5th in a Series of 12

Two days ago Benjamin turned seven months old.  So I guess it's about time to finish up his five month post.  Today is as good a day as any for this fun task!  :)

In his four-month post, I included a couple of smile progressions to illustrate what I get the pleasure of seeing very often when I make eye contact with Benjamin.  Here is another one, just for fun.  :)

I do love Benjamin's smiles and take great delight in drawing them forth from him!  (Not that it takes any great effort to get him to smile, mind you.)  :)

I'm writing this so long after he actually turned five months that I'd be certain to forget something important that I wanted to include, if I had not written down some notes two months ago!  As it is, I did forget something important: his weight.  To the best of my memory, he was about 16 and a half pounds--give or take a few ounces.  ;-)  As far as his length, I have no earthly idea!  

By five months of age, Benjamin had gotten to the point of being fairly easily distracted while nursing.  When he was a newborn, he would nurse and nurse and nurse, oblivious to what was going on around him, which made it very convenient if I wanted to read to the other children while nursing or hold a conversation with someone or what-have-you.  But at this stage, I sometimes had to hide away in my room to nurse him, or he would be so interested in what was going on around him that he wouldn't think about drinking!

At five months, I had not yet given him any solid food, although when I held him on my lap while I was eating, he was interested in what I was doing and sometimes looked like he might enjoy a bite.  :)  Oh well, no hurry on that.  He was gaining weight just fine without any solid food.

One milestone Benjamin hit during this month was rolling from his tummy to his back.  On January 27, he accomplished that--twice!  :)

Benjamin continued to develop his babytalk, and we were delighted to hear the word "dada" show up quite a bit.  Of course Benjamin didn't understand the meaning of "dada" like we do, but it was still fun to hear him say it.  Now we've got to work extra hard on the "mama" sound because I want to hear him call me, too!!  :)

One new activity for Benjamin this month was spending a little time in what we call The Farm Toy.  My parents got it for Josiah when he was just a little guy, and all of our children have enjoyed it through the years (pictorial evidence: here is an old blog post with pictures of Tobin in it and David in it, and here is one of Moriah in it).  :)  

As far as Benjamin's sleep, he still didn't consistently sleep through the night, but most nights he got a 6 or 7 hour stretch.  When we had the big snowstorm back in January, he slept for something like 9 hours that night; maybe the muffled sounds of the world being blanketed by snow were a perfect lullaby for him.  :)  He also slept a long time on February 11, but I didn't make a note on my calendar about any snow falling on that day, so I don't have a clue what to attribute his long stretch of sleep to.  But if I knew, I would surely try to repeat it!!  ;-)

This month, we really started to notice and be concerned about Benjamin's dry skin.  The normal newborn skin adjustments were long enough ago that we really couldn't blame his dryness on that anymore.  Not to steal any thunder from his six-month post, but I'll say that shortly after his five-month "birthday" passed, we finally took him to a doctor for his skin.  I'll post more about that in his six-month update.  Who knows how many more months will need to pass before I ever get around to that one??  ;-)

Things I particularly love at this stage of Benjamin's life...

~ the blue of his eyes.  So gorgeous!
~ the way he half-closes his eyes and flutters his eyelashes when I lean down and he knows I'm going to kiss him or gently blow a raspberry on his neck.
~ the smiles he is quick to give to people when they make eye contact with him, sometimes surprising the recipients of his smiles because they didn't really expect to get such a big grin out of him.  :)
~ the way he gets his legs moving when I lay him down to change his clothes and diaper.  Imagine if an Irish step dancer did all his steps while laying flat on his back, and you'll have a pretty good idea what Benjamin looks like!  :)
~ this wonderful name sign that my very kind (and generous and creative and talented!) friend Valerie made for him.  It's always a thrill to get a package in the mail with Valerie's handwriting; she's blessed us a number of times through the years (like here and here and here, just for a few examples).  And so it was again--a very special blessing.  Such a treasured gift for a treasured son!!  Thank you so much, Valerie!  :)