Baby AJ: Month 5 Update

AJ turned 5 months last week! Ok seriously, how has almost half a year gone by already?! It's true when they say babies grow up so fast. I just want to cherish every cuddle with him because I know someday he won't want to cuddle with his mama anymore. I'm also trying to soak up this time that he's immobile. I'm not ready to baby proof the house yet!

I say this every month, but so much changes in a month! It's truly amazing how much and how fast they learn. I would say his biggest change was with his hands. He's getting much better at reaching out and grabbing objects, and he can now bring them to his mouth. He also discovered his feet and figured out how to put them in his mouth. Oh and he is getting really good at sitting up with minimal assistance.

Weight: No weigh in this month, but I'm guessing around 17 lbs.

Length: Not sure.
Diaper size: Size 3
Clothing size: 3-6 month and 9 month pants. At the end of the month he started wearing 9 month onsies and sleepers.

Nicknames: Bub bub , bubs, munchkin, munchkin booty, baby boy, little man, grumpster, sweetie, sweetie pie, sweetums, little guy, cranky pants

Health: Nothing new to report here. Still hasn't gotten sick. Fingers crossed!

Sleep: Well, the multiple night wakings continued. We had one really good week over the last month where he slept from 7 pm to 3/4 am and only one middle of the night feeding. But other than that week, we were still experiencing a regression. I would nurse him to sleep around 7 pm and within 30 minutes - 1 hour he was awake again. Then he kept waking up all night long. I think he doesn't know how to put himself back to sleep. Luckily, Jack can soothe him back to sleep pretty quickly. Unfortunately though, he still sleeps a lot of the night in his bouncy chair. Who knows when we'll finally be able to retire that thing. He still sleeps in our bedroom and we're thinking around 6 months transitioning him to his crib. We'll see how that goes. Naps are still around 40 minutes long. We are getting better at putting him down not fully asleep and letting him fall asleep on his own. He has even found his thumb a few times and soothed himself to sleep!

Diet: He's still exclusively breastfed. We won't start solids until he's closer to 6 months or older. I started reading the Baby Led Weaning book, but I'm a bit nervous with starting with chunkier foods.

Baby Gear Love:
-Bob Revolution stroller: The weather has been great, and we've been able to take him on some nice long walks.
-Exersaucer: Nice when you need him to be entertained for a few minutes and he doesn't seem to want to sit in his bouncer.
-Winkel: This thing makes it easy for him to grab and helps work on his hand control.
-Sophie: He loves his Sophie. He likes to grab her and then gnaw on her face. :)

Loves: his bath every night, laying on his changing table, sitting up with minimal assistance, standing with assistance, when we blow raspberries on his belly, chewing on his hands, grabbing objects, playing with his feet, being tossed in the air, when we sing and talk to him

Dislikes: being overtired and being left on his back for too long. He wants to sit up and look around!

Milestones: Still no rolling from back to belly. He is getting much better at grabbing things and bringing them to his mouth. And he can sit in a tripod position pretty well now.

Other things of note about month 5: 

-He is laughing more and more. It's so awesome. I love his little baby laugh. Things that make him laugh include: our dog Sadie (he loves when she licks his toes), blowing raspberries on him, tossing him up in the air, bouncing him, pretend "eating" him, when I make "nom nom" sounds at him and open and close my mouth

-He figured out how to suck his thumb, although he doesn't do it all too often.

-He's a little shy with strangers. He does this thing where he'll bury his face in my chest after giving a new person a big ol' grin. It's really cute. He's ok with new people as long as either mommy or daddy is holding him.

-He loves when we take him new places or let him lay outside and look at the trees. I think he gets a bit of cabin fever sometimes. So we like to take him out as much as we can. Even if it's just to lay under the tree in the front yard. The fresh air is probably good for him. When we take him somewhere, he is just so interested in looking at everything.

-At the end of the month, we finally started using his highchair. He can sit up pretty good in it. It's nice to set him in there while I do something in the kitchen and let him practice grabbing and holding objects.

Gosh, I can't believe how much I love this little guy! It really is a love like no other. I cannot imagine my life with out him. I have a lot of worry that something is going to happen to him. I thought I worried a lot when I was pregnant, but it never ends!

I also feel like he's looking a little less like Jack. He does look a lot like him, but not as much as when he was a newborn. My traits are finally starting to show!

Every month keeps getting better and better. I'm constantly telling my husband that I still can't believe that he's our baby and how did we get so lucky. I'm excited to see what month 6 has in store for us.

DIY Wooden Toy Eggs

My first real tutorial! Easter is coming up in a few weeks and since my baby will only be 5 months, and can't have candy yet, I racked my brain of what I could put in his Easter basket. Some googling brought me to the idea of dying wood craft eggs with food coloring! Perfect! Since they are just dyed with food coloring and finished with a beeswax wood polish, they are safe for my baby to chew on.

Here's what you'll need to get started.

• Wood Craft Eggs: I got mine at Michael's 
• 1 cup Olive Oil for the Beeswax wood polish
• Beeswax: I found mine in the candle making aisle at Michael's (What would make this even better is if you found some local beeswax from a beekeeper)
• Grater to grate up the beeswax
• Sandpaper to smooth out your eggs
• Paintbrush to paint on your food coloring
• Food Coloring

Let's first start with how to make the beeswax wood polish. I used this tutorial. It's simple. It's just 4 parts oil and 1 part beeswax. And you can use any oil you like. I just had olive oil on hand. 

First fill a microwave safe dish with 1 cup of olive oil. It's easy to use a measuring dish like this so you can easily know when you've added enough beeswax. 

Then, grate up your beeswax until you reach the 1 1/4 cup line. This means you will have 1 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup beeswax (1 part beeswax, 4 parts oil). Next, microwave until all the beeswax is melted in the oil. This only took 2 minutes in my microwave. 

The tutorial said to add to a wide bowl for stirring. I did this, but didn't really find it necessary. I could have just stirred it in my measuring cup. 

Finally, just keep stirring it occasionally as it cools. You will end up with something that looks like this. And that's it! The hardest part was grating up the beeswax. 

Ok, now for dying the eggs. First, use your fine grit sandpaper and smooth out your eggs. Make sure there are no splinters. Then all I did was add about 5 drops of dye to a bowl with a splash of water.

Then just use your brush and paint your eggs until they're fully saturated to your liking. I just kept adding layer after layer until it seemed like they were no longer getting darker. I did this on some wax paper so I didn't get any dye on my counter. 

Let them sit out to dry. When your beeswax polish is cooled, you can transfer it to a container. I just used a small mason jar. It should last up to a year. 

When your eggs are dry, just rub in the beeswax polish with your hands. It will make the colors a bit more saturated and your eggs nice and shiny! 

And that's all there is to it! It took me maybe 2 hours one day and like 5 minutes the next to apply the polish. 

Since I have lots of beeswax wood polish left, I can't wait to make AJ some more wood toys!