An update from MOM

So, Otto is now 5 months old. I can't believe it. He is not officially twice as big as when he was born. He had a 5 month check up at the end of July. He weighs 16#'s and is 26" long. We are not sure how but he is in the 90% for height and 75% for weight. You wouldn't guess that by looking at eric and I. He is really doing great. He was rolling over when we were in Chicago but he stopped that. Although just this morning he started going from his back to his stomach. Really though he doesn't have much interest in being on the floor. He much prefers to be standing, with your help. He seems to be closer to walking than crawling. Now he can sit up on his own. He is still a little wobbly but he gets it. One of his favorite things to do is laugh at Grendel. She has been hell on wheels lately but we are keeping her around due to the belly laughs she gets out of Otto. He just loves her. She is also very good and doesn't seem to mind too much when he pulls on her. She keeps coming back for more. As you can see we have been working on his mohawk. It is coming along quite well. In fact when we were in the Seattle airport a 6 year old boy pointed to him and told his brother, "look that baby has a mohawk." That was without the gel. We have been having a lot of play dates with Leo and Henry which is good for all parties involved. Perhaps most of all the moms. With the weather being so hot we have been going to the pool. Otto loves to swim. He has recently mastered the art of splashing which he finds very funny. In fact he is so good at splashing I think his days in his baby bath tub are numbered. We have been bathing him in the tub on the kitchen table. If you look closely in the eating pictures you can see it prepped and ready in the background. Now after his bath the whole kitchen is wet. I think soon we will be moving the mess to the bathroom. We are also still working on food. Some days he likes rice cereal, but not most of the time. Oatmeal seems to be more popular. Baby food is not a favorite with the exception of prunes which he really seems to like. That is a good thing since we need something to keep the cereal moving through him. More than anything it is an exercise in finger painting. But hey, who doesn't like to finger paint. All in all he continues to be adorable and very funny. He is still teething like mad but there are no signs of teeth yet. He also hasn't made too much of a break through with sleeping. With few exceptions he still gets up every two hours at night to nurse. Sometimes he stretches to 3 hours and sometimes it is every hour. But I apparently did not sleep well either so I have no one to blame for that. This morning Eric let me sleep from 6 - 8:30, I think it was one of the longest stretches of sleep I have had since he was born. It is a good thing he is so gosh darn cute! One major development over the past few weeks has been his interest in the objects around him. Nothing is safe anymore. If he can see it he wants to put it in his mouth. Cell phones, magazines, remotes, it all looks delicious. I have to run to make some dinner, but I hope to have more info soon.