5 months old!

 Well, as you can see we had a pretty unsuccessful 5 month photoshoot.  This is the first one that I have ever attempted in the evening and, well, lesson learned.  Martin had him dressed up looking like he was ready to out for a job interview in his khakis and collared shirt which I thought was just adorable.  So after we got settled after daycare I whipped out the camera.  The above picture is the best of the few I got before this happened:

 He just wasn't having it, I don't know if he was ashamed to be documented in a soiled polo shirt or what.

 He even took his rage out on our little prop - #5 got chewed.  I didn't get any good ones with the bear for size comparison.

 Then Martin got home and I thought our tides had turned with this goofy little smile.  He does this with his hands all the time.  He looks like he is constantly plotting or up to no good.  He always had them folded in front of him like that.  Weirdo.

 And we were done.

 I guess the evenings will be for candids and I will have to either bust the camera out in the morning before work on his monthly advancements or just know that I will have Evil Mino.  Martin really wants to be sure that Portos and Mino are buds, so we let Mino practice riding him.  Portos doesn't care what the baby does as long as he is somehow touching Martin.  Which is fantastic for us!  Wallace on the other hand. . he loves him (especially his crusty milk toe jam hands) and loves to lick him but quickly starts biting him.  He hasn't made him cry yet or left any marks.

 Since the baby has been at daycare I really have been dominating the feeding at home so poor Martin gets stuck with the pear juice botttles which Mino LOVES (NOT!) but this day daycare had just warmed up his last bottle of milk when I got there (I am so cheap with it that when that happens I refuse to chuck it) and Martin got home early so he got to bond with his little man.

 We are working on sitting up too.  He can for a while but usually ends up with his face near his feet or off to one side.  He was doing pretty well this morning with it though!!

 Daycare sent us this lovely shot of him in his boxcar.  I guess they threw out all of their baby bumbo chairs after some recall so now the babies are allocated to old boxes filled with pillows.  I do believe that Mino prefers that over the fancy little device though.

 And, last but not least, Mino discovered his feet.  I guess mom and dad were trying to get him to do this while we were in Clintonville last weekend (just before the booms started!) but were unsuccessful.  Two days later he got it.  He is going to have abs of steel because he is always lifting his feet up into the air, either a straight leg lift of these reverse crunches. 

The poor guy is giong through a transitional hair phase.  He is loosing even more on the sides and the back and he has this wide patch of three to four inch long hair just on the top.  I hope that stays so we can comb it over his little lump.  He isn't quite ready to be rocking the chrome dome look yet.

Roll out the barrel, or rather, Mino can roll like a barrel

I hope everyone had a fantastic St. Patty's day.  Here in MN/WI it was ridiculously hot outside.  I am talking in the 80s.  In March.  On St. Patty's day.  If this had been two years ago. . .   anyway .  . . Mino went a little wild with the milk this year

 Martin had a long weekend this week, and since I do every weekend we decided to drive to Clintonville to visit Nana and Grandude and force them to babysit for us so we could go out and have some fun.  Mino does pretty well in the car, he gets a little bored but that is about it.  Portos on the other hand has been struggling.  We spoil him (and Wallace) rotten so they do not know where they stand.  Minos car seat took Portos' usual spot behind the passenger seat.  When we go for the weekend we bring Wallace which means there goes the middle spot so the poor pathetic dog is allocated to sitting behind the driver.  Which he makes us know is unacceptable by refusing to lie down thereby getting himself car sick.  The way home we rearranged to make room for him so he would lie down.    

Pathetic dog.  He wiggled his head to where Minos feet are so he was getting kicked in the face for the whole drive.  Just making us pity him.  Anyway, who cares about our dog these days, on to Mino.
We went to visit Mindy while we were home, we managed to miss her every trip we were home since September, so needed to capitalize on her being home and no one being sick.  Her little dolls are almost 4 years and just over two months.

 

 Olivia's personality is just magnetic.   Get it? 

 Well after visiting these girls Mino started working on his lady killer skillz so he is ready to make his moves after he turns 18 and is allowed to date.  Here are a couple of his techniques we have caught him doing. .

"Alright alright alright."  This is his too cool for school pose.

"Why hello there."  Here is looks all innocent reclining in bed, waiting.
He also worked on his cuddling skillz with both humans and animals refining his techniques

And here is is cover photo.

 With all this warmth we have been able to expose his adorable little chubby thigh rolls for all the world to see.  I am pretty excited that we can go outside too, maybe we can cut down on those 5 pounds Portos (AKA Porkchop) packed on since the baby has been born.  See, I am not kidding, this dog is SPOILED.

 

 I saved the last little tidbit for last.  I have no documentation of this as it is still very sporadic, but Mino has finally started rolling!  He has done it two days in a row now, first time on St. Pattys and then again today.  Both times have been out of desperation because we made him do tummy time and he really wanted to be done.  He does this weird fall over onto one arm, flail and cry, then whoosh, he flips over.  Then he laughs.  Just adorable!  Go Mino, we are so proud of you.

