My boy is five months.

I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. You are five months and you are amazing. You are sleeping all on your own right now, without me! You seem to be able to sleep lots of places and lots of ways, in the car, in bed, in my arms, in the sling or wrap, at friends’ houses, the store.

You are a calm guy, quiet, but happy. You lie on the floor and watch us, especially your sister. Sometimes you get so frustrated when you can hear her, but can’t see her, you try to move to her voice, wiggling and squirming. You love to lie beside her, but sometimes her hugs are too much, she loves you so much. You prefer to hold hands with Annabelle. She lies on the floor with you and you hold hands and she sings and talks to you for a long time and you are content.

You make lots of beautiful noises too. This morning, I woke up to your sweet sounds.

You laugh a lot, at all of us. We try hard to make you laugh; you think my hair is funny when I shake it around. You think your dad is funny when he makes funny noises and faces at you. You especially love to laugh at your sister. All she has to do is look at you and you squeal with delight, though your favorite is when she jumps up and down.

You also love being scared. I will play our version of peek-a-boo where I hide behind a blanket or my hands or my hair and then I jump out and say, “Boo!” Each time you jump and then laugh and laugh, who knew a baby would love that “BOO!” feeling?

You are so ticklish, under your chin, under your arms, your feet and your belly. I sing and tickle you and you laugh and laugh. You love it when we all dance and you get to dance too. All these things make you laugh and squeal.

When you are tired or want to nurse, you want me to hold you. We nurse in the rocking chair or we lie down in bed together. You get so excited about nursing, laughing right before you latch on. You love to play with my hand as you are starting to nurse. You are so gentle and your touch so light, as your fingers curl around my hand. Then you will quickly close your eyes and relax you body and fall asleep. Then I get to just watch you as you sleep and nurse and I relax too.

I try to put you on your belly every day, and you are strong and can roll over and lift way up and almost belly crawl, but mostly you don’t like it, you want to be held or you want to be in a position you can see everyone. You kick and squirm a lot. You can move lots if you want to. Sometimes you want to lay by yourself and play and you grunt and scream and talk and blow bubbles and raspberries and you are completely happy and you can turn almost all the way around like a clock. Sometimes when you are sitting in our laps, you push so that you are standing up or push so that you can almost touch the floor with your nose. You can now roll from front to back and back to front. Though you can do both, you don’t just roll the whole way around. When you roll from back to tummy, you get so frustrated to be facedown, you forget how to roll back.

I am so in love with you. What will you do in the next month, when you are the grand old age of a half a year!