Six Month Blog

I try to start writing my blogs a few days before "the big day" so I'm not spending so much time on the one day typing, but my intro to this blog didn't seem genuine before. My baby wasn't yet six-months-old! I didn't understand the true awe of the situation.

Six months isn't just half a year, it's a milestone! You think of six-month-olds as hitting certain exciting developmental targets (sitting, crawling). He's no longer a little baby, he's a big ol' infant!

So Everett's there, and it's exciting!

He's still our wonderful, loving, easy-going baby, but he's getting to be a lot more fun.

He's getting silly! He's laughing and babbling and rolling and scooting and bouncing.

Even though he's still generally easy-going, constant teething has made life harder for him (and for me). He's a little crankier at times. He has mellow days where he doesn't laugh very much. And sleep is more challenging. Since I wrote last month, he's started waking two, three, four times a night . . . *grumble*

Luckily he wakes, eats, sleeps. It seems that he just wants to nurse a little and cuddle. Only once has he woken after eating with wide eyes like he wanted to stay awake. And even then, I put him in his crib, and he soon fell asleep.

I wrote last month that he'd stopped sucking the pacifier since he decided to use them as chew toys. Well, since he's become crankier before naps (teething?), we started giving them to him again, and they help. If he's really tired, he'll suck, not chew. He has, however, graduated to the 6+ month pacifiers, which are bright! Apparently older infants need neon things to suck on.

Teeth. Well, he has four! He as the lower middle two. Then he has both canines. He's like a little vampire. And just like his daddy!

He's getting very long and heavy. We don't know his measurements, though, since his next doctor visit isn't until the 30th. But he's graduated to the medium size FuzziBunz, and he's in the next size of diaper covers for the prefolds.

I don't want to brag too much, but I think I might be his favorite person right now. He still loves everyone, but he's really understanding that mommy comforts him the most.

Since he's breastfed and growing well, I'm not in a hurry to start feeding him. But he's been interested in our meals, and grasping things (almost pincers, like pincers with the index and middle). So a few times we've given him a little potato, sweet potato, banana, avocado. He mostly plays with it, gets a little in his mouth.

The other night, though, we had an avocado out for him. We had company, so we may not have been paying too much attention to how much we were scooping into his mouth.

It may have been unrelated (although it's hard not to make the correlation), but that night he started vomiting. It happened many times. We kept cleaning him up and changing his PJs until he was sleeping in just a disposable diaper in our bed (so we could keep an eye on him). The next morning his poop smelled like sulfur! So we're staying away from the avocado . . . for now.

Since I stumbled on a topic that would make a 14-year-old Everett blush, I'll just run with it: poop!

Poop has been one of the more interesting topics in our home lately. At about his four month checkup, his poops had started to become less frequent--one a day, one every two days. Then at the end of October, we realized he hadn't pooped in five days! I called the doctor, and the lady who called me back said that they don't tend to worry until the baby reaches the two week mark! Or if the baby is obviously uncomfortable. Everett seemed fine, just a little gassier than usual. And, of course, he pooped just a little bit after the phone call.

Luckily the frequency has improved a little. From five, it went back to every two or three days. Now we're back at once a day, which seems healthy to me.

On to a "cleaner" subject. Hair! He has a lot more hair now. It seems like every day he wakes up and we say, "your hair grew overnight!" It's nice. I try to imagine him with a full, thick head of hair, and how that will change his look. Although he still has some of his long, wispy baby-hairs on his crown. I keep threatening to get out the hair buzzer thing and buzz them off, but Brian doesn't like that idea. "I won't trim his long hair in the front!!"

About two weeks ago, he started babbling a lot. He was saying what sounded like "dada" and "mama" and "Everett"(?!?), but a few days later, the babbling switched to more guttural grunts and such. I guess he's just experimenting with language in his own way.

So motor-skill-wise. He's grasping objects like a pro. Grabs them, holds them, puts them in his mouth, drops them when he wants. He rolls around as he pleases. He's not crawling, but he can scoot to get to most things he wants.

