Bonnie & Clyve: Emmett at 5 Months

***Emmett is now 7 months old, but apparently it takes me two months to add pictures to a post. I want to remember him at every age, so I'm still posting!***

Emmett at 5 months old is way more fun than Emmett at 4 months old. He’s learning all these new tricks like rolling up onto his side and grabbing toys and eating them. He is the vainest boy in the world—loves looking at himself in the mirror. In his defense, I would stare and smile at myself all day if I were that cute. He doesn’t really move around yet, so we can still leave him on the floor to play and we don’t have to worry about him getting into things. He sucks on his hands all the time. Mostly his thumb and pointer finger. I’m really hoping he’ll be a thumb sucker, but we have him in a sleep sack (the zippadee zip) that is not really conducive to thumb sucking, so that may never happen. So now he just sucks on his little cloth covered hands and gets his sack completely filthy. There is the weirdest smell that comes from the hands in his sleep. It smells like yogurt and bad breath. Which makes sense

Yes, I am a weirdo and want my child to suck his thumb. I know it’s hard to break. I personally sucked my thumb until I was 10 and I never needed braces. I did need a retainer though. 2 of my sisters sucked their thumbs for quite a long time too, and they didn’t need any sort of teeth straightening. Billy didn’t need braces, but also didn’t suck his thumb. So, honestly, I think a lot of it is genetics. Billy thinks I want him to suck his thumb just because I did. And honestly, it would make me a little proud and would give me something to have in common with him. But the real reason is so that he can soothe himself. He takes a binky, but he sucks so hard that it always pops out and he gets super mad, so I don’t even try anymore. I’d just be spending all my time putting it back in. If he sucked his thumb, he’d have total control over that. I have very strong opinions about the thumb sucking apparently.

I also really loved when Emmett was 3 months old. This was when he started to get more social and smiley and wiggly and showing more personality. The age that I really didn’t care for was 4 months. He got a whole bunch of opinions and then he was always frustrated when he didn’t get what he wanted. And we couldn’t always tell what he wanted so he was a pretty fussy baby. We also were traveling a lot, so most of it was probably our fault. He went on multiple nursing strikes and then started only napping for 30 minutes at a time. And so I was stressed out of my mind trying to pump and keep him happy when he was so tired but just wouldn’t sleep during the day. We finally fixed the nursing strike in the parking lot of Ernie’s sports deli in Orem. I just sat in Billy’s parent’s truck while he was at lunch with friends and let him scream until he decided he would take the boob. Usually I would have mixed up some formula for him real quick to get him to stop crying, but I was so fed up that I was not backing down. I had been researching exclusively pumping and asking friends about what they did, because it was getting so ridiculous. But we finally figured out that he wasn’t liking when my boobs weren’t full. Billy said he didn’t really blame him for that. So, I started only feeding one side at a time and stopped pumping so much and he hasn’t rejected the boob since. Now that he nurses again, I’m a way more laid back parent. And he’s a way more laid back baby. Although he still refuses to nurse under a cover. Which I can’t really blame him for either. So, Chicago will be seeing a lot more of my boobs from now on.

We flew to Virginia for Thanksgiving with my family. Billy could only come Wednesday night through Sunday night, and I found super cheap tickets if I came Monday-Monday, so I went for a whole week. But that also meant that I flew with Emmett by myself. For the first time. It was a miserable experience. And I even had low expectations going into it. I had it timed perfectly so that Emmett would be hungry during take off. I'm terrified of his ears hurting him, so I wanted to make sure he was eating during take off and landing so his ears could pop. We got on the plane and sat there for an hour and a half. They kept saying it would be 15 more minutes, 15 more minutes, until finally they said we could leave the airplane if we needed to stretch our legs. But they didn't know when we would need to get back on, so I just had to stay on with a baby who was super hungry. I ended up just feeding him and then fed him some more when we took off. But I ran out of pumped breastmilk and this was during his nursing strike. He slept for 30 minutes and then got hungry again. So, I mixed up some formula. The problem was that it was a new hypoallergenic formula to help with his reflux and he decided that he couldn't stand the taste of it. Which made him even more mad. I can't really blame him, the stuff smelled awful. So he was hungry and cranky for the last half hour of the flight. And the people around me were not helpful at all. I feel like I always hear those reassuring stories about people being so helpful with babies on flights. That was not my experience at all. People suck. The guy next to me was so annoyed and just ignored us the whole flight. Which was better than getting mad at us I guess. But I'm seriously still scarred from that experience. The flight home was a lot better, but it's easy to improve on. I vowed to never fly alone with Emmett again.

Thanksgiving was so wonderful though. Emmett had already met my parents and sisters when they came to visit, but he finally got to meet his cousins and uncles. His cousins were so sweet with him. The little ones kept wanting to go wake him up. They would watch him on the baby monitor and see him move a little bit and say "He's awake! Let's go get him!" I think he was a little overwhelmed by all the love and all the noise, but he got used to it by the end of the trip. His cousin Sawyer was especially sweet with him and came up to tell me "I really like Emmett a lot. Do you think he likes me?" I assured him that Emmett absolutely adores him. It was our first Griffith Thanksgiving in a long time, because when my parents lived in Utah, they would usually come over to the Strongs with us since there were only two of them. My sisters are all amazing cooks (I'm seriously the only one who can't cook) and it was the best meal I've had in a long long time. That's probably partly because Emmett slept through the whole meal. I swear he likes to wake up or start crying as soon as I sit down to eat. Babies have a sixth sense about these things. But he gave me a break on Thanksgiving.

