6 months

Already?! Really?! Get out! At his check-up on Thursday, Elias weighed in at 18 pounds 13 ounces, 28 inches long, with a noggin' measuring 45 centimeters. Let's take a 360 degree tour, shall we?

Legs extended:


Legs released:


Rolling over:


Sitting:


Trying to figure out how he can get that guitar in his mouth:


And back on the floor, tummy side down:


I thought it'd be fun, now that Elias is halfway to the pivotal one-year mark, to do a little then and now comparison. First, in the bath, including his first full dunk at about two weeks old, and sitting on the "infant" side last weekend:


And in the bouncy seat that Elias is quickly outgrowing, at about a month old and at almost six months:


The sixth month of Elias's life has sure been a busy one. Elias celebrated his first Thanksgiving, gave rice cereal a try - kinda blah, frankly - and, by the end of the month, sampled sweet potatoes and bananas - both a hit - started rolling over and sitting up, unassisted, slept, on occasion, sans swaddle, acquired two teeth, and celebrated the holiday season by helping to decorate his first Christmas tree and sitting for a photo with the fat man himself. We parentals even enjoyed a few firsts of our own, including the occasional workout and several feature-length films, sending back our first few Netflix DVDs since the boy's birth.

Sleep continues to be a challenge, but keeping it all in perspective, I still think he's a pretty good sleeper compared to other babies his age. The last few nights he's added back in a night feeding but on a positive note, has fallen back asleep really easily after gulping down an entire bottle. I'd much rather wake up to feed him and put him right back to bed over the handful of more mysterious wake-up calls he'd been giving us the few weeks before. He's been crankier than usual, I think partly because of teething and partly out of frustration that he isn't perhaps as mobile as he'd like to be. I keep reminding him that "frustration is a necessary part of learning" (that's a quote from one of the many baby books I've read over the past six months) but it doesn't seem to help much. And ultimately, I'm not buying into the myth that things get any easier at six months, just like everyone told us they would at six weeks, and then again at three months (what they didn't tell me is that things would fall apart about a month later). Because now that we're at the six month mark, everyone keeps talking about how at one year all of this will be a blur. Nope, we're just going to keep chugging along, rolling with each milestone, setback, and new challenge that lies ahead...