6 Months Down!

What a tiring couple of weeks!

We've been super busy around your 6 month birthday, and a little bit stressed. There were high highs and really stressful lows, but you took it all in stride with a smile on your face.

That's why you win the 'happiest baby on the block' award, awarded by me.

First, Mommy and Daddy's Air Conditioner decided to die a horrible lingering death two weekends ago and it was over 100 degrees outside...in the shade...at night. So, we spent the night at Mimi and Pops' house on Saturday. You slept in a new crib (which was actually your Daddy's old crib when he was a baby), you slept in a new place and you did super well!

Then, on Monday, after we thought the AC was fixed, it turned out that it wasn't and we spent the night at your Godparents' house. But we had an extra visitor! You finally got to meet "Uncle Sam"-- he might look familiar because, a) he and Daddy were part of an "awesome" rock band in college,


b) one of Mommy and Daddy's closest friends from college

and c) oh yeah, he married us.
So, you finally got to meet Sam, and you guys sure hit it off! He made you laugh a lot, which is only fitting, since he makes me and your Mom laugh a lot too!




He even got you your first Tufts bling. He had his old Tufts Symphony Orchestra t-shirt (which Mommy designed) turned into a onesie for you!

Also, if you couldn't tell, you really developed a lovely relationship with blue puppy. He has quickly climbed the ranks to #1 favorite toy. You love this thing- chewing on it, tossing it around, laughing the second you see it! The real dogs may be getting jealous.

You also have really been kicking the rolling into high gear. You pretty much roll wherever the heck you want to go nowadays. You're cruising around town like you own the place. Of course, you've been rolling for a long time now, but it really seems like you've got the hang of it being used as a tool for mobility. Now you can chase the dogs for real! Just don't treat them like you treat blue puppy...please!

We also got to take your 6 month pictures. Before the shoot, you were in such a lovey mood, that we had to take advantage:


If you'll recall, here's months 3, 4 and 5:
And for Month 6 there were so many great choices...but the winner, without consulting Mommy was:
But, since they were so cute, and I couldn't resist, here were the runners up:



And since the dogs were already up there, we decided to try our luck and see if we could get a family portrait rocking. And the auto-timer, camera-perched-precariously trick actually worked!


You also really seemed to be figuring out that something's happening to Aunt Michelle's belly..and that your soon-to-be friend Brady is in there!

We also discovered that you LOVE piggy back rides! You had your first piggy back ride on Sunday and you laughed and screamed with delight and tried to eat Daddy's hair! I've been giving you at least one piggy back ride a day and you still love it!

You are also getting better and better at sitting up on your own...kind of. You're almost there!

And since your such a big boy now, and since it's cooler outside, your Mommy has finally come around to my point of view that overalls are really cute! See?



You also had your 6 month Doctor's Appointment and we discovered that you are now 16 pounds 3 ounces and 26 3/4 inches tall!

That means that you are, again, tall and skinny! You're taller than 70% of kids your age...but weigh less than 75% of them. So, the doctor gave us the order to feed you as much food as you want-- up to three meals of solid (well, technically it's still liquid, since it's liquified solids) foods a day! You seemed really excited about that!

Oh yeah, you also got to meet Mommy and Daddy's friend Amanda and see their friend Elsie again!

What a big couple of weeks for our big 6 month old boy!



I'm going to go play with you now because you're getting a little fussy sitting in my lap! Maybe I'll give you a piggy back ride!

Long Distance Relationship

I forgot to post this video! Last week on my drive home you and your Mommy talked to me on the phone! Don't worry, I was wearing my hands-free set, to be safe. Well, your Mommy was talking to me...you were trying to eat the phone, which is what it's meant to be anyway.

A lot has happened since this video was taken, I mean a week is a long time in baby-world.

But I figured it's better late than never!

Today you are 6 months old! I can't believe you've only been with us for six months! It seems like a lifetime of learning and experiences have occurred since your birth. But then again, it seems to have gone by so quickly too!

