Six Months

Where did the time go? Parents always say "they grow so quickly" and I used to just smile and nod and pretend to understand. But now I do get it. I honestly cannot believe that it's already been six months since Jack was born. And I'm constantly trying to figure out how I can simultaneously love the stage he's at now while longing for the days when he was tiny (relatively speaking... he never really was that tiny). When I realized today that it was the 13th - and thus the six month mark - I thought about what Jack's birth was like and how much I was in a daze those first few weeks. In retrospect, it seems like I was just going through the motions, without letting anything really sink in. It made me realize how much I really need to focus on every day (and middle of the night) I have with him because before I know it, he'll be toddling off away from me and on to his next big adventure.

Jack's favorite activity now seems to be playing peek-a-boo with Shergar. He gets such a kick out of her. He also loves taking my face in his hands and giving me a big, wet kiss on my cheek. I say "thank you!" in a really expressive voice and then he just laughs & laughs. He also continues scooting across the floor and I fear crawling is not far off. At playgroup yesterday, he sat, unassisted, for about 5 full minutes. He never does that at home and I think it's because he's constantly trying to see where Shergar is so he leans to the side and falls over. But being eye-to-eye with kids his size seemed to really influence his desire to sit still.

The other thing I absolutely love about this age is that he and I laugh together! Unfortunately, these laughing fits usually come when I should be laying down the law and not rewarding his naughty behavior. But I can't help it! A classic example is nap time, which has become a real battle these last few weeks. Sometimes, when he really works himself up, I will go pick him up and sit in the rocking chair with him. I'll get him calmed down with his head on my shoulder and will just about think he's asleep when he lifts his head and looks right at me. I usually try to close my eyes and just peek out of one of them so he thinks I'm sleeping too. But then he smiles at me -- a huge smile behind his pacifier that makes his eyes crinkle and his whole top of his hair move back. And when he does that, I cannot help but smile back. Frankly, I dare anyone to keep a straight face when he does that to you. So then he sees that I'm smiling so he'll start to laugh. That makes me laugh. And then he laughs harder. You can see where I'm going with this. Generally, this means that the nap is delayed further as all of my frustration goes out the window and I just sit and laugh at my baby. But really, I can't think of a better way to spend my time.

Here are a few pictures of our activities over the last week.

In this one, he and I took a walk to the grocery store and back. The reason this is commemorative is that this is the FIRST walk we've ever taken with him in the stroller where I've made it to the store, done my shopping, and walked back home without him screaming. He didn't fuss at all! Maybe he's growing out of his stroller-hating days (I hope!).
On Saturday, he sat and watched the Liverpool/Chelsea game with Daddy. As you can tell, he's very into it.
I took this picture just because I wanted you to see his crazy hair. This is how it is every day. Now you know why we had to cut it.
And these two pictures are from today's nap. I put him in bed and he didn't do any screaming. That is unheard of with naps. Usually it takes at least 4 tries for me to go in, roll him back over, sing a song, give him the paci, and tell him it's time to sleep. So, after about 10 minutes I peeked in to see if he'd miraculously fallen asleep on his own. He hadn't. He had burrowed himself under the quilt which I just today tossed onto the end of the crib while straightening his room. (Yes, I know the quilt isn't supposed to be in the crib. It has lived on the back of the rocking chair for the last 6 months; today I just draped it up there temporarily and then forgot about it.) He was all smiles when I uncovered him. So much for hoping his eyes would be closed.