5 months

Ezra is 5 months old. I have never met a baby with such a sense of humor! He laughs so much, and he's so much fun. He's incredibly social. As far as development, he sits very steadily on his own and is starting to pull up to sitting from a recline (like in his car seat or bouncy seat). He sort of creeps on the ground, and is frustrated that he can't crawl yet; I don't think it will be too long! He is obsessed with the food we are eating, and if it's within reach he grabs it out of our hands. He still has his tongue thrust, though, so he's not ready to eat solids quite yet. He manipulates toys fairly well and is starting to use his fingers rather than just his hands. He babbles a lot and says "Abba" fairly consistently, much to Baruch's delight (he actually says "ah-ba-ba-ba"). We think he says "hi" as well, but we're not as sure about that. And he also has an incredibly long attention span, and focuses on things very closely.

Baruch and I decided that Ezra was in pain from reflux, and while we were visiting my family in Charleston we got some gripe water to try. It's wonderful! Ezra loves it (it does taste very good), although it's a bit of a struggle to get it all swallowed (that tongue thrust again). We can usually tell if he's complaining because he's uncomfortable because he'll be spitting up or making burpy gulpy noises, and when we give him the gripe water he gets much happier. This is very exciting for us.

Sleep is not much better. In fact, in the past few days it's been much worse, but hopefully it's a short stage. This boy just does not like to sleep. My mother says that she hasn't met a baby who resisted sleep as much as Ezra since I was a baby. When he doesn't get enough sleep he is very unhappy. I tried to explain that to him, but he wouldn't listen :p Oh well, all stages pass in time. He is so delightful and wonderful, and also so challenging and high needs. I know we are amazingly blessed with this little boy.