How the CME affected us

Well, CME for the non NASA scientist was Coronal Mass Ejection that I was super excited about because we are at an appropriate lattitude to perhaps see Northern Lights. . however the nights where the flares were exceptional we had clouds so we didn't get to see anything.  However, we did have some fluke events that I would like to blame on the solar flares:

 

Portos became part werewolf and went after a bulldog that we always thought he liked because she looked like his lady friend Eloise, but really all the sounds he made when he saw her were because he wanted to eat her.  He ended up with two stitches, a blue cast/wrap and wounded pride because he was the attacker and ended up with the bite.  Mino is wearing his hat and mittens because our furnace went out.  Just in time for the heat wave here in MN.   Seriously, a heat wave in March.  The highs for the next week are about 30 degrees above normal!
With such warm weather we have been taking full advantage and introducing Wee Mino to the out of doors:

 

  He loves going for walks in his stroller, especially now that he can sit in there without the eggshell which means he gets to look around and see his neighborhood.  And this one is rare:

 A big momma and Mino shot.  And if you are wondering why this opening sequence has Mino constantly in hats. . here is why:

His little hair has gone wild!  He has two layers of hair right now, but still nothing on the sides.  Very strange.  As my good friend MacKenzie put it - he inherited my homeless hair.  Luckily, along with the homeless hair comes grease, so that wild do only lasts about 12 hours then it is completely slicked down until his next bath.   
Speaking of slick. . .

 Here is Mino doing his best New England pose.  He just looks like a frat boy in this one, I don't know if it is the appearance of the popped coller, or his steely stare, but he looks like a slick rick here.
 Daycare managed to capture some super cute pictures of him too. .

 You can almost hear him saying "Yeah, this book is waaaay to easy for me, I am Mino, come on."
 And for this weeks like father like son picture:

 The male Felices watching TV.  I know, I know, I try my darndest to not have Mino watch it, but if it is on he seeks it out.  He loves the sounds and colors.  Anyway. . until next time.

Leap Day Laughter.

Mino had his four month checkup this morning. . .he is officially 27 inches tall (.68m) and weighs 17lbs 4 oz (7.825 kilos) and his head is 44 centimeters around.  44 centimeters is nearly half a meter around.  That sounds gargantuan to me.  But I guess he is growing proportionately as he is 95% in height, 83% in weight and 85% in head circumference.  I just can't believe he is so tall.  On the note we got from the doctor it says that infant only car seats are only for babies 26-27 inches tall (I need to read the paperwork on ours. . ) but if that is the case the thing we thought would be good for him for one year is now too small!!!  Oh and we don't have a helmet yet. . .doc said that while his head is still askew we still have two months where we can get him to fix it on his own, if not he gets referred to the head shape guru at 6 months.  Anyway, that is mainly for bookkeeping for me.
On Leap Day - no we did not see Leap Day William (30 Rock anyone?) we did capture something else that is nearly as elusive. . .a Mino Chuckle!

Again, I applogize that this is sideweays.  I still haven't learned which way is up when I am filming things from my phone. . .it always rotates when I hold it to be the right way, but once things are on my computer they are all askew.

Anyhow, Mino went on a roadtrip down to LaCrosse, WI a couple weeks ago to meet his little homeslices Finn and Connor Davis.  They were 3 weeks old and adorable little peanuts.  Mino on the other hand is very large and in charge.  I brought my camera but for some reason didn't take a single picture of them together so I had to do some work but managed to come up with a really accurate representation of them all together.  I am not kidding, this is them to scale. . .

It was great to see Levi and Holly and Sarah and Nik and really weird that we were all holding babies and meeting up midday for lunch rather than it being a Friday night and drinks. .
The next weekend Mino went out to his first restaurant for dinner.  Martin and I had been holding off, we didn't want to be "those" people out to eat with a screaming child ruining dinner for everyone but with Granddude and Nana in town we thought maybe we could try and have an escape vehicle if things got too ugly, but he was fantastic!  Aside from breast milk and pear juice, he may try some other new beverages in the near future ;)

 Yeah, most of these photos are from the same day, I usually have a variety but not so much this time.  Like I said Granddude and Nana were here (Granddude changed his name from Grandpa after
a two week trip with a bunch of guys to the Bahamas - and personally - I think it fits a bit better. . .)

I particularly like the last picture in the above series.  Since Mino started painting last week he has really taken off with his artistic talent.  Now he likes to analyze the photos I take to make sure the composition is within his realm of standards.

 I just like the above picture because it looks like he is evil and plotting. . I know it is blurry but it may capture his future personality very well.  (If he becomes an evil businessman or something)
To help get his head to the appropriate shape the doc said "tummy time, tummy time tummy time, and when you think he has had enough. . . .MORE tummy time."  Photographic evidence that we were doing this before.  I love it when he lifts his head waay up because it looks like he is nearly a crawler.  Not even close though, the guy hasn't even rolled over yet.

 And because he is making so many funny faces now, I had to post this one.  I think that he is working out his face muscles because he just contorts his face all day and comes up with some doozies. . .

 He and Portos had a good week together.  My favorite time of day is walking in the door with him after I got him from daycare.  I have him in his eggshell, my purse with my lunch and loupes and water bottle inside, his bag from daycare, my pump bag. . .in other words a ton of crap.  I set him down and go put all the bags in a different spot.  Portos gets up from his little chair, runs over and sniffs Minos face and gives him a kiss.  It is so sweet, and it is every night.  They love each other now, that is until Mino figures out he can make Portos squeak by pulling his tail or ears.

 

Now for the travel news. . . first and foremost, Abuela is coming!  March 25th she gets her little part American grandchild all to herself for a week or two!  And we got our tickets to go to Argentina.  I am already fearing an overnight flight with him on our laps. . but he sleeps really well and with a little benadryl will sleep like an angel. ;)