He's getting up on his knees and toes. I think he's very close to crawling. He's also close to sitting, but I'm not sure he's all that interested in doing so. We will sit him up, and he just lunges for the closest toy he sees. I'm actually more excited for sitting than crawling, because I associate sitting with playdates and crawling with baby-proofing. }:

A few big events this month:

Colony Days! It's the parade dedicated to the founding of Atascadero. All the kids soccer teams, church groups, political candidates, etc., get on flatbed trucks and in classic cars and drive down El Camino along with marching bands, cheerleaders, and horses. Brian, Gion, Everett, and I met Rachel, John, Julie, and Andy (and later Ann) by the Rancho T Motel to watch the commotion. It was fun. Everett slept through half the thing, even though fire trucks were turning on their sirens and we were right across the way from the announcers. When he woke up, he got a lot of affection from Andy.

Halloween!! This was the most fun I've had at Halloween in a long time (sorry Kam, your party last year was rockin', but I had to be sober . . . remember?). Kids bring a new type of excitement to the holiday.

Since he was a tiny nugget inside of me, we'd been thinking about what he'd be for Halloween. But they were all jokes. Baby Kim Jong Il, baby Hurley from Lost, etc. So when Brian suggested porcupine, I thought that was a great idea. Funny, but super cute, and comfortable for him (no glasses or wig). It was a bit time consuming to make (and we kept saying, "whose idea was porcupine?!?"), but Brian and I are great at crafting together, and it went a lot faster with two people. We both cut felt, hot glued, painted, and stuffed quills until right before Zoo Boo on Saturday night.

On Saturday, we met Rachel, John, and the kiddos (dressed as Jessie and Woody from Toy Story) at Zoo Boo. My parents also made it there, which was fun. I enjoyed seeing some of the nocturnal animals out (like the porcupine!), and it was a great excuse to get his costume done before the actual day of Halloween.

Sunday (October 31st), we did a little trick or treating with our friends and their kids (Chris and Janna with Ines and Rosalina and Bobby Jo with Taylor) around the neighborhood. Then we went to Barbara and Bruce's for some snacks. They were all watching some baseball game . . . Then we went to Santa Margarita to see Rachel, Julie, and Andy. We did a little trick or treating in their neighborhood, then went to the Santa Margarita Halloween Carnival. It was fun and totally overwhelming. Lots of kids! Brian and I ended that night saying, "why did we start doing the wild kid-Halloween before Everett even cared?" But it was all fun.

During the Halloween weekend (and a bit before and after), my cousin Bob was visiting Atascadero. Bob is my Dad's cousin, they're very close in age, and very close friends. Everett had met Bob when he was much younger, but it was great to get them together again. Bob is awesome with kids, and he made Everett laugh like we'd never seen before. He also helped Everett drum, bang on the tambourine, and do other raucous things.

We were also very lucky to have Gion's sister Gretchen and her husband Mark visit for a few days. Brian and I hadn't seen them in years, so it was special for us as well as for Everett. We had several great meals and a trip to Morro Bay while they were here. It was a nice visit. Everett was especially taken with Mark. We think it's because he likes male voices.

Our most recent event was a short trip up to San Francisco to visit with friends and family. We were basically in the city for 24 hours. On the way up, we stopped in San Jose to have lunch with Kamryn and visit The Morgan Center (Brian's former employer). We got to San Francisco just in time to picnic with Laurel, find our three other friends (Ben, Darby, and Katherine), and enjoy the Post-Impressionist show at the De Young (baby's second museum trip!). That night we went to Darby's for a little Predator viewing, ended up at my cousin Roger's place to spend the night. In the morning we had coffee with Ben and Roger before going to breakfast and lounging in Dolores Park with Laurel, Darby, and Katherine. After a late lunch with Roger, we headed home, and learned the hard way that Everett HATES night driving. But we got him to sleep much of the way, and he even slept well that night! It was a fun trip, if quick.

Guh. I think more blogs a month are in order. {:

Happy six months my love!