Arlo is five months old today--what a big kid! Here he is posing for his 21-week picture last Sunday.

He just gets more and more entertaining and fun to be around every week. He can be grumpy at times (teething, I assume), but for the most part he's a happy baby. His new thing this week is sticking his hand in his mouth and then seeing what kind of noises he can make. It makes us laugh :)

Arlo had a great visit with his Nana and Papa Baer this past weekend. It was so nice having them here--they played with Arlo and made us dinner (Alan's burritos!) and even had a little time to explore Portland on their own. I meant to get a picture of my mom holding Arlo now that he doesn't cry all the time, but I forgot. Oh well!

My mom has been hard at work knitting sweaters for Arlo. I figured maybe she'd have made one, but she made four! One is a little tight, one fits just right, and two still have room to grow. I love the redwood burl buttons on the garter stitch sweater--they're from my grandma's stash.

My mom also brought along a sock monkey that my grandma made for Arlo. My grandma was frustrated with it because it didn't turn out looking like a normal sock monkey, but it has grown on us. Arlo loves sucking on its head, and Patches also seems kind of interested in it.

I've been doing a little knitting too. We decided to dress Arlo as a Frenchman for Halloween (inspired by his striped onesie), so I made him a little red beret, and we picked up a mini baguette at Little T. We dressed him up for New Parents' group on Tuesday, and we're planning on doing a quick encore for a neighborhood Halloween parade tomorrow.

Arlo was really going to town on the end of the baguette at the party on Tuesday. I don't know why we bother buying any teething toys for him; he much prefers food items so far. I feel vaguely guilty for letting him put bread in his mouth at such a tender age, but it's probably no big deal.

We've been doing a decent amount of cooking lately, but it's mostly repeat recipes, which don't seem worth mentioning here. I made a nice fall meal while my mom and Alan were here--pasta with bolognese sauce, kale salad (using feta cheese instead of ricotta salata), and acorn squash puree. For dessert, we had the French Yogurt Cake from Baking. Ah, the luxury of baking while somebody else watches your baby!