The root of all evil...

No, no... It's not money like normal people's struggling parents told us when we were young... It's teeth!  I know,  quite the shock... allow me to elaborate.  Ian has began the apparently long and arduous task of sprouting teeth, and it's amazing the amount of difficulty that comes from growing teeth.  And here I thought that sore gums were the major part of it, but was I ever wrong.  So, I suppose the main thing that I wouldn't have guessed is that apparently having teeth makes you shit more.  Since his one little tooth has broke through the gum on his lower jaw, he's been blowing it out his ass like never before.  A couple days ago, he even had his first "big-boy" shit, which evidently means he stops merely staining the back half of his diaper and instead fills it with the Sam's Club size creamy Jif.  And the smell is unexpected as well, like a dead donkey pickled in ammonia.  He's started doing some serious business just in time for us to try and switch to cloth diapers... great!  Also, he has regressed to sleeping for only two hours at a time, which is especially difficult since he now sleeps in his own room, so we have to actually get up.  Anyway, the moral is that he's much more irritable, much less sleepy, and much more efficient at processing what he eats into a aromatic heap of Pampers.  It's enough to make you think that toothless hillbillies are really on to something...

"Today's episode is brought to you by... the number 5"

Ian is 5 months old now...  Seems weird, like only yesterday he would just lay in your arms and stare blankly at you, or anything else making noise, and now he won't stop air-humping the floor when you put him on his tummy.   I'm told this is a natural progression before he figures out his limbs are required to crawl, but I still can't help but laugh when he does it (possibly because "Humpin' Around" by Bobby Brown always seems to pop into my head).  He did make a conscious effort to crawl to his daddy a week ago, and took two full strides to reach me, but I call that a fluke and am still waiting for him to become mobile.  We've just returned from my parents' house in Junction, where Ian was able to have a meet-and-greet with a few aunts and uncles he had not yet met.  It was no surprise to us that everyone seemed to adore him, especially since he pretty much just smiled and laughed for the entire long weekend.  As usual, a trip to his grandma's yielded many spoils, but the most enticing was a "bumbo" seat from a recent yard-sale expedition.  It's pretty cool that he can now pretty much sit up on his own with it, and it also has a little tray from which he received his first meal of rice cereal.  Oh, and does he devour rice cereal like a pro...  I find it particularly amazing watching him and seeing first hand just what kinds of instincts we are born with.  He was able to eat the whole bowl we made him, with a spoon and everything, like he had been doing it for years.  He didn't even slop it out of his mouth very much.  I've seen babies that have been fed with spoons for months that dribble more on the floor than Ian.  He's just like his daddy, I guess, since I don't waste much food either.  Our little boy is growing up fast, and in no time he'll be crawling towards the stairs and jamming cutlery into electrical sockets, and not long after that, I'll make him mow the lawn and get a job.  Ah, the future is bright...