Six Months Old

Wow, you're a half year old today! You're growing up way too fast, that's all there is to it. You are so sweet, so smiley, and full of personality these days. It's been a whirlwind six months and we've loved watching you grow and change everyday.

Here are your stats from your recent six month checkup:

     Weight: 15 lbs 8 ounces (43rd percentile)

     Length: 26.5 inches (64th percentile)

     Head Circumference: 17 inches (71st percentile)

And here's what you've been up to recently...

Schedule/Sleeping: You love structure (just like your mama) and you're a creature of habit with a clockwork schedule. Sometimes I try to throw you off just to see how you will react (probably not a great idea) but you somehow always find your way back to schedule on your own. And if I'm late for a feeding, you are sure to let me know right away. You sleep about 10-11 hours a night waking consistently around 6:30 or 7:00 am. You take a two hour morning nap without fail and usually an hour and a half afternoon nap, but you've just recently started fighting the entire afternoon nap as teething continues to worsen (which can make for an awfully fun evening). I asked the doctor if you were sleeping too much, and she said babies thrive on routine and do most of their healthy growing while sleeping, so that's good!

Feeding: We recently introduced solid foods and you seem to be a good eater which is wonderful. We started rice cereal a few weeks ago, and that didn't agree with your digestive system, so we switched to oatmeal cereal, which you love. We've spent the past couple weeks trying out some different vegetables and I'm enjoying making your baby food and exploring your taste preferences. It's really fun! So far, you've tried avocado (a favorite), sweet potato (even more of a favorite), squash (it's ok), and peas (not your favorite). Next we tried bananas and peaches and they're sweet so it doesn't appear we'll have many problems with fruits. You still love your bottles the best, that's for sure. You take 5 feedings/bottles a day (around 7:00 am, 11:00 am, 2:30 pm, 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm). Your reflux is continuing to improve, especially as you continue to master sitting up on your own. Hopefully we'll be able to throw out the Zantac and Prevacid soon.

Development: Your strength is increasing as you've learned to stand up with support and sit up on your own (with the occasional backwards thrust or forward face plant). You love sitting up playing with your toys and showing off your new sit up skills. You're vocalizing your thoughts and feelings more often and babbling up a storm. You started reciprocal babbling where you respond to our noises by making your own sounds, which are absolutely precious. We could listen to you for hours. You can put together some sounds and frequently repeat "ya-ya" and "da-da," although you don't know the meaning yet. When you're not talking, everything, and I mean everything, goes to your mouth. If you could fit your whole foot in your mouth, you would. Your ability to grasp objects is more developed, and you're able to pick up, lift, shake, push, pull, squeeze, and toss just about anything in sight. Your favorites are paper, plastic and glasses/bottles. You like to hold them on your own and chew on them so we have to watch your every move when you're at the dinner table with us! You giggle and laugh now, especially when we play peekaboo or or when we kiss or blow on your belly. It's so much fun to watch. You are still at the age where strangers don't scare you and you don't seem to mind when we pass you off to someone or leave the room, which is great for now. Most importantly, you have a beautiful smile and you spend a majority of your day smiling at anything and anyone you see. It's absolutely priceless and we hope it never ends...