Love those Socks!

Daniel plays with his socks so much now. Its funny to see him look at his feet and realize that they are a different color. He hasn't started to pull them off, but they often get wet!

Yep, Its Still Happening!

I read that babies stop having reflux issues around 4 months. Daniel's esophagus hasn't gotten that message yet, because it is involved in an hourly baby barf time pretty much every day. We're getting much better at protecting the carpet, his clothes, and our faces!

Watching the Pro

We visited our friends the Dorrs last night so Daniel could play with Taylor and Emmett. Emmett, one month his senior, is crawling. Daniel didn't join Emmett on his adventure, but looked on from his comfy perch in the Dora chair.

Baby's First Report Card

First morning of daycare

Today Daniel went to childcare for the morning while I taught a class at the University. I dropped him off around 7:30 AM and picked him up five hours later. While I was away, he was in good care. We are so blessed to have a friend who runs an in home, family day care and shares our same Christian values. She is quite experienced, having had eleven of her own children who are also 5 months old. (Yes, eleven! So, yeah, she is an expert!).

Here is the written report she gave me:


He was so much fun to play with today! He played with toys in the high chair during breakfast... even helped with a few sound effects while we were quoting our Psalm for the month! :) He got acquainted with Noah, Brock, and Kaleb during playtime, enjoyed listening to Baby Animals and Clifford at story time and laid down so sweetly for his nap at 9:00 AM. What a good boy, you have him on a great schedule! He napped until 10:15, at 4 oz of formula and is playing with a bead toy while the toddlers twirl and dance. It has been a good day!

PAT Visit #2

This week we met with the parent educator, Kim, who is assigned to our family through Parents as Teachers. The last time we met in mid November, she was surprised at Daniel's hand/eye coordination and focus on people and objects. She thought he behaved about a month ahead of normal babies.

This month, I wondered if she would think the same thing. He reaches for and mouths everything! He is also learning to sit up unassisted and is using a wide range of his voice. Kim didn't say the same thing exactly, but she did say he is reaching typical six month milestones. In the back of my mind, I thought Yep! And he's only five months old!

She brought a wipes tub full of little balls. She told me the next thing for him to learn to do is to dump things out of containers to see the relationship between inside and out. He wasn't as interested in dumping the wipes container as in kicking it and pushing it around. I helped him out a bit. He was really surprised to see the balls roll out of the tub! I made a similar one for him for our house, and he still just likes to bat at it, so its a skill we are still practicing.

Kim also brought cloth books. Daniel leaped towards them and started to paw at them. He turned pages and felt the different textures. Kim helped me to remember that tactile books are really important for him right now, which made me pull out some of his board books that have glitter, textures, and flaps. He really loves to touch these books. He sort of hits at them and then strums his fingers over the area of texture.

Babies at this age have less sense of touch in their hands than in their mouths, which is why Daniel brings EVERYTHING up to his mouth. He is really just learning about the world this way. Its interesting for me, because I don't want him to put EVERYTHING in his mouth just to learn. I am supposed to help him touch objects with his fingers and on the back of his hand to help develop this sense.

In November, I requested that she bring handouts about infant nutrition. I wanted to see what the school system recommends, since I get mixed feedback from parenting magazines, books, and websites. She confirmed what Dr. Wheeler recommends - exclusive breast milk until 6 months. If I felt so inclined, I could offer 2 tablespoons of single grain cereal, but really, its not nutritionally necessary to do so. The research says that the extra calories DO NOT help a child to sleep through the night, and it is not recommended that babies go much longer than five hours without nursing, so its okay that he is fed twice at night. I thought it was also interesting that some doctors recommend starting root vegetables first, rather than rice cereal, at 6 months. Our family doesn't have a history of food intolerance or allergies, so this is less of a worry for us.

Our next meeting is on Fat Tuesday in Feburary. We'll be talking about crawling safety and also he gets his first "report card" with developmental milestones and his first homework assignments!

Mirror Play

DHH loves to smile, kiss, lick, and laugh at the baby in the mirror. It is one of the most fun times of his day (and ours, too!).

Sweet, Sweet Baby Boy.

Who took a two hour and fifteen minute nap this morning and only woke us up twice last night. This less fuss phase is really wonderful!

I gave Daniel a taste of rice cereal today.

I was eating breakfast with him in his Bumbo, and he was so interested.  I had to try something! 

 

I fed him three bites on the tip of the spoon, most of which didn't get past the tip of his tongue.  He made a lot of grimaces, but I knew that it was just an unusual taste and texture sensation for him. I gave him the spoon to just play with and put in his mouth. He really likes to hold small objects, so it was perfect!

