Happy Half Birthday, Charlie!

  
Happy 6 months to sweet Charlie (as of the 2nd)! It's been half a year and he's grown in so many ways. Here are some words to describe Charlie at 6 months: strong, determined, intense, stubborn, skilled, vocal, easily frustrated, curious, & independent. 

Everything he does is very intentional and focused. He is so strong that it sometimes literally takes me a good 30 seconds to force his hand open when he grabs my hair (or lips) and pulls...hard. He loves being held and paid attention to, and if he's cranky (especially from teething), if you turn your back on him and walk away, he will start bawling. Other times he is perfectly content to simply play in his jumper or exersaucer, or to crawl around on the floor by himself. That's right. He is crawling. He started trying a few weeks ago, and now he is doing it. Maybe it isn't technically crawling since he moves by pulling his entire body forward with his elbows/forearms and an occasional boost from his knees, but I consider it crawling since he is able to cover about 15 feet or so in under a minute. No joke. He lets out little grunts, showing just how hard he is working to pull that 17 lb, 8 oz body across the floor. Uh-oh. More work for Mama. He is very stubborn about crawling as fast as he can towards the power strip/cords from the tv to chew on them. Before you freak out, know that although we haven't completely baby-proofed yet, we watch him closely to make sure he doesn't electrocute himself and redirect him elsewhere (about 10 times before he gets distracted from his power cord idea to chase the cat).

Poor Charlie is still teething. He has been almost all of his ex-utero life, sadly. The only two months he wasn't teething he was dealing with acid reflux/gas from dairy. Someday our little "grumpy" Charlie will be happier...well, more often. Poor little guy has had two teeth since 3 months and has been working on who knows how many more since then. None have shown their face yet...but one of his top teeth is looking particularly eager to come out. Please, soon! Charlie has also sadly been biting Mommy while feeding lately which started around 4 months and has come and gone whenever his teeth are hurting. This is NOT fun. I've tried saying "no" firmly or even yelling "ouch" loudly when he does it (because it DOES hurt that bad), but he thinks it's hilarious. I don't even smile and he thinks it's so funny when I say no with a serious look on my face. Uh-oh, scared for the future. Any tips?

Charlie loves making lots of vocal noises! When he's not crying, he is either laughing, cooing, screaming (happily), or practicing words like, "mama" "baba, and "oh-kay" :) It's fun hearing his sweet noises!

Charlie sits up fairly well, now, though succumbs to the occasional topple every now and then. He thoroughly enjoys being in the standing position (jumper, exersaucer) as wells as the crawling position. This has made him less frustrated in general.

We fed Charlie his first solid food on his 6 month birthday the other day! Our big boy acted like he'd been eating solid food his whole life! He grabbed the spoon himself so tightly I couldn't take it away from him and shoved it in his mouth, eating the avocado in a gulp and biting on the spoon. As soon as the food was swallowed, though, he immediately started crying from impatience. He wanted more! We ended up feeding him half of an avocado! Yikes. He is going to eat us out of house and home! He's also tried banana and liked it equally well. So much fun. Rinsing off cloth diapers post-solid food not so fun. Cue hooking up diaper sprayer.

We are blessed that Charlie has always been a pretty good sleeper. When he's not teething (huh? when has that ever been a reality?) he has slept 12 hours in a row at night. Lately he's been sleeping at least 8 or 9 hours straight before waking around 5-7am. We are thankful. Now if only he'd take more than a 45 minute nap during the day!

Well, that's Charlie at 6 months in a nutshell. Favorite Charlie moments at this age? Hearty laughs out of nowhere, squeezing his oh-so-chunky thighs, and cuddling when he's tired (while holding tightly around my arm like a koala). Looking forward to the next 6 months! What a privilege it is to watch a new life grow...and so quickly!