Six Months Old Today

Oliver is six months old today. It's hard to believe it's been half a year! We can see him changing from a baby to a little boy already. He's eating solid food twice a day. We still get a kick out of seeing when the food has made it's full "journey" (I'm sure that will get old soon).

We're using the Baby Bjorn (front carrier) less and favoring the backpack. It's just more comfortable as he gets bigger. I can't see him when he's behind me, but I can hear when he's having a good time, and he hangs onto my hair and ears when he's really excited.

Developmentally, he's getting much better at manipulating things with his hands. He'll take his pacifier out of his mouth and play with it for a while before popping it back in. He's more and more interested in turning the pages of books at reading time. And of course we're still wrestling for spoon control during dinner; when he has something small in his hand, his instinct it to wave it around and bang it against things. Sometimes he loses his grip and stuff (like a spoonful of pureed carrots) goes flying.

His babbling includes more varied consonant sounds and lots of little squeaks. He's always experimenting. He's always easy to make giggle. For some reason, the sounds "meow meow" and "woof woof" really crack him up. A couple nights ago we read "Old McDonald Had a Farm" and when we got to Old McDonald's dog and the "woof woof here and a woof woof there" part, he just looked up at me and started laughing.

He's wiggling around in our arms now, using his front arms for support. He can sit up for long periods of time without toppling over. He's still the youngest boy in his daycare class and the bigger babies are all crawling now, so during time on the big mat, they play "all pile on Oliver," but he doesn't seem to mind. Daycare has been going very well for him. He likes the caretakers there and interacts with the other babies. The downside is that we're in the typical daycare cycle of colds and stuff. We'll have a healthy week, then a sick week. Oliver brings these bugs home and gives them to me and Jenny. He seems to handle them better than we do. I'm still trying to shake off the last cold. We just keep reminding ourselves of all that valuable immunity he's building up!

Oliver's First Bite

Oliver had his first solid food this last weekend. Mashed bananas! He really seems to like eating. We've been letting him play with a baby spoon recently (see earlier post) which has proved both good and bad. The good is that he's used to having the spoon in his mouth and adding some food to it was the next natural step. The bad was that he's also used to controlling the spoon himself, so now that his parents are trying to line up the choo-choo train for the tunnel, he reaches out to do it himself. He gets his chubby little hand around the spoon and stuffs it in his face. We also moved on to rice cereal, which he also enjoys. We're beginning to understand how a few spoonfuls can end up everywhere - in his hair, in his ears, on his feet, on the wall, all over our clothes. Fun stuff! -Keith

Spoonman

We have a booster seat now and we're planning to introduce a little solid food to Oliver in a couple weeks. For now, we set him at the table with us as we eat. He gets to play with his spoon.

The pets can't resist a soft place to lay down on a rainy day. They usually stay just out of reach of his groping hands. But his reach is getting longer and he's managed to grab them a couple times. Fortunately, they don't seem to mind.

Camerawork by Oliver

This video might make you dizzy.

Oliver was talking to himself in the mirror so I grabbed our little digital camera and started making an up-close video. While it was recording, he grabbed the camera out of my hand and started waving it around and chewing on it.