 

I let him play with the spoon and get really messy, something I didn't think I would do.  I thought I would be more worried about his sticky hands touching everything, but instead I was focused more on enjoying watching him.  I don't think he is ready to really eat the cereal every day or for every meal, but I do think its time for him to practice hand/eye coordination, having different tastes and textures on his tongue, and sitting down with us while we eat.

 

I am excited now to order a high chair for him! I think I will do it now using a gift card we have.  Once the high chair arrives, its probably adios to the Bumbo seat!

This Is your G. Uncle Phil Steele.

He is your paternal grandfather's brother in law. He is married to G. Aunt Ruthie Douglas Steele. They live in O'Fallon, Missouri and he has lived near St. Louis for most of his life. He married into the Douglas family before your Grandpa Douglas was born.

Uncle Phil is retired from a construction company in the city. He enjoys retirement and spends a lot of time with his family. He has always been a kind uncle to your mother.

Ta Da!

Daniel just started making this face after he does something he thinks is pretty wonderful. Then he makes coughing sounds to make sure I have noticed his achievement.

Fabulous Photogenic Little Boy

Photo taken by Aunt Jessica on Thanksgiving Saturday at the Tom Cooley Family Reunion.

Reading Time!

As a life long book lover, I think its so important for Daniel to have book time each day. I know that he is mostly interested in touching the pages and feeling the way his hands move as he turns the page, but I also think that exposure to vocabulary and illustrations is important.

I want him to recognize that books and pictures communicate in ways that are similar to the ways we communicate with our conversations. I want him to recognize basic print concepts so that he will never remember a time in his life before books.

It is one of my greatest wishes that he will become a fabulous author or illustrator. What a dream!

Loves Diaper Change TIme

For the last few months, Daniel has really loved diaper change time. He cooes and grins and babbles. He tries to get us to lean over him, so he can pull our hair and kiss our face. He loves to have kisses on his ears and rib cage. A sure fire way to make him laugh is for Dan to blow raspberries on his belly. I've heard that some kids detest diaper change time, so I am glad that this isn't a traumatic experience for him!

This Is Your Great Aunt Ruthie.

Her whole name is Ruth Amelia Douglas Steele, but we call her Aunt Ruthie. 

She is the fourth oldest Douglas of the ten and your Grandpa Douglas's older sister. She was already an adult and living in St. Louis when your Grandpa David was born. She has three children: Lynn, Phillip Michael, and Kim. She also has four grandsons and two granddaughters. Her youngest granddaughter, Sophia Steele, is two years older than you are.

Aunt Ruthie is retired from being a secretary in public schools, though she sometimes works at the superintendents' office for extra money. She uses this extra money to have fun! She travels around the country and the world. She has been to the Great Wall of China, as well as many other places.

She played softball until she was 50 years old. She is still very active today in her church, with her friends, and about her town. She even baby sits her little granddaughter during some weeks. She recently took her sledding. She is a very active lady!

She always took special care of her nieces and her brother, David. She very kindly opened up her home many times for New Year's Eve parties and family meals. She also visited us in "the country" when she visited her parents.

She came to your baby shower and brought you many lovely presents, including money and little boy clothes. She said she is very happy to see her little brother become a grandpa!

Grandpa Douglas Welcomes You On Christmas Morning.

His was the first lap you sat upon and the first person to make you smile on Christmas Day. He really enjoyed you.

Grandma Becky Reads To You On Christmas Eve.

And you were an excellent listener!

New Toy

This is your first ball! I think its a bit more colorful and silly than any other athletic equipment you might own in the future. You REALLY like this thing!

This is Lucas.

He is your distant cousin.

He lives in Hermann with his mom and dad. We have nick named them The T-Bones.
He is related to you in a confusing way: His grandpa is your grandma's cousin.

Your fathers went to school together and were later college roommates for awhile. We all went to the same college and for awhile, his mom and I lived in the same dormitory.

Lucas is about 9 months older than you, so he has lots of things he could teach you. You have visited him three times so far, and each time he was kind to you.

Mr. Christmas

Your Grandma Becky dubbed you Mr. Christmas when we arrived her door on Christmas Eve. You were wearing this festive outfit. I think the name suits you well, because you are so joyful and sweet.

Tummy Time

He's now five months old and confident while playing on a blanket. However, he does often throw up in this position, so the lovely farm blanket made by Trudy and quilted by GGma Landolt and Gma Haid is quite smellly and damp after a few moments of play.