Hello, my darling. It’s very hard to believe, but you are six months old now. It makes me sad to think that my leave with you is half over, but you are turning into such a wonderful little boy that I’m looking forward to the next six months so much.
You are really observant! You watch us eat and drink with great interest. You watch our facial expressions. You watch the cat. Do you ever watch the cat... it’s only a matter of time before you make a grab for that tail! You have these beautiful brown eyes that follow what we’re doing. So we’re trying to set a good example.
You have the sweetest smile and the best laugh. In fact, you have several laughs. You have a little chortle, an out loud cackle and a delighted squawk. You love to blow spit bubbles and you make new sounds every day. At one point your Daddy and I were listening to you chatter away to yourself over the monitor and you made a noise that sounded like, “Whoa.” We wondered what you’d discovered!
You’ve discovered your toes, that’s for sure. We’ve been trying to get you to learn to sit up by yourself, but you tend to flop forward in an effort to explore your toes. You can lift your feet up and grab them with your hands. And I don’t think it will be long before you finally get that foot into your mouth.
Because everything goes in your mouth these days. You started drooling at three months and haven’t stopped since, but the drool has reached a whole new level lately. You are definitely teething, and I really hope those chompers get here soon because it’s hard to watch you when your gums hurt. We even took you to the doctor at one point to make sure you didn’t have an ear infection. We’ve been laying on the Tylenol lately, but I think it disagrees with your tummy, so we’re trying to only use it when we have to. In the meantime, you’ve been spending lots of quality time with Wrench and Flower (your teething toys that stay in the fridge when you aren’t using them). Your gums have gotten much harder the last few days - hopefully the end is in sight.
You also haven’t been sleeping as well. The days of five and six hour stretches are gone, and instead we do four hours at a time if we’re lucky. Also, you don’t tend to nap as well during the day, either. But you got over one big block to your sleeping - the fact that you now prefer to sleep on your side and tummy. It was initially a problem because you’d roll over onto your tummy and wake up in distress. But we ramped up the tummy time in a big way and now you are quite comfortable on your belly. So when you wake up, it isn’t a big deal! We’re really proud of you for making that leap. There were a few very rough nights while you figured that out.
Your fine motor skills are improving, too. You can push the buttons on your exersaucer, you are much better at picking things up and bringing them to your mouth, and you have made grabs for Daddy’s beard and Mommy’s glasses and hair. You also enjoy hanging onto Granny’s watch, which shows you have good taste. Granny’s friend Flo got your a wonderful play mat with lots of things to grab and tug, and you enjoy it very much. You can often be found with an object in each hand, chatting away happily.
It’s been a busy month for you, my little social butterfly. You met your Auntie Marsha and Uncle Gavin, you attended Granny’s retirement party and spent more time with Tia Reiko, Tio Rodrigo and your cousin Isabel, you met your Great Grandmother Phyllis, and you got to hang out with Reg and Joan. We even had a lovely little visit from Grandma, Grandma Anne and your Aunt Heather. Daddy had a week’s vacation this month, and we made the most of it. We spent Grandma’s birthday at the Agriculture Museum where you saw the cows, sheep, pigs and horses. We celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary with you with a picnic at Rideau Hall. But it doesn’t have to be a special occasion for us to have fun together - at one point the three of us stood out on the front stoop and watched the rain fall, and that was as special a time as any other.
You still love your bath, and have figured out how to kick and make the water splash. We’ve visited the neighbourhood wading pool a couple of times, too. You’ve made some great strides toward crawling, as well. At first you could only go backwards (and that was very frustrating for you, since you’d work so hard only to watch your toys get further and further away!), but you’re learning to inch forwards on your belly like an inchworm now.
We got you your big boy car seat, which means that you have had to get used to being taken out of it and strapped back into it much more often. It also means we use the big stroller all the time now, which you enjoy because you can look forward at things. You enjoy sitting on my hip in your sling, and still like to sit in the Baby Bjorn as long as you can face forward.
You’ve started solid food and done really well. We’ve fed you rice cereal, oat cereal, mixed grains with fruit, and you’ve tried and liked sweet potatoes and green beans. Peaches were a bit of a bust, though. I think you found them too tart. But you’re getting the hang of spoon feeding, and I look forward to that time with you in the early evening when we see what new food you’re going to try that day!
You are a really handsome boy with beautiful eyes and an awesome smile. One of our favourite times is when you’ve just woken up - you’re smiley, cuddly and relaxed, and you love to be held on our shoulder and drape yourself in our arms. I also love watching you when you’ve fallen asleep in my lap... you have these sudden little smiles in your sleep that make me smile, too.
You bring us indescribable joy every day, Moe. I can’t begin to explain how much we love you and how happy we are to share our life with you. Thank you for six fantastic months. I can’t wait to see what next month brings.
