Hi friends, I hope you’ve been having a great week. I’ve been on a little hiatus from posting – I’m sure you’ve noticed, right? 😉 It’s been an insanely busy week at work and between that, caring for Dane, spending time with Case and taking care of myself, I’ve basically been surviving on coffee and red wine. It’s a good lesson in balance though – life gets so busy and sometimes you need to pick and choose what to dedicate your time to. I’m hoping for some good juju and that life will get a little more slow in the coming weeks. August is a great month for us because we don’t have TOO much going on, and get to enjoy the dog days of summer mostly at home. Luckily today is my Friday, and I’m really looking forward to a long weekend just sticking around lake country. We may hit up the state fair on Saturday (if the temperature breaks…I can’t handle this 90+ degree heat and humidity). Casey and I have been eating super clean and exercising a ton so it’d be fun to indulge in a few deep fried items our WI State fair is known for. A few I’m swooning for:
- Deep Fried Olives on a Stick (I die for green olives)
- Jumbo Corn Dog (because duh, this fair staple is a must have)
- Pickle Fries (YUM)
- Cheesecake on a Stick (wayyyy too many calories, but who’s counting at this point?
- And obviously shaved ice is on the menu especially with the heat wave we’re having!
Okay, onto the cute stuff! Dane is 5 months old today! All I can say is what? How did that happen so fast? I think so far, his fifth month has been where we’ve seen the most change in him. We’ve turned a page in the sleep department, which is major improvement for our little guy who has a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out for those who don’t know). He’s sleeping approximately 11 hours each night – and typically takes three short cat naps during the day. The big breakthrough happened when he figured out he liked sleeping on his tummy. Let me stop you before you say “but babies aren’t suppose to sleep on their tummies!” I know, I know… but a lot of US slept on our stomachs, and turned out just fine. I’ve done extensive research and talked to a lot of other mamas out there with tummy sleepers. He is old enough and strong enough to roll over from front to back and vice versa, so we are not in any way worried about the way he chooses to sleep. Besides, he basically immediately flips to his side/stomach the second you put him in his crib on his back, and we cannot be constantly flipping him. That would equal a very tired mom + dad combo, and cranky babe. So tummy sleeping it is (and with that comes 11 consecutive hours… praise Jesus!)
He is SO much more expressive, knows who we are and greets us with huge smiles in the morning, when we pick him up from daycare and after naps. Those smiles melt me. He has found his voice too, which is honestly the funniest thing ever. (Check out the video below). He loves to yell and scream as loud as he can and we can’t help but laugh. He is incredibly ticklish, and we can pretty much get him to giggle and squeal anytime we want to. Every night we have naked play time – where we let him be free (we always put down a towel juuuust in case) but this is the best half hour of the day. He loves nothing more, and he is our little exhibitionist. In month 5, we visited my parent’s cottage in Pickerel, WI, we spent time with family and friends in Beaver Dam, and Door County. Dane got his first taste of swimming and did a fantastic job – he loved it until he got a little cold so we 
bundled him up and he was a happy guy. He loves bath time and splashing around. He is starting to sit on his own… better every day, and it won’t be long until he’s crawling because he’s scooting and pulling his knees in during tummy-time, which he is an absolute rock-star at by the way. He chews on absolutely everything and is a total drool monster. I know teeth are coming soon – so we check everyday! He also got his first kiss from the sweetest little girl, Gwen, who is about a month older than him – she was visiting from Austin, TX and just as cute as a button!
Of all the milestones, I think my favorite is how cuddly he has become. He loves to snuggle into your neck and close his eyes… pulls at mama’s heartstrings, that’s for sure. Our little boy is growing so quickly. I’ve loved all the stages, but this one is really incredible – seeing his personality show more than ever before has been so fun.
Enjoy some of my favorite pictures and videos of Dane Jacob – our 5 month old!
Happy, happy weekend to everyone – and thanks for reading! ❤
Staying Martha 