6 Months

Nathan had his 6 month check up this morning. We got the green light to start solids (oh joy!) and discussed general milestones.

 Here are some of the highlights:

• He sits up pretty well these days but still needs some hip support. 
• Given our family histories (yup, both sides, lucky kid) of lazy eyes, we'll probably be visiting an optometrist sometime in the next few months for a consultation. He hasn't show any signs that it might be a problem, but she wanted to make sure we caught it early if it is.
• We should start to see some more babbling in the upcoming months. Brian and I can't wait to hear what his voice will sound like.

And of course, here are his stats:
Height: 27.25 inches (50th %)
Weight: 15lb. 15oz. (25th %)
Head: 16.5 inches (25th %) 

We'll be heading back in a month to make sure that his drop in weight and head growth percentiles are just his body finding its new trajectory. I'm betting he'll be long and lean like the boys on both sides!

To celebrate, we decided to try a little baby food. I know that people usually start with rice cereal, but everything I've read makes it seem like that's not really necessary and can be a cause of constipation.  Since Nathan has gone down to a once a week dirty diaper, that seems dangerous. We tried a bite of avocado yesterday and his reaction was about the same as it was for the squash tonight. Ideally, I'm going to try to make most of his food, but I went the easy route today. Not off to a great start.

Cast of characters:

• Adorable baby spoon from Sarah Ormond
• Slightly sleepy almost 6 month old
• Winter squash!

 

Here's how it went -

He wasn't as miserable as the pictures make it seem!

Our little pumpkin

This was an idea that I got from Pinterest. Great in theory, and he actually handled it really well, but let's just say, that this picture taken by our neighbors is by far the happiest he looks in any picture that we got. I'll have to post the others later, they really are pretty funny. We'll be trying it again, but next time the pumpkin will have time to warm up a bit.

Mr. Blue Eyes

Cathy calls Nathan Mr. Blue Eyes. These pretty well capture what his eyes are doing these days.

Mom came over a couple weekends ago to give Brian and I a date night. It was LOVELY. She also did us the favor of taking a few pictures with her fabulous camera.

I recently read this piece written about a woman who is making a concerted effort to get in the pictures more with her children. It boils down to the fact that when kids look at pictures from their childhood they don't see the dark circles under their parents' eyes, they just see their mom and dad. It's certainly true for me. It's a great article, and it made me glad that there are a few photos of me with my boy so far.  

Fall and food

Have I mentioned that I love these boys? I love that when Nathan smiles he turns away like he's gotten shy all of a sudden. Brian's started putting Nathan on his shoulders. I think he's confusing him for a much bigger child, who can sit up on his own...

We haven't started solids yet, but Brian's convinced we should do baby led weaning where the child "explores" foods. He started him with celery the other night. As you can see from his face, it wasn't a big seller, but it was pretty cute to see him playing with it.

We have motion

Quick post before the day starts - our boy can roll from back to belly!

He's rolled from belly to back a few times over the last couple weeks, but this morning was the first time he's done the reverse. I missed it the first time because I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, but he just kept rolling!  I managed to capture roll #4 with my phone for Brian before he got on the plane for CA. Let's hope he's not crawling by the time he gets back on Saturday. Enjoy!

Creative Sleeping

During the past few days Nathan's had periodic crib strikes. He's cried the moment his back touches the mattress, so says Cathy. Instead of pressing the issue, she's tried lying him on the floor. Lights out. Who knew?

How cute is Eva? On the right is what she does when she's smiling for the camera. Mostly it's just squinting her eyes.  Hahaha. 

Nathan went on a bottle strike at the beginning of the week again which meant for multiple night wakings while he made up for his calorie deficit. Mama was tired this week. We moved up to Level 2 nipples and it seems to have helped the situation. Check back with us on Monday.  Eva was trying to convince Nathan to drink his last ounce this afternoon.

Shelves

You all are so sweet. Surely, you can't care what our shelves look like, but you've asked, so I'm happy to oblige. Here they are in all their glory. I'm not sure we're completely content with the result, but they are leaps and bounds better than where we started. As I said to Mom, at least it looks like we tried now. Thanks again to Mom for her help rearranging and rearranging. If anyone great at this kind of thing has any suggestions, we're all ears. 

Key items of sentimentality include my grandfather's chemistry typewriter from college, a photo of my grandmother, Nathan's newborn photos with his hospital hat, a birch log to remind us of the cottage, and a photo from our first trip together. 

I didn't take any before pictures, but you can kind of see where we started here. 

Also, Nathan really loves to play with our hands these days, especially when he's nursing. They are better than any toy.  Melts my heart.

No, he wasn't nursing when this was taken.