Five months old

My little big man turned a whopping five months old this past week, yet every time I see him smile at me, it’s hard to remember what my life was like without him. He already has my heart completely and totally wrapped around his little chubby fingers. I mean, look at that face! I think it’s safe to say he’s going to make many other hearts skip a few beats before he’s done.

So while it’s already confirmed that Luke is the most beautiful baby boy I’ve ever seen, he’s also the biggest. We had his four month check-up right before we left for the farm and his then-updated stats were 18 pounds, 12 ½ ounces in weight, and 26 ½ inches long, putting him the 99th-percentile for both weight and height. Just like Taylor has always been. It appears that Chris and I produce giant children. What can I say... It’s a talent.

His head measurement, however, was completely off the charts. And when Dr Childers brought up the growth-graph and it was that far above the norm, he got a bit concerned and started feeling his fontanel cautiously and checking his eyes, which, of course, got me super-duper alarmed. And then he looked at me and said, So. Is there a history of big head’s in either your and your husband’s families? And I was like, Well, I think I’ve got kind of a big head. I mean, my hats always leave marks on my forehead. And then he let me know of a condition called Hydrocephalus, which is also knows as water-on-the-brain, where an infant’s head might swell because there is an abnormal amount of cerebral fluid in their brain. And when he was explaining this, all I heard was, Hey. Something’s wrong with your kid’s brain. And, obviously, my reaction was to freak out.

But then he told me the symptoms of Hydrocephalus, which were constant irritability, excessive vomiting and eyes that gaze downwards. And I was all, Um. No, no and no. That’s not Luke at all. And because my son is so giggly, bouncy and just totally on track developmentally, and even though we don’t have giant heads in our gene-pool, Dr Childers said we didn’t even need to do an ultrasound to determine that he is more than likely totally perfect and just has a big melon. Yep, my son has a huge, handsome head full of super-smart brains. And we’re just going to be stretching out his sweatshirts from here on out to fit over it.

And even with that big noggin, he has really started to rock tummy-time this past month, using his super-human neck muscles to lift his gaze up to the world while laying on his stomach. He has turned into such a roly-poly little baby, and whenever you put him down on the carpet upstairs, he coos and shrieks with excitement, rolling over to show off his upward dog pose and then rolling back over and grabbing his feet and trying his hardest to put them in his mouth.

Oh yes, EVERYTHING, goes straight to his mouth these days. And he constantly always soaked in his own drool. And I blame those two itty-bitty bottom front teeth for all of it, as even though they still haven’t popped all the way through, they catch absolutely everything that he manages to cram inside his mouth: His teething-toys, his sister’s artwork, my boobs. Nothing is exempt. Luckily he’s so freaking cute, otherwise it’d be easy to get mad that everything’s tender or covered in spit.

We have also graduated from the bouncy chair to the exersaucer, as we had to put those rock-hard monster thighs to use. He just bounces and bounces and bounces, and drools and drools and drools, and smiles and smiles and smiles.

And, more than once, I’ve had to remind his big sister to STOP SPINNING YOUR BROTHER! But it’s really hard to reprimand her for it, because every time she gets near him, he beams from ear-to-ear and squeals in delight. He just adores her.

And that brotherly-love is something I’m constantly reminding Taylor of when he slobbers all over her stuff and grabs for her hair. Honey, Luke is just a BABY. He doesn’t know any better. And then I turn to my son and whisper, Hey buddy, I don’t know how much longer I can keep covering for you with that excuse. Especially when you're smiling that big while pulling her hair.

He is also becoming super vocal, always cooing and screeching and singing like a bird every time his big, blue eyes catch a glimpse of something he fancies. Whenever I need to set him down in a safe, secure place – read: Away from his sister’s reach - to do a chore or take a shower, I put him in his crib and turn on the mobile. And you can hear him all over the house, shrieking at the tiny, moving objects. I’m almost positive he tries to talk them down from above to get into his mouth. He’s going to be like his father – A constant negotiator.

We’re not sleeping through the night yet, as he is still getting up once to eat. And even though Taylor was totally sleeping straight through at this point, I can’t complain that much because he goes down easily at 7.30 or 8, wakes up around 3 or 4, and then goes back down until 8 or 9 the next morning. That’s good sleeping, for both baby and Mama. We were worried that with him and Taylor now sharing a room we would be up constantly, and while there have been a handful of nights that we have been awake at all hours, for the most part they are cohabitating very well. Thank you, Universe! I am starting to forgive you for abandoning me in the Atlanta airport with two kids.

So here we are, just a few weeks away from Luke’s half-year birthday, and while it pains me how fast the past months have flown by, just watching how much his charming little personality has started to poke through recently makes me so excited to watch him grow and see what kind of person he will become. He is such a precious gift to me, Chris and Taylor, and our family dynamic has improved a hundred-time over since he joined us. And knowing that it’s only going to get better from here makes it easier to watch as my teeny-tiny son grows up before our eyes.