This guy. This smiley, silly, foot-grabbing guy is five months old. He radiates happiness and is such a joy to be around. His laugh is the most beautiful, musical sound and finding a new way to make him laugh is enough to engage me for hours. Sometimes when he's napping or has gone to sleep for the night Chris or I will say to each other, "I can't wait until he wakes up so I can hang out with him!"

At five months Dashiell can grab a toy and bring it to his mouth and transfer a toy from one hand to another. He loves his feet and grabs them every chance he gets and sometimes sucks on his big toe! During tummy time he can hold his head up high and steady and is just starting to push up on straight arms. He scootches his knees up under his bottom sometimes and can roll from tummy to back but hasn't figured out back to tummy. He's not sitting unassisted yet but is making a lot of progress and I bet he'll be there in about a month. Sometimes he can prop himself up on his hands but he'll always end up tilting too far to one side.

We're still working on sleep. He goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:30 and is up 2-3 times per night and wants to be up for the day by about 5:30. But compared to where we were at two months it's such an improvement. He's sleeping exclusively in his crib at this point instead of in a gliding swing or in our bed as we had to do from 2-4 months. And truthfully nursing him in the middle of the night is such a sweet time. I'll be glad to sleep through the night one day but I'll miss that time with him as well. We hear Dash wake and put himself back to sleep during the night, yay Dash!, but he just hasn't done the full night yet. I know we'll get there. So far we've only seen improvement and didn't notice a "sleep regression" that we heard can happen around four months so we're counting that as a win. His naps aren't consistent yet but sometimes he'll take a 1.5+ hr nap. Other times he'll only sleep for 30 minutes but when we go to check on him he's happily rolling from side to side in his crib and breaks out in a huge grin when he sees us.

When we eat Dashiell is interested in what we're doing and sometimes reaches out. Before long he'll be able to sit in his high chair and I'm looking forward to the start of family meals at the table. I've been helping him practice with a drinking glass. I demonstrate drinking out of a small glass and then present the glass to him. He gets very excited and reaches out with two hands and I help him hold the glass as he brings it to his mouth and gums the rim. He doesn't know to tip it back yet but he's very excited to mirror our actions. I think I can see a teeny, tiny tooth just below the gums and he seems to like to chew on things on that side but so far no fussiness to indicate he's in discomfort.

When we pick Dashiell up he puts a hand on our shoulder or around our neck to hold on and I love the sight of his little hand on Chris's shoulder. His little body is such a nice weight and shape and feels so good to hold.

Besides laughing and cooing Dash has also added screeches to his repertoire and it cracks us up. He also loves to explore our faces and will get a very serious look and make long "oooooo" sounds as he puts his slobbery hands all over our cheeks, noses, and mouths. Our little scientist.

I'm so excited to see what fun this new month brings.