Five Months

Our dear friends Brandon and Kelsey Gossett told us when I was pregnant that parenthood exceeds your expectations. You know you’re going to love it and you think you know how awesome it is going to be, but when the time comes, it is better than you could have imagined.

That is completely true.

Being Jonathan’s mom these last five months has been some of the greatest joy I have ever experienced. Watching him grow and change daily is astonishing. Every single day he learns more and is capable of more. Every single day he shows that he is taking in and processing the world around him. Every single day I fall more in love with our son and his budding personality.

At five months old, our son is able to roll over both ways. He’s been able to do belly to back for a while now and is just getting the hang of back to belly. He doesn’t string multiple rolls together yet, but it’s only a matter of time before he goes rolling across the room.  During a diaper change he discovered his feet and now holds them for each new diaper. When on his back, he can often be seen in full mastery of the happy baby yoga pose.

Our son is not a big fan of napping, often falling asleep while nursing and then taking 15-20 minute power naps. On rare occasion he’ll surprise me and take a two-to-three hour nap once a day. Honestly, I don’t mind because he’s been sleeping all night. Yesterday he napped for three-and-a-half hours and, though I was quite productive, I missed snuggling and playing with my boy.

We often start our mornings with some baby gym time or, as of last week, some exersaucer time. We have this one. He loves that he can stand up all by himself in it and I love that he can stand and I have free hands 🙂 It’s been amazing to see how in less than a week he’s gone from just standing in it looking at the toys to grabbing them and manipulating them with those sweet chubby fingers. He can get the dragonfly to his mouth to chew, spin the bee and move the beads along their path. It’s incredible to see him explore his world and take that initiative himself.  Sometimes I’ll stand in the kitchen just out of his sight and watch him with amazement at how smart he is becoming.

We’ve recently started playing a “peek-a-boo” type game that he really enjoys. I’ll put his burp cloth over his head, ask “Where’s Jonathan?” and then pull it off quickly and say “there he is!” He smiles so big each time.  I sing him “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” and he seems to enjoy the melody and my over exaggerated expressions. He also smiles when I say “satisfactual” like he knows it’s not a real word. I’m pretty lucky that he hasn’t realized yet what a horrible singing voice I have.

He’s very good with other people and will happily go to them. So much exposure to his family and our friends is making for a trusting and loving baby. He is fascinated by his little friend Piper (9 months) and you can tell he can’t wait to do everything she can do like crawl, pull up to standing and eat real food. I can’t wait for him to meet his new friend Avagale on Saturday – the first time he’s met a baby smaller than he is!

He still loves his daddy more than anyone on this Earth. They constantly melt my heart in the ways they show love to each other. Jonathan absolutely lights up when his daddy comes home from work and watching their relationship grow makes me so excited to see how Stephen will become Jonathan’s hero as he gets older. Man time is a sacred part of our days around here.

Sometimes it still seems surreal that this sweet little boy is really ours. That God has entrusted us to raise him and shape him into the man he will someday be is a humbling and exciting truth. We’re blessed by the community that we have here with our families being so far away. He now has two uncles in town, which he loves, but he also loves the aunties and uncles who aren’t blood related.

“Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.” – Psalm 127:3 (NLT)

The reward of our patience, of our faith and of our prayers is named Jonathan. And sometimes, the best gifts come wrapped in blankets with tiny multi-colored feet on them.