A Besetting Vice: Fi Five Fo Fum

Damian's five month "birthday" fell upon our 3 year anniversary; May 25th. That weekend we were fortunate to be able to have Mama T babysit him allowing us to enjoy a nice dinner out on the town. We also realized that pretty much every prior year around this time we took a vacation in the past: Like this one, for example. But alas, with Bubby in our lives now, there would be none of that this year. No matter, we had plenty of other things to attend to.

I'm learning quickly what it means to have a little kid; lots of birthdays for other little kids. Damian couldn't care less about his new friends yet, but he will in time. Especially around, say, the end of January next year. In the meantime he continues to just show up at the various social gatherings we go to and observe the scenes. He continues to be a very observant little boy, preferring to sit and look around (and probably maintain an internal commentary on the fashions and actions of everyone he sees - making his parents proud.)

Early on in his 5th month, Damian seemed to have gotten past his reflux problem. Hoang still stuck to her rigid(ish) diet and we still took some other precautions, but over time we got less and less strict about them. He also began sampling various foods - rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and squash. He did pretty well with the whole concept of eating, I must say.

Over the course of the month he became more and more mobile, learning to roll around a bit more and slither like a sidewinder on his back. He still hates to be placed on his belly, but he's making progress. The biggest step (for us) was that we figured out how make him smile and laugh almost at will. You'll see in the video below that his laugh is a bit odd (and remains so), but that was his first all-out laughing jag, so we're happy to share it with you.

Hoang has adjusted to being back at work and Mama T seems to love watching him all day long. The boy is certainly loved. Speaking of which, we celebrated Father's Day in June which was certainly a new experience for me. (It's weird to suddenly get a holiday in your honor during your 30's.) Both Bubby and Hoang treated me like a King all weekend and it was great to be a father - something that can never be taken away from me now.

The other big event during June was the World Cup. For those of you Damian fans who didn't at least look at the pictures of my World Cup Tour 2006 - you missed some of his best work yet. Like Dutch Damianokker, Iranian Shiek al-Damian, Chief Damianuu of Ghana, and Damiano, the Italian crybaby soccer player, among others. Sure, most of the "Tour" was me and Ed going to various bars and restaurants matching the ethnicity of the games, but it's still some pretty fun reading and viewing. Check it out here.

Anyway, he's such a good baby. He sleeps rather regularly only waking up once in the night to feed (Hoang is still breastfeeding) and generally being a quiet and healthy beautiful little boy. So far, I'm loving every minute of this. Enjoy the photos - as always in chronological order and 'clickable' to enlarge.