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!