Brice at 5 months!

It's been a hard month, to say the least, but our sweet little boys provide a good distraction from the sadness. Brice continues to be a joyful baby, but he is growing so fast that I keep calling him my big boy! Yesterday Chase said to me, "I a big boy and Bricey a big boy!"

(Chase did an acoustic performance of Happy Birthday for Brice on his 5 month birthday)

We're still recovering from a stomach bug that hit our household earlier this week, so pictures might be a few days behind.

At 5 months, Brice is:

-Taking a 5-8oz bottle every 2-21/2 hours. He's not nursing as much and even has trouble with the bottle because he is so distracted. There's so much to look at! He also pets my hand while he eats, just like Chase did (does).

-Still takes a solid 60-90 minute nap in the morning and 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon.

-Waking up every 3 hours at night. His sleep has regressed a bit, probably due to all of our travel. Hopefully he'll get back to a longer stretch of sleep soon. Sadly, I'm not shocked at this.

-Eating more intersting foods! We've added oatmeal, peas, apples, peaches, carrots, and sweet potatoes (as of yesterday) to his menu. He especially loves peas and carrots. Most of his food is still homemade, but the carrots and sweet potatoes have been jarred since we were traveling. Brice loves when we play airplane fork. He's also learning to grab his fork and "feed himself."

-Growing more hair. We like to say he has a proceeding hair line. Sometimes it winds up parted down the middle like one of the three stooges.

-Holding his head up high when he's on his belly. He also scrunches up his legs to move himself a little bit. I'm not in a rush for him to crawl, but Brice clearly wants to move!

-Still loves his exersaucer. He's so tall we had to move him up to the middle level.

-Learning that he can manipulate things with his hands. Brice really concentrates on this, grabs them, and puts them in his mouth or tries to move them. This includes his hanging toys, his exersaucer toys, my hair, my jewelry, and my mouth. You can almost see him understanding that if he grabs something, he can move it. When I'm feeding him, he reaches up and pats my mouth. So sweet.

-Loves to watch videos of himself or "chat" with himself in the mirror. He's belly-laughing, which is so funny.

Brice brings so much joy to our lives. Even at the saddest moments these past couple of weeks, he has brought a smile to my face. We love you so much, Brice!