Let's see.  Colin just keeps getting bigger and Kaida just keeps getting smarter.

I think he had a growth spurt.  I tried to put some overalls on him today but I couldn't get the straps buttoned.  It's only been 2 weeks, maybe, since the last time he wore them.  And he has a pair of pants where the cuffs button up just in case baby is tall and skinny and can wear them for a long time.  He is just about bursting out of them at the waist but I also had to unbutton the cuffs.  Overall I think we've got another couple weeks in the 6 month clothes, especially if it stays warm and we can forego things like pants.  Then it will be time for the 9 month clothes. 

Not that my baby is fat or anything but take a look at his "rubberband wrists"

They look like they've got rubberbands wrapped around them

The good news is that he's no longer in a growth spurt.  So he goes to bed and usually stays asleep until sometime between 3 and 7.  (I much prefer the 3am wake up since if he goes much longer than that I wake up rock hard and leaking all over.)  Sometimes if something disturbs him he'll wake up at other times but not too often.
He has the strange 10:30 rousing that Kaida always had too.  I don't know if some sound in our neighborhood changes or something in the house or if that's just a light part of your sleep cycle when you're a baby and you went to bed at 8.  But he settles down pretty quick.

Today he is 5 months old.

He's getting pretty good at sitting up.  He does really well and can stay up for a long time if he has something to rest his hand on.  I guess it helps him check his balance.  If he tries to eat whatever his hand is resting on, though, all bets are off.

I bought him a bath seat the other day.  Kaida was always perfectly content to lay on the sling.  She was bathed in the sink for ages too.  Colin kicks like he's racing Michael Phelps in the 100 meter freestyle.  I got sick of getting soaked and he seems calmer when he's sitting up (I would be to if I was bathing with someone who routinely tried to smother, force feed, and drown me) so I got a seat.  He likes it, it makes bath time a little less stressful so that's good too.


Naked baby!  He's getting ready to nom on those feet.

Kaida is talking up a storm.  She started putting together sentences a week or two ago.  The first one we noticed was "No nap baby brother."  She was vehemently against Colin taking a nap in the car for some reason.  She's also started assigning possessions to people.  Kaida's baby, Mommy's water (Iced Tea), Daddy's water (beer in the fridge), Poppy's Water (champagne in the wine rack - no idea about that one).  She also tells me who gave her the clothes she's wearing.  That one's pretty easy though since it's usually "Drammy" or "Dranmom".
When we see other kids they're usually assigned to one of four age groups.  Melanie, Addy, Baby, and Jim.  Older girls from age 3 or 4 up to 10 are Melanie.  Toddlers around her age are Addy.  Babies are baby.  Teenaged boys are Jim.
Jim is Randy.  When he was in visiting, Kaida proclaimed him "Jim" one night at dinner.  It stuck.

For Father's day I tried to get her to say Happy Daddy Day to JR.  It kept coming out Happy Birthday Addy Daddy.  Or Happy Daddy Birthday.  Or Happy Day Day Daddy.  But now she's figured it out and She keeps saying Happy Daddy Day!, so that's pretty cute.

It was a pirate themed father's day complete with costumes and a treasure hunt!

She really likes to play outside.  She likes to watch me color with the sidewalk chalk and adds an occasional flourish to whatever I'm drawing.  She'll tolerate me blowing bubbles for a while but then she wants to do it herself and ends up inhaling more bubbles than she blows.  She plays with the water table that Grammy got her and loves to swing.  And sometimes I'll set up the tiny pool or the sprinkler for her.

Apparently Colin's outfit needed a hat to dress it up.

She got stung while she was in the swing last week.  Luckily she doesn't know what got her so our opinion of "buggies" hasn't changed.  I thought it was just a random hornet but I found the nest today (of course right under the swing) so Daddy is going to have to be a hero and go out there to take care of it.

We were going to have a pantless weekend of potty training but then JR had to work and I didn't think that was something I could handle alone so we skipped it.  I think she might be telling me when she has to poop, though it's hard to tell if she has to poop or she already pooped since I don't always jump to take care of it the second she says it.

This seems like a pretty accurate representation of  what I look like when I head out.

Nap time at our house seems to stretch from around 10am to 4pm.  He usually goes down around 10-11 and sleeps for 1-2 hours.  Then she goes down around 12 and sleeps 1-2 hours.  Then he'll go down between 2 and 3 and sleeps for 1-2 hours.  It's good that they sleep but it doesn't leave much time for running errands.
But I do get some alone time with each of them during the day, so that's nice.

"He's Huge!" or 4 Months

Colin had his 4 month Dr. appointment on friday.  He weighed in at 16 pounds 4 ounces and measured 24 inches long.  That puts him in the seventy-second and thirteenth percentiles respectively (he seems to have the opposite percentiles of Kaida).  Although both the Dr. and I think that his height measurement is off.  I got 25 and a 1/2 inches when I measured him myself on Saturday.
His head is still around the 39th percentile which is where he's been since the beginning.

When Dr. Kovatch walked in he asked me how old Colin was now.  I told him 4 months and he looked at him and said "He's huge".  It was pretty funny.  He said he's the weight of an average 6 month old.  Of course he and all the nurses want to know if I give him formula too.  It's like they don't believe that he's exclusively breastfed.  He's only had breastmilk and two doses of Tylenol so far.  Unless Kaida is slipping him some candy or something when I'm not looking.

He said that if he keeps waking up a lot overnight I could start cereal early and give it to him in the evening.  I think I'll see how he does over the next week or so and if it's really killing me I'll think about it.  I mean, he can't even sit up yet so I doubt giving him cereal will go well.  And the last thing I need is more aggravation.

He had two shots and the oral rotavirus vaccine.  They sent me home with, like, 5 different vaccine sheets.  I guess when they're combo shots they cover more stuff.  Definitely makes it more confusing though.
Every single time we go Dr. Kovatch asks if/assumes that we're delaying the vaccines.  It's sort of starting to make me paranoid.  Like, does he think we should be delaying?  Or does he just think that since Colin and Kaida were breastfed that we would automatically delay the shots too?
Do I have that I-would-like-to-delay-my-child's-vaccines air about me?

I have to use a pillow when I nurse him, he's just too heavy to hold up the whole time.  Kaida was 16 pounds 9 ounces at her 9 month appointment.  I think that since she was older, and maybe longer, it was easier to feed her at 16 pounds.  I could sort of sit her on my lap.  But, we're managing.

 He's very happy.  Very quick to laugh.  And not very fussy at all.  We thought Kaida was a good baby but he is very very good.

Kaida is pretty sure that in order to get to go outside all she has to do is make sure everyone is ready.  So she gets her hat (or her coat, I guess it just depends on the day), and her shoes, and the baby's hat.  On Saturday she even put it on him.