Being 6 months old is definitely something to phone home about...or at least something to lick the phone for!

Laughing, Teething and Everything

These past couple weeks have had a lot of developmental milestones!

You started communicating with us in all new ways including "the whispers." The whispers are super cute and can usually only be heard when changing a diaper, when you're over one of our shoulders and/or when you're super happy. Basically, you're just saying gobbledygook but you're whispering it! I tried to catch a video of this, but you are still a bit camera shy...whenever I start filming you clam up! The whispers are adorable...but would be really creepy if an adult were to do it. But since you're a baby, it's adorable! You whisper to me, to your Mama and to the dogs! I cant even figure out how it would look in type...something like this:

ra ra ra ra ger ga ra gra gaaaa

I'll keep trying to get it on camera, though, since it's so adorable!

But, the other phrase you love to whisper is really easy to type. Recently you pepper your usual dialogues with this gem: "mamamamama..." You don't really know what those words mean yet, but it's super cute to hear you say them!

The best new form of vocal communique that you've recently begun is your squealing/laughing/squeal laugh. I can get you do this quite easily when kissing your belly! You laugh so hard that you almost cry. You grab on to my head and just laugh and grin! I love it! Of course, you've been giggling and laughing for a long time, but this is a new kind of laughter...I want to bottle it and wear it around my neck and keep it with me for any moment that I'm feeling down so I can just pop the cap, hear your laugh and have my mood lifted immediately!

Or these videos will do just fine:

As you can see from these videos, your britches look a little big! That's because you've been growing like a weed and you no longer fit in the "Small" G-diapers. So we had to move you up to medium.

Unfortunately, Mediums look gigantic on you, but a diaper that closes around you is much more functional than one that doesn't!

Speaking of growing, your two bottom teeth are continuing to sprout simultaneously. Last week's efforts to get a picture of them proved difficult since your lips were sealed on that subject.

But this week, after a rousingly successful introduction to bananas, I snapped a picture of the pointy culprits!Yup, those little buggers are the source of pretty much all of your grief in life right now!

Bananas? Yup, I said it! You're officially through the first rotation of veggies that went peas, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas and now you're on to Bananas! They were a big hit! And, we are super thrilled to be using all the awesome bibs we've gotten as presents, including the totally aweomse one your Aunt Rebekka got you!

Now that you're grown up enough to wear pop-culture referencing Bibs, you're definitely starting to grow up before our very eyes.

You're a lot more aware of your toys and interested in them:

And you're rapidly becoming mobile. You have your legs in the right position and are scrunching up and kicking back with all your might. But you're not quite crawling yet. But you're definitely on Crawl Watch 2010.

You're so close! But to be honest, we're not hoping you just start crawling tomorrow. We've got a house to Aidan-proof!

You have even developped this "backwards crawling" technique, in which you wind up pushing yourself further away from the thing you're trying to access. You do not like this option very much at all...but it's good practice for going forwards!

Even though you're not quite crawling forwards yet, you are still moving forwards by leaps and bounds!

The end!

Carrots!

Carrots were a major success!

Five Month Old Fun, Foods and Photos

While we were on the beach you turned 5 months old! And we were so busy doing beachy things, that we didn't have time to do any new developmental milestones and tricks with you.

So the second we got back home to Dallas, we rolled out some new fun, food and photo sessions.

First off, we took your five month picture which, as you can see above, turned out great. There were tons of you smiling, but, unfortunately, you're an animated smiler and all the smiley shots turned out blurry. And you were pretty fidgety, and quite interested in your feet a lot too.




See? So, we had to stick with "Serious 5 month-old." After the photo shoot you were in a super playful mood and we had a fun time playing "Daddy makes me laugh, I will touch his beard and then Eat Daddy's Head." It's a really great game.

Don't worry...I think that my hair gel just makes it LOOK like my hair is thinning.

