Our little pumpkin is 6 months old! It is just amazing that we are already halfway through his first year. We try to slow down and appreciate every moment of him as a baby, but the days go by so fast, and I don’t know where the time goes (time flies when you’re having fun…). However, I do know that our little six month old is just so precious and so loved.
This month Ryan has been busy rolling around. Like his brother before him, he has decided the best mode of getting around is rolling. I have had a few surprising moments this month when I set Ryan somewhere, look away, and look back only to find him in the corner of the room (usually pressed up against a piece of furniture). If he sees a toy (or something even better, like the crinkly bag of wipes), he is off rolling after it.
His other big accomplishment this month is sitting up! He gets more and more stable every day. He can now sit up for about 4 or 5 minutes by himself before toppling over. If he gets too busy or focused on a toy, he loses his balance and falls either forward or back. He absolutely loves being in the sitting position and the last few days, he has protested with cries if I try to lay him down with his toys instead of sitting him up. Because he was getting so good with sitting up, we put him in the big bath with Tyler yesterday for the first time. He was pretty excited to be in there with Tyler – he thought everything Tyler did was so funny. I was worried because Tyler kept splashing around him, but Ryan apparently didn’t seem to mind and ended up having a blast pumping those little legs and splashing his hand up and down.
We started Ryan on rice cereal awhile ago, but he seemed very disinterested in it after a few times so I took a break on solids for awhile. I had a feeling that maybe he was disinterested in the rice cereal because it really doesn’t taste that good so we gave him some homemade sweet potato puree last week, and he just loves it. It seems we have a little boy with a sophisticated palateJ! He has been eating it really well, but more than anything, he just wants to get his hands on the spoon. Those little hands were even busier this month trying to grab and hold everything!! I took him to the grocery store and had him forward facing in the Baby Bjorn, and if I was pushing the card, he insisted on holding it and “pushing” it with me, and if I was getting food off the shelf, I had to be careful because I had a little helper grabbing things off the shelves at his level. He is getting really good at picking up small objects too – I discovered this the other day when he picked up a goldfish cracker off the table and had it heading toward his mouth!
Ryan’s favorite toy by far this month is the Jumperoo. He gets in it and bounces like crazy and flashes us huge smiles. If he’s slightly fussy, we put him in there, and even if he really wants to be grumpy, he can’t help but do a few happy bounces first. He also loves the Exersaucer and will spend quite a bit of time playing with the toys on it. He will play independently in his toys for awhile, but I’ve noticed lately that he has to be able to see me while he’s playing. If I walk away or try to slip into the kitchen to do something, I will hear frantic little fusses from my boy! He also likes me to stand over his crib when he’s falling asleep. He really likes to sleep on his side, but he will turn that little head around every minute or so and make sure I’m still there (I love it!). Fortunately, during the day, Tyler is a good substitute for me, so I can usually set him up near wherever Tyler is playing and can slip out of Ryan’s view to get a few things done.
We have been on quite a journey with Ryan’s sleep these past 6 months. Around 2 months, he had us fooled into thinking he was close to sleeping through the night, but for some reason, he took some major steps back over the past few months. There was even a point where he was waking almost every 2 hours again. I did a lot of reading on babies and schedules and determined that part of the problem was that he was not getting the best naps because he was being carted around to all his big brother’s activities throughout the day and just slept here and there in his carseat. We really worked on getting his daytime sleep more regular and established an early bedtime (he is extremely tired and ready for bed between 6:30-7). These little things seem to have worked, and Ryan is sleeping much better. He wakes up once in the night to nurse and wakes up one more time, but goes quickly back to sleep with us just patting him (we are hoping this second wake up is on its way out!). He still takes pretty short naps, but his brother did the same thing and is now a marathon napper so I’m not too worried. He’ll get it all figured out sooner or later!
We are so lucky to have such a special little boy. He is the sweetest little thing and that tiny little smile from that tiny little mouth has the ability to light up an entire room. I can’t wait to see what Ryan has in store for us for the second half of his first year!
Love,
Shawn & Danielle (proud parents of TWO boys!)
