Alexander Phillip's Unbirthday!

On September 4th, 2008, Alexander turned 6 months old!!!! I can't believe he is 6 months already...time is absolutley flying by and Henry and I are enjoying almost every moment of being parents. I would be lying if I said EVERY moment was great, but overall, things are good!

It is so fascinating to watch your child develop in front of your eyes. For example: 2 months ago we put Alex in his exersaucer for the first time. He didn't know what to do with it. He kinda just sat there looking at us as if he were in some alien time machine and just wanted out. Now, he has learned how to use each of the toys in the exersaucer and is a pro at rotating himself around so that he can play with each toy. On the exersaucer there are these three spinning noise makers. When we first put Alex in the saucer he didn't know what to do with them. Eventually he figured out that if he hit them, they make noise. Then he found that if he spun the toy, they made noise. He started by spinning one at a time. Eventually he started spinning the toys harder, which made louder sounds...NOW the boy can spin the two outside toys at the same time, stop them in mid spin and then spin the inside toy. It is amazing to watch.

Some other highlights from the past month include:

- Rolling over. He started rolling over from his belly to his back at 4 months. A few weeks later he actually learned how to roll over from his back to his belly. He has only done this twice, but I am sure there is more to come.

- He has started eating more solid foods. He had his first vegetable (sweet potato) and we have moved onto carrots (his absolute favorite so far), peas, avacado (hated it), bananas and applesauce. There are so many foods to introduce to him, I feel like we will continue to be introducing foods when he is 16 years old....

- He is starting to discover and make more sounds. He seems to have a new "noise" every day. He recently started clicking his tounge on the roof of his mouth. The other morning at 6 AM Henry and I were awoken to Alex clicking his tounge in his crib...it was rather annoying, but funny at the same time. He has also started to put these noises together to form more complex "sentences". They don't make any sense, but hey...he obviously has something to say.

- Sitting up. We discovered the other week that Alex can now sit up pretty well unsupported. He can't get himself into a sitting position by himself yet. But if Henry and I put him there, he can actually sit there for a while unsupported. He has started being more stable and can now reach for toys, etc without falling over. The one bad thing is he is still wobbly and most of the time when he falls he falls on his face, which means he ends up on his tummy, which he hates and he refuses to roll over. So Mommy and Daddy have to rescue him.

- The boy has a temper. He gets this from me :)) He is definatley developing a personality. There are certain things he doesn't like, and he will let you know. For example, he hates to have his face wiped after meals. Which is just too bad as he literally has carrots from ear to ear. He has also come home from daycare with carrots on his forehead and on his ear....babies are messy little creatures. He has also started the manipulating crying. If we put him somewhere he doesn't want to be, he will cry..stop look at us to see if we are watching and will start crying again. Ahh..parenthood.

We went to the doctor yesterday for his 6 month well visit. The doctor was very impressed with my little boy. Alex was also very interested in the paper that covered the examining table. He drooled on the paper before the doctor came in..and what started as a little wet spot, turned into a shredding war. Alex ripped the paper to shreds before the doctor came in to examine him. When I tried to divert Alex's attention, he wasn't having that and went back to shredding the paper. The worst part was the shots. He got 4 vaccinations yesterday: one oral and three shots. I dread when the nurse comes in after we are examined. Poor Alex. Alex was smiling and cooing at me before she inserted the first shot. A second after she gave him the first shot his face changed from smiling to full lower lip pout. The second shot = red faced and teary eyed and the third shot = full blown screaming. I tried not to show any reaction because he knows now when we are upset/angry and reacts, but I couldn't help it. I had to pick him up right away and comfort him and hold him and kiss him. I'm allowed, I'm his mother.

Alex officially is weighing in at 14 lbs 3 oz and is 25 inches long! He has been in the 10% percentile for both weight and height the last two visits, so he is a peanut! But a good peanut!

Here are some pictures from this past weekend. Henry's parents hosted an "unbirthday" party for Alex on Sunday. They used to do this for Henry and they want to continue it for Alex.... enjoy!