare thing in our home. Lots of new sounds, and for much longer - he'll string a few noises together into a baby sentence. He's not quite sitting upright on his own but if he's propped by something he'll stay there for a while before sinking down, and he's happy to stay in his bumbo for much longer stretches now. I can tell he's desperate to walk - his legs never stop moving and if you stand him upright he can take all his weight on his legs with minimal support, and he'll stomp his feet like he wants to get walking.

He's clearly learning a lot from just everyday life, you can see him really taking things in when we go out and about now (he gets bored pretty quickly at home). He really reacts to different people. He loves to study their faces, deciding whether or not they're worth a smile. He also loves babies (he used to just ignore them) he smiles and laughs at them, like he recognizes them and knows what they're going through.

He is, we've discovered, very ticklish - and you can keep him laughing for hours by tickling his tummy, kissing his neck, or nibbling his ear - he loves it! A fun incident yesterday was his first little kiss - he gave me a proper kiss on my cheek, right after I'd been kissing his face. It was so sweet.

One of my other fave new developments is ... hair! He has some! yea! Not a lot but it's there, light brown and currently spiky, so he kind of looks like a little rude boy.

Ahhh - they grow up so fast.