a real baby - 5 months old

I'm writing this blog post at 4am because, although Oscar is a pretty champion sleeper, I am not.  Oscar used to sleep through the night, like 12 hours continuously, oh god was that glorious.  Then he developed a habit for a 3am feeding.  He fusses a bit, wakes me up, I feed him, he goes back to sleep for the rest of his 12 hours... I put Oscar in his crib, climb into bed, then lay there for hours thinking about all the shit I should be doing.  It is lame.  So, I'll write a blog post. But after I'm done with this blog post, I'm going to read up on how the hell to make him drop that 3am nighttime feeding so that we can all go back to sleeping through the night.

Nowadays I really feel like Oscar's a baby rather than an infant. He has moods, expressions, preferences, some fine motor skills. I love that he's so interactive. And he's still really good at independent play, although is preference is always to have someone nearby to share the fun.

"He's a Big Boy"
Yeah, Oscar is large for his age - at 5 months of age, he's 18# and solidly wearing 9-month clothes. He's somewhat tall, but has plenty of babyfat and a big head, like 90-something percentile large head.  I had to knit him a hat because I couldn't find a baby hat that fit; "one size" does not apply.  I get a little tired of people saying "wow, he's big for his age", but since neither Jason nor I is exactly small, and Jason has a big melon himself, this can't be helped.

Happy Baby
Sometime in late December, Oscar started doing the happy baby pose - grabbing his feet while laying on his back, and (of course) trying to shove them into his mouth.  And he's always so happy while doing it! No wonder the yoga pose is named after kiddos doing this. A fun offshoot is that Oscar now uses his feet to play with his toys. Four appendages like a good little monkey.

Oscar is generally a super happy kid, smiling and talking and making noise and playing. But he refuses to smile for the camera! As soon as a camera or phone is lifted up, he stops what he's doing and just stares at it with that wide-eyed unblinking stare of his.  I have tried in vain for ages to get pics of him in a smiley, natural state, but O-Slice won't cooperate.  It's annoying as all hell because I know I won't remember just how freakin' cute his smiles are these days.

Ok maybe I should eat those words, because I keep finding pics like this:

Sitting
After we got back from Texas, we started plunking him into the Bumbo chair more regularly, which got little O a little more accustomed to bending at the waist (not his strong point or preferred posture). At first he would mostly drool on himself and occasionally puke because there were new pressures on his abdomen, but eventually he got used to it. Now that he would bend at the waist on occasion, we were able to move to sitting on the floor.  It only took about a week of support with a pillow or parent before he started to stabilize.  Within the last few days, Oscar has started sitting unsupported - he can now lean forward to grab the toy he wants and sit back up with it.  He's still kinda slumped forward most of the time, but every day he gets a little straighter and more upright - develop those core muscles, little man!  Sitting up to play with toys has opened a whole new world of banging things together and grabbing ever larger items and trying to shove them into his mouth.

Oscar helps us work on the computer

Teething
There's been a lot of intermittent teething pain lately with inconsolable crying jags only somewhat alleviated by Orajel. Oscar does seem to dig on certain teething toys, including this water-filled butterfly which he will turn over in his hands inspecting, then shove into his mouth for chewing. O often insists on shoving his right thumb into his mouth with the butterfly - a two-fer. No sign of actual teeth yet, but insane amounts of drool pretty much all the time.

Still Squealing
Oscar's still a pretty vocal kid. He will still lay on his back and make the cutest high-pitched squealing noises, but now he's starting to incorporate more of the "bababa" talking kinda noises too.

Feeling
I love watching Oscar feel things.  He does this adorable soft stroking motion where he articulates one finger at a time, learning to use his hands as he judges distance to the object and tries super hard to touch it rather than bat it away. Some of his favorite things to stroke lately are my hair (or grab, ouch), and the birds above his crib.

Oscar loves to feel the bicycles
in his play quilt

the starfish at school is is fav these days
mmmm, bumpy

New Toys
We have a garage filled with hand-me-down toys, and I often forget they are there. We recently remembered that there was one of those bouncy chairs that you hang in a doorframe, which Oscar thinks is pretty damn cool.  The activity elements hold his interest for a while, but just last night he discovered that (a) his feet touch the ground so he can spin the chair around and bump it into the walls, and (b) that he can bounce the chair up and down. Smiles ensued! I need to stay on top of pulling out new toys, cause this kid really digs 'em.

Adventures
Oscar has been in ski training.  Ok, more accurately, we've been in ski training - since we're taking Oscar on a backcountry ski trip in a few days, we needed to figure out the nuances of dressing Oscar for cold weather and then hauling him around in his ski trailer.  Just like with the bike trailer, he loves being hauled around and stares out the windows at the world.  After a recent storm, we hauled him all over the park near our house; I took him up for some backcountry touring near Eldora last weekend to test out different ski setups and learned a lot about which kinds of skis work when you're hauling 30+ pounds of baby and trailer strapped to your waist. I'm hopeful our overnight ski trip goes well.

one day I tried out a kid-carrying sled.
Oscar did not like it at all.
back to the Chariot we go!

I don't think we've written much about the bike trailer! So, the ski trailer is also the bike trailer - you just switch out the wheels for skis, it's pretty nifty. Oscar loves loves LOVES riding around in the bike trailer. I bike to/from work with him when the weather allows (I avoid the windy and icy days), and we take him out on weekend family bike rides. He spends a lot of time calmly staring out the windows on the sides of the trailer.  When tired, he'll sleep, even when the terrain gets a bit bumpy. There's this hammock inside the trailer where he's suspended, and I think it rocks him to sleep as we ride along.