Once again, 5 months has come and gone and I am behind on the blog post!!
Owen had his 4-month checkup with our new pediatrician just a few days after his 5-month birthday. The old pediatrician's office was so busy, we were really getting behind on the appointments! The new doctor is great and I am glad we're switching. She's attentive, down-to-earth, and yet interested in such frivolity as Owen's social and cognitive development. Plus her name is Dr. Ouchi.
Owen weighed in for this visit at 18lbs, 4oz. I forget now how long he measured. This is why I shouldn't get so far behind on posting. In any case, I remember that he was 90th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for length! I am getting tendonitis in my right wrist from carrying his car seat around with him in it. He is big.
He has great head control now, and just about on his 5 month birthday, he started to sit up. This is big. He was pretty tippy and bendy at first, but now just a few weeks later, he has amazing balance and control. He can sit up and hold a toy in both his hands with just a little support on his back. That's right folks, he can sit up and manipulate objects with both hands. He is like 95% of the way to getting a PhD with those two skills! He even sits upright in the stroller, without leaning against the back rest, and puts his arms on the arm rests, like he is about to issue an edict from his throne.
Owen has also started to push up on his hands and roll over, both from the front to the back and from the back to the front. There are times when he seems to want nothing more than to practice these skills. The other day he rolled over and fell asleep on his tummy for the first time. It won't be long before our cribless Montessori nursery idea is put to the test.
Sometime while we were in France, he started supporting his weight on his legs. He was loving it when we held him up in a standing position! But Dr. Ouchi warned us to focus on sitting so that he has the chance to move independently of us grownups. She said it's best for his development if he can practice moving and balancing for himself, and it's also best for us. If he starts to like that standing position too much, he'll be crying unless someone's there to hold him up. Good advice I think.
Another big physical and cognitive development is his ability to grasp things. His motor control is amazing, he sometimes brings total concentration to his hands and then uses a perfect, controlled pincer grasp to touch them. Or he will reach out to something interesting (most notably the cat, and streams of water, and cups we are drinking from) and use such a gentle touch to feel them. The other day we were lying on our sides together and he reached out and honked my nose, and then laughed. Of course there are still times when he just grabs or flails his arms wildly as well. One of his favorite things to grab now is his own feet, either lying on his back in classic "happy baby pose", or sitting up. I have even seen him grab the opposite foot a few times, which is great because the ability to cross the midline of the body is a very important cognitive milestone.
With all these physical developments, Owen is just a lot stronger and more solid. He's so much easier to hold and carry now that he can hold himself up well (although he's really heavy, so it takes some good bicep strength). We have started to play "rolly-polly" a lot, rolling around on his big queen-sized bed. This game is similar to Hop on Pop. He sits up, plays with toys, rolls over (usually with some help), giggles and smiles. We play games like gotcha and peek-a-boo to his total delight. We also read him books, which he likes to look at AND chew on. Yesterday I played him a few chords on the guitar while he sat up and watched, and he was just completely amazed at the sound.
We had a reprieve from the teething process for a couple of weeks. The drooling subsided and he wasn't attacking poor Sophie's feet as much. But in the last couple of days, it seems like it might be back for another round. Yesterday he had all 4 of her feet in there at once.
Dr. Ouchi also told us that yes! It is definitely time for solid foods! She seemed sort of amazed that our 18.5lb, 5 month old baby was not eating solids already. But when we were at that appointment, he wasn't expressing any interest in food. Just a few days later he clued in and started watching carefully as we put things in our mouths. More details to come in the 6 month blog post, but we started feeding him a little rice cereal last weekend. He likes it. Sometimes.
Owen is making all sorts of sounds, including what is known here at the Homestead as The Kraken. This is a high-pitched yelling/squealing sound that he makes when he's excited. It tends to start off cute and increase in intensity over a period of about 15 minutes until it is truly frightening and very, very annoying. Then, typically, he has himself in such a lather that he dissolves into a hysterical fit and has to be put to bed.
It's amazing how similar his sounds are to the sounds his friend Sunday made a few months back when she was the same age. Apparently the process of learning to babble is fairly standardized. In addition to The Kraken, Owen makes sounds like bbbb-bbbb-bbbb, tttthhhhh-tttthhhhh, tthhbbbt-tthhhhbbbt, aaahhbbaa-baa-baaa, naa-naa-naa and most recently a soft hhhhhhhaaaaa, as in halloween. I wonder if babies with Cockney accents skip this one.
As followers of this blog know, everyone's favorite sound the laughing. Oh, when he gets going, it is truly a delight. If only we could bottle these laughs. They are so nonsensical and awesome.
Perhaps the biggest news in Owen's life (besides sitting up... that is pretty big) is that Granma and Gramps are here in LA to be his nannies. He is just loving all the love, attention, walks outside, gourmet cooking lessons, and other fun times they are providing. He's been with them nearly every day for two weeks. I am honestly loving being back to work on my dissertation proposal. Its fun for me to rub those brain cells together again and see if they still spark. I hope to finish the proposal by mid-March, making use of the time I have!
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