5 months

What a fun month this has been.  Hudson has been growing like a weed, and learning so many new things.  He had his first Christmas, which we were in Hemet for, and has been carted all over LA.

I think the most notable thing for this month is he is SLEEP TRAINED!! Honestly, I wish I would have done this sooner, but it didn't happen and I won't hold a grudge on myself about it.  He was sleeping well at nights, but I was looking for a more consistent nap schedule and a longer stretch of sleep at night (he was at 9-10 hours).  I used several things from the "Baby Whisperer" along with my own instincts, and after 2 weeks, I would say we are definitely there.  He has slept multiple nights 12 hours straight with us ending up waking him in the morning, goes down for naps with zero to a few minutes crying, and eats on a consistent 4 hour schedule.  It was a rough couple days at the beginning, but oh so worth it in the end.

So besides being absolutely adorable every day, what is Hudson doing?

• Napping! One at 9:30 (1-2 hrs), one at 1:00 (2 hrs) and a catnap (45 min) around 5
• Is taking an interest in toys and loves holding rattles.  If he is fussy, a toy with actually calm him down--new this month.  
• Still sucks on his hands, and now loves sucking on his new-found toys.  He has just recently found his thumb, specifically, and enjoys sucking on that as opposed to it always being multiple fingers or his fist. I have completely given up on a pacifier, as I think at this point he will just let it turn into a habit.  I guess I won't have to go throw weaning him from that.  The thumb will be another story though, I'm sure.
• He is wearing jeans!  Not that this is a big accomplishment for him, but for me I feel like jeans make him less of a baby, and more a big boy!  Silly how simple things can do that.
• If we help him out, he can sit for a short period.  He totally has the strength, just working on balance.  If I spread his legs out in a V, he seems to be able to sit longer.  I think he will master this in no time.
• As of last Friday, he rolls both ways.  Out determined little guy apparently got this idea in his head he could roll and spent probably 20 minutes trying to do it.  Once he rolled from his back to stomach, he was satisfied.  He actually hasn't done it since. Too funny. 
• spends time "talking" to himself.  Its usually around noon I can count on a little personal conversation happening with our little man.  
• Not eating solids.  We started him on rice cereal over Christmas break, but when he appeared to be getting constipated (probably because I thickened it up too quickly), we took him off.  With day trips around LA, and sleep training, I decided to wait to get him back on it until he had a more normal routine.  I didn't want to throw too many changes in at once.  My plan is to start back on solids this week.  When he ate them for a few days, he loved it.

Here is a photo overload of our little man. I had been doing a newborn photoshoot during Hudson's nap, and when he woke up, I guess I still had the itch to take photos, and Hudson was the lucky subject.  Perfect timing for his 5 month pics. After taking pictures of the newborn.  I all of the sudden felt like I had a big boy!  I think that's why I had him sitting in these pics. :)

 always with the hands in his mouth

 he definitely got his dad's long eyelashes

I think Hudson was done. Ha.