Joseph's 5th Month of Life...

has come and past. All you faithful doters of Joseph (i.e., readers of this blog) have checked this page without any satisfaction for over a month. And that little boy is so changed! Here are the highlights:

• Joseph celebrated his first Advent and Christmas. We spent Christmas in Fort Worth and I was so glad the family got to know him a bit more. It was strange celebrating our first Christmas with a child - we forgot to think of getting him a gift! We wouldn't have gone crazy anyway, but what a shame that it didn't even cross our minds! We did end up getting him several books, though, including The Children's Book of Virtues.
• He is nearly sitting without any help! You just can't help but giggle when you see him sitting erect, look to his right, and slowly lean in that direction as he heads to the floor - without any apparent awareness of it all.
• We *believe* he is teething. My sweet little 12-hour night sleeper is no more; I can bank on a night waking at least every other night. Now, this has been going on for some time (at least 2 months), but in the last 2 weeks it is different. He wakes very fussy and has trouble going back to sleep (usually 45 min to an hour). He's a fountain of saliva and will occasionally turn his bubble machine on toboot. He pulls at his ear (common, they say, because babies don't know where it hurts). He has a sputtering cough (because of extra saliva?). And he'll bruise your finger if you leave it in his mouth for too long. Pray for Joseph's discomfort!
• We're working on teaching Joseph some new things. Like how to sit in church quietly. Our sweet boy has such a calm disposition that he already had a head-start on this. I practice with him at home and have "listening time" on my lap, at the same time the sermon would be on Sunday. I play a sermon or lecture or something while he sits. I time how long he can do this calmly (we're up to 15 min.). Then, when he's on the verge of fussiness, I give him a toy (he has a Sunday toy that is only used at church, to keep him more interested when it really matters) and see how much longer he'll play quietly with his toy (10 min.), and when I see signs of discontent, I end it and say "You did so well at listening time, Joseph! Mama's so proud!". At church, when this happens, I change positions a lot more and will end up standing at the back. He's getting better each week! He went for 30 minutes at church last Sunday sitting happily on my lap!!
• We're also trying to teach Joseph to lay his head on our shoulder when we tell him. It's very cute to see how he reacts. I'm trying to teach him this because sometimes at church he gets tired and won't go to sleep even though he's desperate (where's my bed?!?!?!). So, at home we practice when he's tired. We say "lay your head on my shoulder" and then pause to give him a chance to respond (rare), then put his head down for him. As soon as he raises his head, we repeat ourselves and do it all over again. And again. And again. And again. Until he gives up and leaves his head down. I only expect him to leave it down maybe 15 seconds to consider it a success. I have no idea what's going on in his brain. But I know he can learn. Just today I was practicing and the first time I asked him to lay his head down, he did and it stayed put. Good for him! And this is happening more frequently. I would say 2/5 times he'll do what we say. Babies are amazing. We're trying to teach him this not only because it's a convenient thing for him to learn, but also because we wanted to find something to teach him that would already be paving the way to a much bigger lesson we want him to learn badly: obedience the first time. So, pray for Joseph's little heart. God is already molding him, softening his heart and preparing him to be a faithful son of God. We pray that God continues in His faithfulness toward Joseph!
• We've dropped feeding him eggs for now. I've never smelled anything so raunchy as Joseph's passing gas after eating eggs. It was gross. He wasn't digesting them very well, and after a few incidents, Aaron pulled the plug for a while. So, we've moved on to avocado. He loves it! And he digests it very well. I'm just trying to figure out how often to feed him. Every day? Whenever I want? Does it matter? Any ideas?
• Joseph is still perfecting the art of being a proficient left- and right-handed thumbsucker.

I'm sure there are more, but here are the pics: Joseph's life in December. They start around early December - can you see him change in one month?

Although he looks like a reclining baby model, he really just happened to fall over while playing with Ostrich.

He looks so different to me! Just one month ago...

Sleepy Joseph...

Sleeping Joseph.

The week before Christmas, Joseph finally wore his first pair of shoes. We took them off before we left, though, because he kept removing them himself.

While in Fort Worth, Joseph tried some whole-milk, creamy yogurt. I couldn't figure out what he thought.

Meme was very happy to see him. :)

I spy a baby avoiding his nap - all week long.

Once we were back in Norman, we continued the holiday by celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. Here we are opening presents. (He loves being with Daddy, huh?) :)

And these two were taken today. When I see this I think, "Hello?". :) Look at him sitting up! He still needs to prop himself up (or be propped up), but it's amazing how quickly a baby can learn to do this.

Still has his Daddy's big, beautiful, blue eyes -despite suggestions that they are turning green. ;)

Joseph is sleeping, so Mama is going to take the opportunity to read some of Emma and plan her garden. Happy Epiphany!