Half a year

Goodness.  It seems that if I didn't do these monthly posts I might just never post.

It was a really, really good month with this little guy.  This month he gave us a few sleep-through-the-nights, including last night (3 days past the 6 month mark).  So really, once that's taken care of, what else is there? He puts himself to sleep on a regular basis.  When he wakes up in the morning, MJ will often crawl in his crib and play with him for a while. The sounds of them giggling warm my heart (and allow me a little more sleep).

He now rolls both ways on a regular basis.  In the past week, he has started to get up on all fours and rock back and forth, as though he's trying to figure out how to move his leg and crawl.  He has started to get places; not very fast or very far, but places.  Also in the past week or two, he is sitting pretty well.  Still needs a pillow around him because he falls over on occasion, but it never bothers him or frustrates him.  Instead, once he finds himself laying on the floor he seems to see that as his opportunity to practice crawling.

This past weekend, I got to spend more solo time with my baby than I have ever before had.  My Grandmother passed away, so Teddy and I went back to Oregon for the funeral.  Although it was a sad occasion, it was wonderful to spend some one-on-one time with my little man.  And it was freaking easy!  How did I ever think babies are hard?  (Though, to be fair, he's not crawling yet, which makes a huge difference).

I remember. when MJ was this age, getting tons of comments on how cute she was and what a sweet baby she was.  I haven't gotten that with either Greta or Teddy, and last weekend showed me why.  Because I'm always wrangling other kids, too, and no one wants to interfere with that!  Teddy got boat loads of comments this weekend, because he was the only baby in my arms!  Furthermore, we got to play with cousin Kessa, 5 months older than Teddy, which was absurdly adorable.

Although I love my girls and missed them, it was a bit hard to come home.  After the ease and relaxation of dealing with just one immobile baby, it was tough to transition back to craziness.  The first day back was really hard, but after a few days I got back in the groove.

But back to Teddy boy.  This is such a sweet, wonderful age, and I love soaking up the chunky thighs and full-body guffaws.  This boy has been practicing taking steps since about 4 months, and is dead set on learning to crawl, so I know it will be craziness soon enough.  Sooner, I suspect, than either of the girls.

Greta continues to be a threat to him.   Although I had previously thought we were past the abuse-of-brother stage, we seem to be back in it this past month.  She will just walk up and slap him out of the blue, or grab his face as hard as she can.  It is always worst when she is tired or frustrated, but there's no guarantee she won't do it at other times.  I'm truly stumped how to make this better.  I keep hoping time will do the trick, but every time he gets hurt I feel just awful that I haven't figured out how to make it stop.

He continues to chew on anything he can get in his mouth and soaks his clothing in drool.  Lots of teething happening, though who knows when we'll actually see a tooth.

I love this little guy fully and completely, and often feel bad that he gets so much less Mama time than his sister's had.  Then I see them coo and fuss over him, tickle him and do silly things to get him to laugh, and I realize that whatever he lacks in Mama time he makes up for in sister time.  He has been born into a crazy house full of life and love, I guess what could be better than that?

Mama