Today Edward is five months old. He has lots of new tricks, but his favorite is jamming his hands in his mouth as far as they can go, sometimes to the point of gagging himself. He loves the taste/texture of his own hands and will happily suck and slurp away for, well, not hours given his attention span, but many minutes. He also is grabbing things like toys and parental hands/fingers or whatever happens to come within arm's reach. If he can manage, he will work to get these things in his mouth as well. A couple of times he's gotten so slobbery that I've actually checked for teeth, but nothing yet.

He still stops smiling the second he sees the camera so those who want to witness this heart-melting phenomenon will have to visit in person. He also giggles sometimes.

Now he's eating one new food each week by spoon. This week was green beans. Who knows what culinary treat awaits next week. We've gotten into a pretty good pattern where he'll eat either right before or right after John and I have dinner. He stays in his high chair while we eat so he can see what we're doing and join in the conversation. He doesn't really know about waiting for his turn to speak though. He just has so much to say and it's all so exciting he just can't wait. It's fun to think up responses that make it seem like he actually said something we understood.

He sleeps well--usually making it from about 8 p.m. to about 6 a.m. These are not iron-clad though, as he sometimes decides around 2 a.m. that a little snack will be just the thing to get him through the rest of the night. It doesn't take long and then we're both back to bed within 20-30 minutes. He also has a tendency to fall asleep in the car, no matter how short the trip--even just the 10 minutes it takes to get home from daycare. When this happens I usually just leave him in his seat to sleep, rather than waking him up to transfer to the crib.

These OshKosh overalls got rave reviews at school today. Yesterday's shorts romper was also a hit until it did not provide enough of a barrier when he decided to poop for the first time since Sunday. His poor teacher picked him up to snuggle without realizing what he'd been up to. Luckily she had a spare pair of jeans in her car. Ed, of course, always has spare clothes there for just such an event as this one.

Poop and all, it's been a great five months, and we can't wait for what lies ahead.