5 months old already!

Today is Max's 5 month birthday, so many happy returns of the day to young Max. We think he is doing very well for a 5 month old baby, so I thought I'd show off some of his best achievements with some photos.

Here is Max sitting up. He has always preferred sitting to lying down, and now he can do it unaided for a fairly long period of time. He is good enough at it that I am even able to leave him sitting by himself and playing with some toys while I get the camera and take numerous photos.


He can also manage to reach out, lean down, pick things up and then sit back upright while chewing on them/playing with them. What a clever boy!


Here is Max on his playmat. When we first put him on it, he would have fun by first just looking at the dangling toys, then reaching out to hit them, then grabbing them to pull down and eat as he got older and more coordinated. Now he gets the most enjoyment out of sitting upright and grabbing at the toys, and pushing the arch over completely to play with the pink tongue of the frog which you can just see in this photo.

I guess the other big thing for Max as a 5 month old is that he has two fully fledged and very sharp teeth. Getting a photo of these is always tricky so excuse the blurriness of this one and take our word for it that the teeth are very much present!


Other achievements for 5 month old Max include rolling from his tummy to his back, from his back to his side, (sometimes) being able to pick up his dummy and put it back in his mouth, reaching out and grabbing anything within reach (and some things that I didn't think were), laughing when he's having fun and sleeping through the night.

We think he is a very smart and talented boy - happy birthday Max!

Happy 2 Month Birthday!

Today is Max's 2 month birthday. Hip hip hooray!

To celebrate, we went to the child health clinic this afternoon and weighed Max to see how his growing is coming along. He now weighs 7.12 kgs and is about 60cms long (hard to tell when he wriggles so much). Way to go Max!

In honour of this momentous occasion, I thought I'd make a list of things Max has learned to do in the past two months (in no particular order).

• poo and wee
• cry
• sleep
  
• suck on a dummy
• fart
  
• lift and hold his head up
• listen to music
• yawn
• open one eye
  
• breastfeed
• burp
  
• smile
• poke out his tongue
• grab on to things close to his hands
• suck on his hands
• kick
• wriggle his arms out from being wrapped
  
• wave his arms
• cough
• sneeze
• stretch
  
• make cute 'goo' and 'ah' noises
• look at interesting things/people
• arch his back
• hiccup
  
• reach out and touch things that interest him if they're within arms reach.

Here's some evidence ...Why suck on a dummy when you have hands?

Happy Birthday to me!

Smiles for the bug

Like most babies I guess, Max can be a bit temperamental at times. Often he just won't stop crying for us and we can't figure out why, and so one of our techniques for cheering him up is to change his nappy. We have a colourful bug-like toy hanging on the curtains just above the change table, and from the moment we put it there Max has been fascinated by it. Changing him and letting him stare at the bug for a few minutes is almost a sure-fire way to make him happy, and it often works so well that he gives out big grins for the bug, while just a few minutes beforehand he has been screaming at us.


I don't know exactly why the bug makes him happy but the people who feed him and love him and look after him get screamed at. But to be fair he is giving out smiles to us more frequently these days as well, and the bug will only keep him happy for so long before he screams at it as well, so it probably evens out.

Grins or gas?

For the last few weeks Max has been occasionally and randomly doing these adorably cute grins, usually just after feeding while I'm waiting to see if he wants any more or has had his fill. Sometimes he even pulls one while still attached, and then promptly loses his hold and can't suck anymore. Although they are very cute, since he usually has his eyes shut I don't really count them as proper smiles, since it's more likely just him trying to push out some gas or something like that.

However, in the last couple of days Max has been looking right into both Cam's and my eyes and deliberately giving off the widest of grins while we smile back at him. I'd love to post a photo of him doing this but as yet it's still a bit too unpredictable to catch on camera. You'll just have to take our word for it that these grins transform Max's already cute face and make it even more adorable and gorgeous than usual, and it's impossible not to give him an answering grin in return. So it's smiles all round at the Batkin household these days! (unfortunately not 24/7, but we're getting there.)