5 Months Old & Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Joshua decided that this was the week to experiment with not sleeping at night. Turns out it's not such a hot idea. I could have told him that if he had asked, but you know how these kids are...have to find out for themselves. :) Since Joshua wasn't sleeping more than 3 hours at a time, I wasn't sleeping either. By Friday, I was a walking disaster! So Joshua and I had a talk Saturday night and I told him that since daddy's birthday was tomorrow, he had to sleep through the night. And he did! And the angels sang and Ben and Jamie rejoiced! Last night, Joshua was up every 3 hours again. DRAT! Oh well. When it's 3am and I've been up for hours with a baby who refuses to sleep, I remind myself that these days won't last forever. Before we know it, Josh will be far from getting up all hours of the night and instead will be dragging his feet to get out of bed! So Joshua is now 5 months old. He is such a loving little boy. He loves giving kisses (mostly to mommy!) & loves to snuggle. He has a really pleasant personality as well. He smiles and talks to almost anyone and rarely cries. If he's crying, its because he's hungry or wet or wants to cuddle. We are enjoying every minute with him. These are such precious days!

We are still waiting to begin Joshua's therapy. I'm hoping it starts to happen soon. He seems to know that he is "severely delayed" (that's the term they used on the report that they sent us after his evaluation), and is working hard to correct it. He has started to try to roll over, and works hard on it every chance he gets. He's so strong! He hates being on his back and tries to sit up whenever we put him on his back. He is also working hard to use his hands to grab, push & hold toys. It's frustrating as his mother to watch him struggle. I can see what he wants to do and then I have to watch helplessly as he tries again and again and again to work it out. I want to make it easy for him and help him, but I know that he has to figure it out on his own and learn his own way of making things work. When he finally gets it though, I'm the proudest mama ever. :) We have a book called "That's Not My Bear..." that has different bears with different textured body parts. "That's not my bear...it's nose is too rough.", "That's not my bear...his tounge is too scratchy." You get the picture. We read this book often with Joshua and he loves all the textures. The other day as I was reading the book to him, I noticed that I didn't really even have to put his hands on the textures. He knew what to touch! The last page says, "That's my bear! His ears are so fluffy!" and Joshua went right for the ears. The second time we read it, I took a video of him doing it. You can see how he struggles to get his right hand to where he wants it...that's what we're working to correct.

"That's my bear! His ears are so fluffy!" from Jamie Nodine on Vimeo.

In other news, Ben celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday, Ben!!!! (This is Ben at 6 months old. Does that smile look familiar? :) If you can't quite place it, head down to the end of the post...you'll see what I'm talking about.)

Joshua started the day by signing Ben's birthday card -

and then we went to the Highland Park Diner for breakfast. It was really, really, really good. I had the most delicious strawberry covered waffle, & Ben had Nantucket Benedict (crab cakes, english muffin, poached eggs & hollandaise sauce!). It was definitely worth getting up and out before 9am. We finished the day by taking a walk along the canal in Fairport, followed closely by enjoying some gelato & cake at a cafe. It was a great birthday.

Finally, I want to show you what a difference 3 months makes (as if you didn't already know)! Here is Joshua on Father's Day in June: and here he is yesterday:My, my, my how fast he's growing up!