Dash is the happiest baby that I’ve ever seen.

He does have bouts of crying every now and then, and I admit that sometimes we can’t figure out how to console him. We think that he is teething.

But when he is happy (which is most of the time), he is genuinely jubilant.

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Every morning, I wake up to the sound of Dash cooing in his crib. He is usually wide awake and gazing at his dragon mobile when I check on him. Lately, I’ve even found him playing on his belly after putting him to sleep on his back the previous night.

He smiles when he sees me approaching his crib. I pick him up and nuzzle his neck; he is always so warm. Then I carry him back to bed with me to nurse him.

He usually drifts into a delirious sleep when he has finished eating. I let him sleep on my bed while I get ready for work.

The sunlight pours through our bedroom windows in the morning, so the light is perfect for taking pictures. I cherish our quiet and cozy mornings together.

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Dash is over five months old now, and I haven’t found time to write an update for over two months. We were so busy from February to April!

We helped throw a huge surprise party for my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary, and we went to a They Might Be Giants concert for our 4th wedding anniversary. We celebrated my dad’s birthday as well as both of Eric’s parents’ birthdays. We visited our friends in Boston, and we attended PAX East while we were there. We spent Easter weekend at Virginia Beach, and we had a picnic lunch at Mount Trashmore. And we made a boat-load (literally) of sushi for Eric’s birthday.

Take into account getting together with our friends at least once a week, trying to maintain an exercise schedule, and working almost full-time – it’s no surprise that I haven’t had time to assemble a blog post.

But staying busy has been great. Dash still hasn’t slowed us down, and we haven’t had to change our lifestyle to accommodate him. In fact, it feels like we’re getting more done now that we have a baby!

The big thing in month four was when Dash rolled over – from his belly to his back. He can now roll from his back to his belly as well, but I’ll save those details for next month’s update.

For several weeks, he would only roll over his left side. He can now roll in both directions. We think that Dash may be left-handed because in addition to preferring to roll to his left, he favors his left hand when he reaches for toys.

We’re sure that Dash was determined to learn how to roll over because he disliked being on his belly so much. He would get so frustrated when we put him on his stomach! After much practice, he eventually figured out that if he tilted his head toward the ground, the weight of it would give him the momentum he needed to flip the rest of his body over.

Dash has undeniably doubled in size since he was born. He doesn’t feel like a fragile newborn anymore. He has some padding now, and I can toss him around a bit without fearing that I am being too rough. He outgrew all of the 0-3 month clothes before he was three months old, and already several of the 3-6 month clothes are too tight.

It seems like Dash “graduated” from being an infant this month in more ways than just outgrowing clothes. He sleeps in his crib now rather than in his car seat, and he has become too heavy for the bassinet in his Pack ‘n Play. I was also beginning to struggle when carrying him in and out of our house in his car seat. I now leave the car seat in my car, and I carry him in my arms instead.

He’s also too big to take baths for the kitchen sink anymore. We’re giving Dash baths in the tub now. Ever since he was born, he has had an unrelenting rash on his forehead and cheeks that only daily baths and a frequent application of lotion relieves. I think that he likes taking a bath because he kicks his legs to splash the water. He doesn’t like getting water in his nose or mouth, though.

With Dash “graduating” from being a newborn, I find myself increasingly wanting to have another baby. When I learned that one of our friends is pregnant with her second child, I was more jealous than I’ve ever been about anything else! I love all of the new things that Dash can do, but I miss having a brand new baby. He seems like such a big boy to me now. Where did my little baby thing go?!

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A few weeks ago, we took Dash to Maymont for the first time. Maymont is a gorgeous park on an old estate in Richmond, overlooking the James River, and it’s where Eric and I went for an epic walk on the day before Dash was born to try to induce labor.

Eric’s mom and her friend, Dee, came with us. We took our stroller, but we barely used it because everybody wanted a turn carrying Dash.

These trees near the carriage house were bursting with pink blossoms. Several pictures of them went into making my blog’s masthead this month. I’m not sure what kind of tree they are (any ideas? Leave a note in the comments!), but I’d love to have a row of them on each side of the driveway leading to my dream house.

Speaking of dreams, the daffodils under the woods near the petting zoo were especially dreamy. If fairies were real, this is where they would live. It’s hard to believe that this place is in the middle of a city!

Eric – always the one to take care of me when I’m hungry – bought me an ice cream cone to eat while we walked through the park. We shared it, but he let me eat my favorite part – the crunchy bottom of the cone. He’s so good to me.

As we continued through the park, we encountered an obstacle with the stroller. The trail that connects the low-lying Japanese Garden with the elevated Italian Garden is so steep that sections of it are stairs carved out of rock. Eric and I struggled to push Dash up the severe incline. It was quite a bumpy ride for him, and a surprising work-out for us!

I don’t think that Dash minded, though. He was just as happy as he always is.

Here are Eric and I resting on a bench near the black bear exhibit, taking our requisite self-portrait. See those train tracks on the other side of the chain-link fence in the background? When we were in high school, we climbed through a hole in the chain-link fence, trespassed over the train tracks, and went boulder hopping on the James River just on the other side.

I hope we never stop having wild adventures together.

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