5 Months Old!

Elliot is 5 months old!

What is our 5 month old up to? Well, he celebrated turning 5 months old by sleeping all the way through the night FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! 7:30 PM - 6:30 AM...it was miraculous. Alas, I think it was mostly due to him having zero nap time during vacation and just being too exhausted to wake up for his usual 4 AM snack break - he has yet to repeat it. But it gives us hope!

He can sit for short periods of time now before toppling over to the side. He still impressively rolls onto his belly any chance he gets (he doesn't care too much about rolling the other way, but he can do it). He still loves his jumper, especially in the time period right before bed. He LOVES watching Henry.

The most impressive/scary thing...Elliot is mobile! It is terrifyingly true - Mr. E can cammando crawl with ease and across the entire room. He has yet to fully get up on hands and knees, but what he does is push with his knees and feet and use his hands to pull him. When he is interested in something he is FAST. This is a bit unfortunate. Usually there is a glorious, although short lived, time where a baby can sit to play with toys but cannot yet crawl and get into trouble. No go for us, I guess. Also... our house is basically a death trap primarily due to the Lego explosion that occurs on a daily basis (it is a LOT harder to baby proof with an older kid, let me tell you). We are going to have to get creative to avoid the numerous choking hazards around here.

Happy 5 month birthday to our little man!

Kindergarten

Henry is only two weeks away from starting Kindergarten! He is very excited and talks about it quite a bit. Yesterday he set up his own classroom:

He is a strict disciplinarian. I was twice sent to the principal's office (once due to my photo taking). His stuffed giraffe had his dad called to pick him up because he was misbehaving. Teacher Henry doesn't mess around!

(I don't know why Elliot didn't get in trouble - he was clearly not paying any attention, as you can see in the pictures above).

And here's Mr. Drools, loving his exersaucer:

Just a few things.....

We invested in a doorway jumper for Elliot, and he thinks it is the best thing since sliced bread:

He doesn't get much height yet, but he loves bouncing and spinning all around.

He has also been spending a lot of time with best bud Ben (Jake's baby brother - the two of them are one week apart). Just hanging out:

Elliot tries REALLY hard to eat Ben sometimes:

And this afternoon they took a joint swing ride together:

Best friends already!

Codzilla

Today we had a special "mom, dad, Henry" afternoon. Henry had been spotting the "codzilla" boat out in the harbor for some time now and had requested a ride on it, so we figured it would be an ideal, non baby activity for him.

After lunch out, we headed over to the boat - Henry met a shark on the way:

Then, we lined up for Codzilla:

Codzilla is basically a high speed boat ride - kind of like a water roller coaster. And you get completely soaked.

Seatbelted in and ready to go:

Once things started speeding up:

Post soaking:

(good thing they have cleaned up Boston's infamous "dirty water"!

Beach Day

The Powells hit the beach today!

Rolly Polly

Well, I was right. All of Elliot's hard work paid off and he is an official roller! Here he is, very pleased with himself, after completing his first official "I got my arms out from under me and everything" roll:

He is now in the stage where he seems unable to stop himself from rolling - you put him down and BOOM, he rolls right over. Oddly, though, he seems to have forgotten how to roll the other way, so when he gets on his belly he becomes stuck. He starts off squealing with excitement, then tries to eat some toys, and then you find him in a face plant, completely exhausted.

I'm sure he will figure it out soon. Until then, we will just keep on flipping him.