Six months!

Six months - May 24, 2014

Half a year already! And what a half-year it's been.

Sam continues to have an incredibly sweet personality. He loves smiling and flirting with people, and has figured out that it is cute to be coy. He'll peek over my shoulder at somebody, wait until they look at him, and then give them a wide smile as he buries his face in my shoulder. Even while he's nursing, he'll look up at me or at Matt, wait until we look back at him, and then smile and bury his face before starting to eat again.

Speaking of eating...the big milestone over the last month is that we started solid foods! Rice cereal and oatmeal, avocados, sweet potatoes, and bananas. He loves eating. Right now, we are only doing dinner, but I imagine that we are also close to adding in breakfast. He sits up in his high chair and bangs the tray until we feed him, and then, we can't shovel it in fast enough. Between bites, he scolds us, and once he sees the spoon, he opens his mouth wide and leans his head forward and looks like a baby bird waiting for food.

Despite all the eating, though, at his six month doctor appointment, while his height and head circumference both continued along their 50th percentile curves, his weight dropped from the 50th percentile to the 10th. Nobody's worried at all. We just all figure that he's gotten so active that he's burning calories like crazy. Current stats: 15 pounds 2 ounces; 26 1/2 inches long; just over 17 inches head circumference.

He rolls both directions, easily, and no longer hates being on his tummy if he is the one who got himself there. When he's lying on his back, he does is "ab workout," as Pastor Chad refers to it. He raises up his legs and his shoulders as if he is doing raised-leg crunches (which are a lot of work, if you're an adult...but apparently not so much if you're a baby?) He is so so close to crawling, but can't figure out what to do with his legs yet. He FINALLY discovered his toes, and will happily lie on the ground and stick his feet up in the air and grab onto them. He even shoves his feet in his mouth every now and again. I mean, he really loves to shove anything and everything in his mouth. His hands, other people's hands, toys, the packaging his toys come in, pacifiers, baby spoons, blankets, paper... He has finally figured out how to use a pacifier consistently, and likes his teething rings (we keep thinking he's teething, and keep finding out we're wrong).

His favorite toys right now are Raffi (the giraffe - on loan from Aunt Bethany), his Oball rattle (still), and his crinkly Winnie the Pooh. But really, he's pretty happy with any toy that you give him if he's in the mood to play.

Sam has also really really found his voice. He has started speaking in his own personal baby-language, stringing together syllables as if he's talking in words and sentences. He makes singing sounds when he wants to sing along with me. He makes scolding sounds when we're not quite doing what he wants us to do. He says "dadadadadada" and "ah-ah-ah-ah" and "la-duh-la-duh-la-duh." He likes hearing what his voice does when he moves his tongue around in his mouth. He has also started laughing. Not giggling. LAUGHING. When he's in a good mood, we can tickle him under his arms or under his chin or on his chest, and he'll laugh out loud.

Sleeping has improved for the most part. He'll go down around 8:30 p.m. and sleep pretty consistently until 3:30 a.m. or so, when we get up for our one overnight feeding. He is inconsistent about sleeping after that feed, though. He doesn't nurse himself to sleep as consistently as he used to. So sometimes, he'll fall asleep after eating, and sometimes he'll fall asleep while eating...but other times, he'll finish eating around 4:00 a.m. and refuse to fall back asleep. Or he'll doze off until about 5:00 a.m. But then there are times when he eats, and then gets sleepy, and I can put him back in his crib where he'll sleep until 7:00 a.m. or later. There's no pattern right now. So I'm grateful for the first long stretch of sleep that he gets, but I haven't quite adjusted for the early mornings. He loves sleeping on his side and his tummy, so even though we put him down on his back, he rolls and scoots and goes on quite an adventure in his crib while he sleeps.

Sam's eyes are still sparkling blue and he is growing a full head of wispy, blonde hair (still with a subtle strawberry sheen to it). He has a wide smile and a nose that crinkles up when he is particularly happy. He loves holding onto my hand and my arms with his little fingers, and he has ten perfect little toes.

It still hits me, many nights as I put him into his crib, just how much of a miracle he reallly is. Sometimes I still get surprised by how much I love him and how blessed we are to have him in our lives.

You are one sweet, loving, happy baby, Sammy. We love you more than you may ever know.

Oh hi there!