growing by the minute: 6 months

This post is a little late — postponed on Friday, Baby J's real half birthday, due to this. And yesterday we just got caught up in the living and I took a blog break. Without further adieu ...

Half a year. Whoa.

Vital stats: Besides a little pouty face, Jacob made it through his third set of vaccinations and won't see another needle until one year. Yay! At his doctor's appointment, he weighed in at 19 3/4 lbs., and measured 28 1/4 inches. Still growing like crazy, but slowing down a bit in the weight gain department.

Milestones & firsts: This month, Jacob learned to roll from his belly to his back — he's officially on the move! He's starting to realize that rolling back-to-front-to-back in the same direction will take him places. Uh oh.

Jacob had his first tastes of food — starting with rice cereal and then oatmeal cereal. Since then, we've forayed into the world of fruits and veggies with bananas, mangos, sweet potatoes and squash. Daddy-o made some homemade apple sauce for the boy this weekend that we're looking forward to trying out on his little baby taste buds.

We also gave our mohawk man his first haircut. If you missed it, check it out here.

Oh, and he's sitting up totally on his own! Wow, I keep remembering milestones from this month. He's growing so fast!

Teeth: Still none. I'm so surprised, based on the overwhelming symptoms he's been having. He wears a bib almost all the time when he's awake to keep from soaking the fronts of his shirts with drool. Hopefully we'll pass the hurdle of cutting the first one soon, but then there's still a whole mouthful to come.

Speech: He's a talker, alright. Wonder who he gets that from ... anyway. Jacob babbles constantly, most notably saying da-da. Sometimes he says it in Husband's direction, sometimes not. We're still working on word association.

Zzzzzzz: Earlier this month, we started working on sleep training. We're teaching him to go to sleep in his crib, rather than falling asleep while nursing first. It's challenging, but we're already making progress and it will be worth it in the end.

Om nom nom: In addition to his regular diet of breast milk, Jacob is having so much fun experiencing other tastes. To help is teeth, we let him gnaw on peeled carrots and big chunks of apple. He seems to like oatmeal cereal more than the rice cereal, so we're sticking to that for now. I've been working on making my first batches of purees for our freezer, including mango-banana, sweet potato-turnip, squash and homemade apple sauce. He also enjoys regular helpings of prunes to help his digestion.

Likes & dislikes: Jake loves going outside. He's a nosy Ned, so he loves being able to look around and breathe in the fresh air. Lucky for Muma, fun outside also equals great naps.

Jacob is starting to take a lot more interest in our two cats, Scarlett and Ellie. He watches them as they cross the room, and tries to reach out to them when they're sitting nearby. They don't pay much attention to Jacob, but once he's really on the move, they should be afraid, be very afraid.

Since Jacob is now sitting up like a champ, he likes to be left alone to play with his toys. For five or 10 minutes at a time, he'll just play by himself. It's the most adorable thing ever.

Challenges: Figuring out what clothes to dress a baby in is nearly impossible, especially when your son is at or above the 90th percentile in growth. Most of the sleepers he's wearing are 9-month size, several pairs of his pants are for 12-month-olds and, believe it or not, a couple of his T-shirts are marked for a 18-month-old.

How do I put this delicately as to not totally gross out those of you who don't have to deal with dirty diapers on a daily basis? Our other challenge of the month is pooping. Or lack thereof. Thus explaining the daily doses of prunes. His poor little belly.

Special moments: Playing peek-a-boo is a favourite pastime around our house. It's so much fun to put Jacob into fits of giggles. He's super ticklish and will squeal in anticipation when you wiggle your fingers in his direction. Jacob is so snuggly in the mornings and when he wakes up from naps; savouring cuddle time is definitely a priority for our family, since our little dude is growing so fast.