I've decided that five months old is a really fun stage of babyhood. They are able to grab and inspect toys, sit up, watch what you are doing and interact more than ever before. In William, this has translated into a silliness that makes me laugh all day long. He smiles all the time and breaks out in laughter at the most random moments. He has suddenly become a bit of a daredevil and loves to be tossed in the air, run with me through the house, play airplane on my knees and be bounced repeatedly. He is such a boy, and a high energy one at that. He also LOVES music and dance. He thinks it is the funniest thing in the world to watch me dance (I'm not a great dancer, so maybe he is right!). Oftentimes I can make him giggle by turning the radio on and dancing around. He can't get enough!
Looking in the mirror is another fun pastime. He is forever trying to play with the cute baby he sees there. Overall he is suddenly so much more social, not just with the baby in the mirror, but with other babies and children as well. Where before these individuals were explicitly ignored, now they are a thing of curiosity. I can just see him learning every second he watches other children or Michael and I. He is like a little sponge right now and it certainly makes me more aware of my behavior and what he can be learning from me at any given second.
The two things I am especially aware of lately is how Michael and I interact in front of him, and how much attention I pay to devices instead of him. Babies begin learning about relationships from the beginning and I always want to demonstrate what a loving relationship looks like to him, so that he has a chance to find that for himself one day. I also strive to make him feel that he is more important than either my phone or computer.
It is so tempting to text, talk on the phone, or use the computer while he is happily playing by himself. Not that I never do these things, but I do make a concerted effort to spend his few awake hours either playing with him, reading to him or helping him work on skills like sitting, standing, crawling, etc. Don't get me wrong, I also think it is important that babies learn to play on their own. I believe that this fosters both independence and imagination, but at 5 months old I feel that most of his awake time should be spent in my company rather than playing alone. I try to balance the two as best I can.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I am really enjoying this time
right now, both developmentally and in the sense that its just the two
of us during the day. I can give him my undivided attention and witness
all the rapid changes that he is going through, as they happen. I feel
so lucky to have such an easy, happy baby and as he grows and changes,
he is becoming more of a joy to be around. This is what I imagined when I
thought about becoming a mom. It is this joy and satisfaction that
makes it all worth it.
And now, for your enjoyment, a video capturing his cute little laugh. It reminds me of the J.M. Barrie quote, "When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies." You can't not smile when you hear a baby laugh!
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