5 months old

Stanley turned 5 months old on Friday. Grandma Lolo said her favorite age is 3 months. I think mine so far is 4 months old. Stanley's personality and curiosity started developing and he has a very cute little laugh right now. Also, he has started to be able to play by himself for a lot longer. If we give him a toy and leave for a bit, he is quite content rolling from side to side on the floor playing with it. It is only when it gets flung out of his reach that he wants us to help him. 

 Traveling with Stanley is quite easy also. He just wants to be engaged. So be it if he only has a paper cup to play with--he will be happy. Also, it helps because he is very curious about everything. Today, while washing my teeth, he stared very perplexingly at what I was doing.

He loves to eat everything and anything in sight. He really enjoys plates and spoons. Shiny plates are just amazing, hard, cold, shiny, and thankfully he has yet to figure out that they are breakable. He also enjoys having his picture taken. He will put on his best face when the camera comes out.

Our main difficulty with Stanley right now is his sleeping. He hates to nap, hates to sleep, and still needs a lot of attention to get to sleep. Today I tried to let him cry it out for his nap. 45 minutes later, he was still screaming at the top of his lungs and we needed to leave. So be it for a restful nap. And, at night, we get one long stretch between 9pm-1:30 or 2am. After that I put him in bed with me and he eats pretty often. I know that I could stop him, but I really enjoy my cuddle time with Stanley. 

I loved the above picture, but just to show you how much he shoves in his mouth, check out below.

He often wakes up at 5am and is ready to play. He is cheerful, full of life, and completely awake. If I snuggle him in close, he will dose off some more.

At 5 months, Stanley loves:
- Walks
- Being outside even when it is cold
- bathes and his duck toys in the bath
- His Sophie!!!!
- His playstation
- The stand-up play circle thing--not sure what these things are called, but he is in it in the above picture
- Facing out in the Moby
- Laughing and dad
- Smiling at people passing by
-  His lounge chair especially watching mom and dad cook in the kitchen
- He really likes Halima
- Making bubbles with his mouth
- Eating his bottle lip and then making crazy noises


At 5 months, Stanley can:
- Start to sit up on his own from a laying position
- Hold himself up in a tripod for about 45seconds
- Stand with someone just holding his arms. He can stay like this for about 2-3 minutes.
- Start to put his knees underneath his body, but he has no upper body strength
- Roll from side to side. He can flip over, but he doesn't choose to do so.
- Grab at anything around him. He has even figured out that he can pull on the table cloth to help move things closer. Yes, this does mean we are in trouble.

At 5 months, Stanley dislikes:
- The sun in his face
- Going to sleep
- The car--I thought we were over this, but it is sadly back again
- When things happen and he cannot see. He will stop eating to crane his neck around to see something happening.