Max is Five Months Old

I’ve typed the beginning to this post and then deleted it about five times already. All I really want to say is that I can’t believe Max is already five months old, but I feel like that’s what every mom says about the age of their kid. Does that ever really stop? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a mom say, “You know, I can’t believe he’s not two years old already!” It doesn’t happen. Time goes by quickly, kids grow exponentially and we, as the parents, still can’t figure out quite how that happens, or how to make time slow down, or at the very least, how to get used to it.

Max at five months is, admittedly, so much more fun and cool and awesome and rewarding than any other time thus far. I have a very good feeling that we’ll continue at this upward path, and I hope it doesn’t plateau or decline during those dreaded teenage years. (And now I’m already thinking about how 13 years from now I’ll be 45 with this teenager who appeared out of nowhere. SAD FACE.)

Before I start getting all misty-eyed and crazy, can we just discuss how amazing a baby’s laugh is? The other night, I was laying on my back on the bed and had Max on top of me, playing tummy time. He would hold his head up, look right in my eyes and start giggling. As with every time this happens, I took it as a cue to start tickling because it’s moments like these when you get the hearty belly laughs. Three very purposeful rib tickles in and Max lost it. He laughed so hard, burying his face in my neck every single time. He loved it! But I think I loved it more. This went on a solid 30 minutes and was easily the best 30 minutes of the week, maybe even the month. (Please tell me this never ends. Ever.)

One of the other best times this month was when Max really went wild in his jumper. He’ll jump around for 20-45 minutes each time. Ever since we started putting him in there, he’s been bouncing all the time. When he’s on our lap, when we stand him up somewhere, and he kicks like he wants to be bouncing whenever he’s in bed too. We call that part the Riverdance.

The worst part about Max being five months is that he’s teething so bad. There are hours when he’s just so fussy and drenches himself in drool and I feel so bad for him. Between this and just being really busy with him being so active, I didn’t even have a chance to take as many pictures as usual, which really speaks to how very busy you get with a baby. My original idea when Max was first born was to take one picture of him a day so I could eventually make one of those neat time-lapse videos. That plan didn’t work out so well, especially when I had to go to work 12 weeks later.

Other Max fun times:

• Max is sitting up on his own. He rarely likes to just hang out in his boppy anymore, but sometimes will when he’s feeling particularly relaxed and I have Sesame Street on.
• Elmo is Max’s favorite thing ever, except in person. I thought since he loved Elmo on the screen that I would show him an Elmo Peek-a-boo toy at Kohl’s. My boy just stared in semi horror at this red furry fellow, unsure what to make of him, and then jumped slightly when Elmo moved. I put that toy back on the shelf.
• Max will crawl soon, I just know it.
• He’s started saying “Da!” but hasn’t yet strung together “Dada” in reference to Mike. No progress on “Mama.” 😒
• He’s a smiley boy about 90% of the time so I can’t really make any complaints about those times where I have sleepless nights.
• Still going strong on the breast feeding. Woot.