6 months

Sorry it's been so long since my last post- my computer doesn't like to connect to Blogger very often these days. So this one has lots of photos.
Max is now SIX MONTHS OLD!!!!! This is very exciting and I am so glad that we are moving soon so that I will have big safe floors for him to explore and parks to take him to and a cousin and auntie nearby to play with! He weighs 20 pounds even (90th percentile) is 27.5" long (85th%) and his head measures 44.6 cm (75th%). So he's still real big and evenly so. It is getting harder to get these monthly shots because he likes to roll so much now- he is REALLY trying to crawl but it's a lot of coordination to put all together at once- so it's going to be a little while. Max as a 6 month old is happy and smiley, he likes to go to bed by 7 at the latest and he goes down pretty easily for naps and for nighttime. He enjoys his nightly bath and seems to like Jack reading to him as well- at least he quiets down for it generally.

As a 6 month old his personality is really beginning to show. He kindly puts up with his Mama's fashion whims,

Enjoys playing with a spare computer keyboard, (I'm going to cut off the cord, but he was attended the whole time- he likes to bang on the keys too)

He gleefully wrestles with bears,

Is getting more and more insistent when it comes to mealtime, (there is a big difference when your baby is yelling at you from when he is just expressing discomfort or frustration, you can really see the blame in his eyes).

He is apparently quite skilled at stoically avoiding feminine advances, (even from Ava Outlaw, our realtor's adorable daughter!)

So, even though he's getting so big everyday and I can really see him turning into a little boy soon (too soon) he is also still my sweet little baby, he actually curls up with a little teddy bear when he's real tired.
(I didn't intend to take a flash picture while he was sleeping, but he wasn't bothered in the least little bit)

And he still likes to snuggle up with me in wraps or in my arms- he's just starting to really hug and sort of kiss I think and it's like nothing else. Affection from an adorable baby boy of mine and my husband's making that I am lucky enough to spend every day with. Life is good.

And finally, he still pees all over us and himself sometimes (his face!) because even though my well-intentioned mother gave us "pee-pee tee-pees" he rolls around and curls up on the changing table so much that they just fall off and have never been peed on once. They have however become a favorite chewing item......

Solid foods and sleeping snags

I've been making solid food purees for Max this week and find the whole process quite enjoyable. Something about finite tasks with a specific order of operations is soothing and satisfying for me. I discovered this at my first job as a concessionist at a movie theatre when I found myself happy at the prospect of making the hot dogs. Scoff if you must, but I really liked checking the internal temp on all the franks and once they were ready loading them into the soft warm hot dog buns that had been steaming in the drawer and then putting them into their little foil sleeves and folding the edge over neatly. I loved it- and compared to most of the other duties it was positively delightful. But I digress......
So far Max has eaten avocado, butternut squash, and acorn squash. (All organic) and he has seemed to enjoy them all, (next is parsnip!). It's so easy and simple to take a cube or two out of the freezer in the morning and put it in a cup to thaw for his little "meal" later in the morning/afternoon.

He gets really messy, naturally, and makes the most ridiculous faces- you wouldn't believe. He curls his tongue forward into his bottom lip and also does the little deep cup curl with his tongue. He tucks in his bottom lip ALOT while eating and ends up with a little "soul patch" of food pretty much the whole time. Then with his lip tucked under he starts to make chewing motions but combined with a little suction so his lips pop. It's really funny- I never could have predicted all the stuff this kid does.


I shortly thereafter put his little lap table thing across the high chair but before I could he kept bending nearly double to chew on the pommel thing on his chair- getting squash all over it and himself in the process of course. I think he's teething and so he really likes to chew on just about anything right now given half the chance.

Overall the food thing seems to be a success- I know I started food a while back but we took a break because I didn't have anything organic and I kind of wanted to wait until he was closer to six months to really get going. Now he seems really pretty happy about it and reaches for food and spoons all the time- and my water.

In other news, his sleep sessions have been a little squirrely lately. Some days he'll take two one hour naps and then others he'll barely manage two half hour naps before bedtime which then is much earlier. You would think that if a baby normally goes down at 7 and wakes around 5:30 that he would sleep later if he didn't go down until 8 one night but it's not the case.

Sometime between 5 and 6 is pretty much standard for him no matter when he goes down. Usually if he goes down early he just ends up getting more sleep and that's great- but then every now and then he'll go down at 6 and then be up at 4. yuck.

We do our best to keep him up until his usual bedtime, but there's only so much distraction you can manage before he just goes to sleep on you and he'd be miserable the whole time.

And of course, last night he went down like normal around 7 but then he was up and crying at 1:09 this morning! It was such aberrant behavior for him that I figured something must be wrong or off in some way so I went to check on him and ended up nursing him and putting him back to bed. I felt a little like a pushover, but there was something about his cry that "remound" me of the time he woke up with a fever so I thought maybe it was teething discomfort that had woken him. We'll see how tonight goes......

Balloons at dawn

Max pretty regularly wakes up around 5:20 these days. Generally this is the time when I take him to bed with me for his morning meal and sneak in a little nap time for me. But since I found out that there was going to be a balloon launch at dawn on a Saturday I figured it was an opportunity not to be missed. It's an annual event and you can find out more at centraltexasballooning.com. I found out about it from a free calendar of Austin events that my sister got in her Greenling delivery and let me have.
Anywho- we woke up at 5 and got ready before Max was awake- he woke up a little earlier than normal since we were bustling around the house a bit. Then he had a little "snack" and we loaded him up and were on our way! It was very exciting and we got there early enough for a great parking spot and chatted with some other parents of a little one.
As it got brighter outside things happened pretty quickly. The different balloon teams strung their swathes of nylon through the field and the flames started going. I kept thinking someone was going to tell us we would have to go back across the road and get out of the way but everyone seemed cool with people just milling around, watching and taking pictures, it was really neat to be right in the middle of it all.

Max jumped once from the pop of flames but other than that was pretty chill and watched everything. I was glad that we could be so close because it made it easier for him to experience it.

Watching the balloons ripple and blow up was really cool- they seemed so delicate and fragile to be carrying all that weight. This is an annual event and I think it will become one for our little family as well- because free awesomeness along with a learning experience can't be beat.

I'm in love with this photo of Max- it's my new favorite. His little ever-so-slightly-raised eyebrow slays me and really makes the picture in my opinion. I also think that this face makes him look more like Jack than usual. Anywho- a good time was had by all (my parents hauled their cookies out of bed to meet us at the dam) and it definitely warrants a repeat performance. I think getting the kids up at dawn occasionally to see/do something cool is really important.