5 months

happy 5 month birthday (officially last saturday) to my little monkey! i know i say this every month, but he is growing so fast i can hardly believe it. i feel like i just typed his 4 month update and now here we are at 5 months! this past month has been filled with:

• chewing on everything, but especially his fingers (usually all 4 at the same time, or as many as he can cram into his mouth)
• rolling! he can now roll back-to-stomach and stomach-to-back. i wasn't expecting the first back-to-stomach roll the other day and he almost rolled right off the couch. oops!
  
• eating rice cereal, oatmeal, and (as of today) sweet potatoes. and, man, does he love sweet potatoes!
• loving his exersaucer
• "swimming" in the kiddie pool with his bff eden. more on that to come...
• talking ALL THE TIME. this kid is a serious talker!
• smiling at everything and everyone
• screeching/screaming when he wants something or is upset. i think he's realized that those sounds get our attention faster than just crying because now he usually skips right over the crying and goes right to screaming.
• loving on his big sister bella. he rubs her head, pulls on her ears, and tries to eat her and she patiently lets him, though she occasionally she shoots me a look of "please help me!"
• standing a little bit when you hold him up
• almost sitting up on his own. he's so close!
• thoughtfully observing/exploring everything. i love that! i love the way he watches people and carefully studies the things he's holding. you can just see the wheels turning!
• easily grabbing things and passing them from hand to hand
• grabbing and playing with his feet all the time
• really enjoying books. he studies the pictures and laughs at my silly voices. he even helps turn the pages when it's time - it's so cute!
• sleeping 9-10 hours at night. he eats rice cereal at 8, then gets a bath - mostly to clean off all the rice cereal! then we read a section from his big picture bible and it's off to bed. he usually wakes up between 6 and 7 in the morning.
• eating 4-5 times/day in addition to solids twice per day

we had a follow-up appointment with his GI doctor today and he was happy with how quinn is doing. he weighed in at 15lbs 7oz. i got the green light to try soy again to see if he has a reaction since we really don't know if he's allergic to soy. however, he doesn't want me to try dairy until he's one year old since he is definitely allergic to that. he was very hopeful that quinn will grow out of his dairy allergy which would be great. until then, i am hoping that he is ok with soy so i can enjoy some soy ice cream, soy cheese, and soy yogurt! oh, and soy sauce for my sushi! yum.

happy 5 month birthday quinn! we love you so much!