Emmett slept so well at my parents' house. I was fully expecting to just borrow one of my sister's pack 'n plays for the trip, but my parents just went ahead and bought a crib for him. And he slept like an angel in it. I think he was pretty pumped about all the extra room. And how quiet the countryside was. I was loving how spread out everything is. Usually I find it annoying how far away my parents live from everything. It's at least 20 minutes to get anywhere. But, with Emmett, it was great because I could just plan on him falling asleep in the car. In Chicago, everywhere we need to go is within a 10 minute drive, and so he doesn't have enough time to fall asleep in the car. Unless he is beyond exhausted. So, I was really loving that factor. I could get used to living in the country with a baby!

We went to Utah during Billy’s Christmas break and it was so much fun. The last time we were in Utah was before we moved in February, which was the longest time we had both been away (except for Billy’s mission). Emmett’s cousin Teagan is one month older than him and it was so fun to try and get them to play together (still not quite there yet. He just stared at her.) It was so funny to see them together and see their different personalities. Teagan is super social, and I always thought Emmett was too because he will just smile at strangers. But he was a lot more reserved while we were in Utah and I think it may have been from shyness. It’s probably too early to tell, but it was so cute to see. He just stares at people. He doesn’t have stranger danger yet, but he definitely doesn’t babble or wiggle as much when there’s a lot going on. So I’m thinking we have a little introvert on our hands. When we got back to our apartment in Chicago, he immediately started being his old chatty, squirmy self.

It was also fun to see all the skills that Teagan has that Emmett will (hopefully) start learning soon too. But she’s already crawling and he still hasn’t rolled onto his stomach yet, so they may be a little more than a month apart developmentally. He also was 4 weeks early, so his skills could totally be delayed. Although, our pediatrician asks us at every appointment, “Are you SURE he was 4 weeks early? You’re certain of the due date?” To which we respond with a picture of the day they transferred little Emmett the embryo into my uterus. The doctor says he is on track, if not ahead, of a lot of babies his age. And he’s way ahead of other babies who were born at 36 weeks. We think it’s because he was frozen for 20 months. Probably makes him like a superhero or something. But then if some things are happening slower, we aren’t worried because we have that preemie excuse to fall back on. Plus, I’m not worried anyway because I have enough nieces and nephews to know that all babies are different and do things on their own time.

He hasn’t rolled from his back to his front yet, which I think is mainly because he doesn’t like being on his tummy. Or at least that’s the excuse his over-obsessed mom is giving him. He’ll get so close and then bail out and get back to his back. And if we ever put him on his stomach, he immediately rolls onto his back. His head is also in the 98^th percentile, so that’s another excuse we give him for being lazy. I used to get annoyed with Billy’s mom for thinking that her sons could do no wrong. But now, I totally get it. Anything he does and any way that he does it is perfect to me. I don’t think he’ll be crawling anytime soon. Or even sitting up on his own.

Emmett has started SPAZZING out in the tub. Like, just splashes himself and everyone in a 5 foot vicinity nonstop. It's so much fun to see. He "swims" on his back from the head of our tub down to the foot where the drain is. And then I push him back up and he does it again. It's kind of like a reverse backstroke. He also loves to shriek and scream. He'll be laughing and then it turns into a very high-pitched shriek, and I am never sure if it means he's happy or not. He loves making any kind of noise he can, so I think we're gonna have a chatty little boy.

While we were in Utah, we had friends and family over to Billy’s parents’ rental home for Emmett’s baby blessing. Billy gave him a perfect blessing. Emmett giggled all the way through. He loves being bounced up and down, so I’m sure he thought the men rocking him was a ride or something. Billy asked me what my hopes for Emmett were before the blessing so he could try and add them in. My biggest fear about having a son is that he wouldn’t be respectful towards women. I always imagined myself being a really good mom to girls and teaching them that they could do anything they wanted—screw gender roles! So, when I found out I was having a boy, I wasn’t sure how I could best help him, since our society is already set up in favor of men. But then I realized that while we need women who feel empowered enough to break the glass ceiling, we also need men who treat women the way they should be treated—as equals. I asked Billy to bless Emmett that he would have a deep respect for women. But I know I don’t really need to worry when he has Billy for a dad. And when he sees my side of the family where the women outnumber the men and pretty much run the show. Billy nailed the blessing, and Emmett was a little trooper. It made me so happy to be around our friends and family and have Emmett meet so many people that are so important to us.

He also got a cold for the first time in Utah. Babies with stuffy noses are so sad to me. I just wanted to teach him how to blow his nose! We would suck out his snot with the Frida (best invention ever) and he would get so pissed that he would be crying and make even more snot. His skin got super dry in Utah too. We thought he had eczema, but we just needed to find a better lotion for him. It turns out that the Johnson’s baby soap and lotion that I thought was good for every baby is the worst lotion out there. Or so my pediatrician says. We finally found some good Aveeno baby eczema lotion and that has really helped his skin.

We started giving him solid food at around 5 months to try and help with his reflux. We only give it to him at dinner, so it’s more for fun than anything. He loves everything we’ve given him except peas. And he doesn’t love my peanut butter concoction I give him. I’ve been melting peanut butter and mixing it into rice cereal so that he can have exposure to nuts and not develop an allergy. And he’s not a huge fan (what weirdo doesn’t like peanut butter?), but I keep giving it to him anyway because I really don’t want him to have an allergy. Oh, he also hated greek yogurt. I have the funniest video of him gagging it down. And he kept spitting it up for the next few hours, so I’m pretty sure his milk protein allergy is still alive and well.

I know these updates are only entertaining for me and for Billy. I swear my brain is shot, so if I don’t write these things down, I’ll never remember them. Thanks for not complaining that Emmett hijacked my blog! He has basically hijacked my life. And I love it.