After the photo session, we were able to let you try a toy that, just a few weeks prior, you were far too small to play in. So I hooked up the door-jam-bouncy-swing thing and let you have at it...and despite a few moments of curious trepidation...
...you really loved it! You struck a pose,
Turned around,
And generally bounced all around!

We even have video evidence of what an incredible bouncer you are!

Your Mom and I were so thrilled that on your first outing you had such a fun time! It also made us wish that they made bouncy door jam swings for adults.

And since you worked up such an appetite working out on the bounce master, you had to have a big meal to top it off and replenish all those burnt calories. So, we gave you your first solid foods!

Keep in mind here that 'solid' foods is a relative term. Your first non breast-milk meal was...drum roll please... RICE CEREAL served in a Breast Milk reduction broth. Otherwise known as "gruel" or "mostly breast milk." But it was definitely thicker than anything you'd ever eaten before...and definitely your first time using a spoon...and you were brilliant at it!







I even set up our new waterproof camera (which turned out to be very useful while feeding a baby) on a tripod and I recorded video of your entire first feeding frenzy!

We had you all nekked for your first feeding, but the good news about you starting on 'solids' is that -well, besides all the developmental and nutritional advancements- we finally get to start using the thousands of bibs you have! So, get your bib on and get ready to eat!

So, after three nights of progressively thicker and thicker rice gruel, you were finally able to switch to something more meaningful...like whirled peas. And, as your bib said, you did give peas a chance! And you loved them too!

After three nights of peas came three nights of SQUASH, which you squished all over your face and in your mouth. Squash was a smashing success too!

Judging by the way you're mimicking us when we eat and by the way you eyeball our motions when we feed ourselves on top of this stellar 9-day first feeding frenzy, I'd have to go ahead and call you a grade A eater!

Eight bibs down and 92 to go!

This week was also super cool because you got to have a special baby sitter! No, it wasn't Mimi or Pops or Grandma (formerly known as Nanneh)...it was your Godmother, Aunt Kari!

Auntie Kari got to stay with you all week and had a super fun time with you. She didn't feel up to writing a guest blog entry because she said she wasn't funny or witty. I told her that your Mom tells me I'm not funny or witty all the time, and I still write and that Mimi and Pops didn't INTEND to be hilarious in their guest post. But, we respect our Godmothers' opinions around these parts and, so, Kari's amazing photographs (and hilarious video) will tell you her deepest insights about the week she spent kindly babysitting you!

Aunt Kari's week also happened to be a very special kind of week as well: it was SHARK WEEK! Aunt Kari let you watch a little bit of shark week in the afternoons and you really seemed to follow a roller coaster ride of emotional reactions to a week all about shark attacks. It's only natural to react this way!

As you can see, you really sank your teeth into Shark week, which is actually perfectly fitting because, I almost forgot to tell you, over the past two weeks (Galveston week and Shark week), you sprouted your very own TEETH!

I haven't been able to snap a picture yet, but, I definitely saw the outlines of little subterranean chompers on your bottom jaw in Galveston while you were particularly upset and screaming bloody murder (don't worry...I calmed you down with a soothing song!)

And then last week your little vampire teeth emerged from their gummy prisons and finally, over last weekend, reared their sharp, pointy little heads.

They are still very tiny, and still causing you a lot of grief and pain (thank modern medicine for teething tablets, gel and orajel), but you've definitely cut two little itty bitty (sharp as hell) teeth and are trying to chew on everything in sight to ease the pain. That's why Toby and Preston are keeping their distance and breast feeding is a sensitive subject!

But with one more tooth almost on its way to the surface, I don't think your teething is taking a break now that Shark Week's over.

In fact, judging by your appetite and the chompers, by the end of the summer we may be dealing with a Jaws all of our own!

Oh yeah, and you got to meet one of me and your mom's very dear friends: Brianne!

We told you that she didn't bite so that you wouldn't be too scared...but we sure couldn't honestly say the same for you!