This boy! I don’t know where to start, so let me start with the simple news first. Our sweet boy rolls over now from his back to his tummy, which means he no longer wakes himself up J.  He loves to roll around all over his play mats and quilts, and anything else so we have to keep a watchful eye (hand) on him now wherever he is.  He will even sleep on his side now. He still wakes up at 4am like clockwork, but puts himself back to sleep after about 15 minutes and doesn’t wake up until about 7, or when I wake him up at 6 during the week…when I go.  He is also so loud now. He has our vocal cords! He has been making different noises that sound like the vowel sounds for the past 2 wks and he is pretty loud. Fortunately he doesn’t cry that much or loud. He is still good to go in public places, yay! We take him out with us to lunch and dinner all the time and he gets so much attention and is happy and quite pretty much the whole time.  He smiles at just about everyone, unless it is nap time, so that cute little dimple attracts a lot of praise! He is really trying to stand lately too. His little chunky legs are strong! He keeps trying to sit up and tries real hard on his own when I pull him up. It is cute how his fat belly wrinkles up when he tries.  He still loves his jumper and is now into the animals on his latest Baby Einstein dvd. I can’t wait to pick out a cute little manimal Halloween costume! He is also into being sang to. It has always put him to sleep when I sing while holding him, but now he likes some upbeat stuff like Itsy Bitsy Spider and Patti Cake. So cute!! Oh and at 5mths, he is 80% in weight and height. He gained 2.5lbs in one month. Biggon!

Obviously, we made it through baby’s 1^st hurricane. (note the current underwater theme, haha) Ike didn’t bother Lil B one bit. I stayed home Thursday and got things around the house ready, getting supplies and putting important mementos in safe places. We hung out at home all day Friday and put him down at his usual 9pm bedtime, but in the pack n play next to our bed. We wanted him close during the storm, and his room has pine trees above it. We stayed up waiting for it to hit, and at about 1am we thought we were hearing the worst of it. We got in bed and he was stirring around so I let him sleep on my chest like I did when he was itty bitty. It makes him so calm, probably feels safe. I dozed off here and there, but couldn’t stop watching the neighbors tree slam against the wind and rain, and against one of our bedroom windows. When it would hit especially loud, I would jump and my heart would start pounding. This would make Tyler start stirring around again. I bet my heartbeat sounded like a bass drum on his ear! But even that seemed to sooth him. It was easier than I thought it would be to stay calm. I guess b/c the drive is so strong to not alarm him in order keep him safe and happy. Can’t keep him safe if in a panic, which is usually my style haha. By 4am I was sure again that that was the worst of it. I was right this time, but that is when the power went out. I had only put him in a diaper to sleep b/c I knew that he would get hot on me and that the AC would go out at some point. This was the theme of the weekend: naked baby! He woke up around 6 still on my chest, and ready for breakfast. Stayed right on schedule all weekend.I kept baby powder in his fat creases so he would be comfy, and he was happy all weekend. Thankfully baby toys work on batteries! I didn’t put clothes on him till we got power back on Monday afternoon. We had a generator running the fridge and fans so it never got above 77 in our home, until a bit on Sunday when I had to turn it off a while to conserve our gas. Besides a lot of clean up, we were ok. Again, feeling overwhelmingly blessed with a healthy happy baby and a sturdy roof over our head.  I didn’t return to work until Wednesday, so baby boy got super spoiled with mommy time. At one point someone else was holding him Sunday and he started to cry when I walked though the room. I think he felt ignored by me and got his feelings hurt, he was fine as soon as I doubled back and grabbed him. I don’t want him to be a mama’s boy, but I can’t say that it makes me sad J When it was ok for him to finally go back to his room Monday afternoon-he slept for 3 hrs! He normally doesn’t nap that long in the afternoon. And then he slept till 7am, I had to wake him up! Like the rest of us, he must love being in his own bed…except his is organic and better than mine. As it should be.  Hopefully this will give him a glimpse into his first hurricane party one day. I am going to keep an article in his baby book so that he knows how truly fortunate we were during this time that is so devastating for so many.