6 Months

I can't believe I made it to Andy's half birthday with some of my sanity left. Really, I didn't think this day would ever come. But here it is! And my baby boy is so wonderful and perfect and I am so lucky to have him in my life!

This past month he has been getting stronger. He's finally starting to sit up on his own for short periods of time. I need to stay right next to him though because if I don't, he's bound to lean backwards and hit his head. Like he did last week. Poor guy. He didn't really hurt himself, but I thought I was the worst mother on the planet and was scared he had a concussion and I'd have to take him to the ER. Then I met with another mother whose son just fell off their bed, so I realized I'm not the only person out there who will look away for a split second.

Andy also discovered his feet last week. After some of his feedings, I pull him up to sit on my stomach (we call this time "Sit on Mommy!"). Suddenly last week instead of looking around while trying to get my fingers in his mouth, he stared down at his feet while he moved them around a bit. It was fascinating watching him realize for the first time that he actually controls them. Now he's also doing his best to get those feet in his mouth. Every time he goes on the changing table, he throws them up in the air and does his best to grab at them and pull them closer. He's taken off his socks mostly, although he did get his left one in his mouth a bit once or twice. Mostly he just needs to take a quick break before he gets his foot there. It is very tiring for him, he huffs and puffs while he stretches.

The biggest new change to our daily schedule this month has been the food. Andy's really enjoying most of what we've given him, and now he's up to two jars of food a day. He's had applesauce, pears, peaches, peas, sweet potato, peas, carrots, and green beans. I'm personally excited for the level two stuff like apples and blueberries or apple juice. We've also finally worked a bottle of formula a night into his schedule too. Peter does it as his second to last feeding of the day, and it makes me glad to know that if I was hit by a car, Andy'd be ok.

This past week we've also had a new development-constipation. Well, according to the websites I've read, you must be poop free for 3 days before it's officially constipation, and we haven't had to wait that long. But he is now pooping only once a day, and that one time can be a bit difficult. When people would tell me you can tell when your baby poops after they start on solids, I thought they were crazy. Now I realize that it's impossible to NOT know when they poop. Andy sat there pushing as hard as he could, his face red with strain. I thought he's pop a vein. And then when he did poop, it was the loudest thing. I'm sure our upstairs neighbors heard it. I won't continue about this even though I could for hours, but let me just say it's much more grown up poop now, and that is special to me for some weird reason.

Andy has finally started speaking too. Sure, it's not actual words, but as this is a touchy subject to me because of my genes, I at one point was so concerned about how quiet he was that I called the pediatrician (which I never do because I'm weird like that). But now Andy does more than just whine, he also tries to have conversations with us that combine a lot of vowels with some rasberries and drool. I could listen to it all day long, he has such a cute voice. I tell him that I want to hear what he's thinking, what his dreams are, etc, so I love it when he actually tries to tell me.

I feel like I could stare at him all day long. His cheeks are rosy, his hair spiky, he has the chubbiest thighs ever known to mankind, and he is just so perfect. I can't believe that this is the same person I carried around for 9 months. He is so big, so much more mature, and so much like me. And I just love him more than I can stand. He still stresses me out a bunch (like waking up for the past three nights after not doing so for three months) and is as fussy as ever, but I love him for it. There's so much personality there, I want to see more and more of it. And yet I also want to enjoy this time I have because it won't last long. He's changed so much since he was born, I will never again have a small Andy whom I can hold cradle style in one hand, who will sleep anytime as long as it's on me.