Tanner @ 5 months

Another month down! Where does the time go? I cant believe I have an almost 6-month-old. What?! This month:
•more mobile. Rolls from back to front, and sometimes from front to back. Tries to crawl.
•has started grabbing things! Has very good hand-eye coordination. Loves to explore any and everything!
•said his first word. I know you might not believe me, but it's true. In a parrot - like repeating kind of way. Brennen has been trying to get him to say "hello" for about 2 months, and on Sunday he really said it!
•has to touch everything that goes in his mouth, mainly his bottle and pacifier. This makes it difficult sometimes to get him to eat or sleep because he is constantly trying to take things out of his mouth!
•he sleeps through the night! Well, he did. Since he was 2 months old I have had to swaddle him because he is too wiggly and wakes himself up by flailing his arms. For 2 months we have had to employ what we lovingly call the "baby straight jacket" because as he got bigger and stronger, he was able to worm his arms out of the swaddle which defeated the purpose. This way his body weight prevents him from getting his arms out and everybody wakes up happy from a good 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Daddy hates this, so starting tonight we are doing the "tough-love/put-you-down-and-hope-you-fall-asleep" method. Usually I will rock him to sleep, whether for naps or to put him down for the night, and then swaddle him. Now he just goes down and is responsible for putting himself to sleep. Now, you should know that his crying doesn't usually bother me other than getting annoying, so it's really no problem for me to let him cry for a minute  (also keep in mind that this kid doesn't know how to just cry, but screams. Always.) And I'm the only one getting up with him, of course. So I am currently writing this at 3:30 am, and he has been "putting himself to sleep" for 2 hours. We will be taking lots of naps today.
•loves his rice cereal! And is getting really good at eating it!
•has developed a sense of "stranger danger." We are working on this. neither me nor my siblings ever had the "stranger danger" phase of our infancy, and that made it super easy for our mom to get rid of us, haha. She set us in nursery and we made a beeline for the toys and never looked back.
•still loves bathtime
•loves watching himself in the mirror
•likes to watch basketball with his daddy
•loves to skype his grandmas and grandpas
•wears only 3-6 month clothes (pants are 3 months because he is still skinny)

I have learned a lot about the logistics of being a parent since Tanner has been born. Like, he's really a good baby. Every transition has been pretty smooth, except when I don't pick up on cues like hungry, tired, etc. But I'm still new at the whole thing. :) I love being a mom.