A Letter to Carter at 6 Months

 

It is so much fun to see your personality revealed a little bit more each month.  You are such a sweet and easy going boy and you are happy pretty much all the time.  I’m so glad I’ve gotten to spend most of this month at home with you for summer break.  We have had such a great time and I cherish every moment I get to hold you and play with you. 

Last month I knew you would get your feet soon and sure enough, you have found them!  You love to grab your feet and play with your toes.  It amazes me that you can put your feet in your mouth.  Talk about flexibility!  When you wake up and you aren’t hungry you very happily lie in your crib and play with your feet.  That’s something that has amazed me this month is your ability to play on your own and entertain yourself.

 

You have really started talking.  You love to just lay and make noise.  You talk to your blanket lovies Buddy the Bear and Big Al the Zebra.  Daddy named Big Al for a 125 year old tortoise we saw at the zoo.  Before you fall asleep you lay and talk to the wall and the monkeys on your mobile.  You aren’t making any sounds yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long.

When you’re on your tummy you like to pull your legs up under you and stick your booty up in the air.  You also push around on your activity gym.  You push with your legs and move yourself all over the mat and even off it onto the floor.

At the beginning of the month you started waking up 3-4 times at night again.  You would eat every time you woke up so I finally realized you must need to eat more solids.  You had only been eating solids once a day.  We started feeding you solids twice a day and now you only wake up once around 3 or 4 most nights.  

Your nap schedule has been a bit mixed up due to daycare, but we are starting to get it figured out.  Most days you wake up at 7 and stay awake until 8 and then take an hour nap.  Then you take another nap around 11 or 12.  Some days its 30 minutes others it’s an hour.  Your last nap of the day isn’t very consistent.  Sometimes you skip it, but it’s usually around 3 or 4.     

It is so cute that you now know I put you in your high chair to eat.  If I don’t have your food already ready and start feeding you right when you get in your high chair, you sure let me know it’s time to eat!  When you see the spoon you open your mouth, lean forward, and move your head side to side like you would when nursing.  It’s so adorable.  For lunch you normally eat rice cereal and for dinner you eat a fruit or vegetable.  So far you’ve had sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, peas, green beans, apples, bananas, avocados, rice cereal, pears, and peaches.  We have yet to find anything you don’t like.

I thought you didn’t like rice cereal for a while because you would fuss toward the end of the bowl.  I realized that you liked the thicker consistency.  After a while the cereal would thin out and become more liquidy.  If I made the rice cereal right as we were getting ready to eat and fed you quickly the cereal never had time to thin out.  Now you really enjoy it.

I started making your baby food and I love it!  We moved to only organic foods which limits where we can buy them.  The stores closest to us only carry organic apples and avocados.  We have been venturing out to Whole Foods for your fruits and vegetables.  I love that even though you aren’t nursing as much I am still getting to make what you eat!

We have lots of things we like to do together during the day.  You love to play in the mirror.  When I sit in front of the mirror to put my make-up on, you sit in my lap.  It takes me so much longer to do my make-up because we play boo with the mirror and sing the whole time.  Playing boo is by far your favorite game.  You also love it when I turn really quickly to look at you and say hey!  You giggle every time!  I lie you down on daddy and my bed while I get dressed in the morning.  You love to lie and look at the ceiling fan.  I’ll put a hand on either side of you to bounce you and you crack up.  You LOVE to bounce!  I like to lean down and kiss all over your cheeks which also gets you to laughing.  You think Harper is hilarious and you love to watch her.  You also love to grab a handful of her tail hair and pull.  Ouch!  But she doesn’t seem to mind too much.

Most nights you sleep on your tummy.  It’s your favorite way to sleep.  I was so worried at first and would go in to move you back onto your side or back, but I’ve stopped and just let you be.  When you are playing you like to alternate between your tummy and your back.  One of your favorite positions is on your tummy with your head lifted up to look around.   When you are soothing yourself to sleep you suck your thumb and you like to hold your blanket.  You either rub your blanket on your face, hold it in the crook of your arm, or suck on it along with your thumb.

You still love your jumperoo.  This month you really started going to town bouncing in it.  The first time you did it we had just gotten home from the zoo and you bounced up and down the whole time you were in it.  I couldn’t stop laughing.  You will bounce until you are exhausted and then you lay your head down on the side of your chair and fuss to let me know it’s time to get out.

We had some firsts this month.  You went to the zoo for the first time.  The animals you enjoyed watching the most were the parrots and hippos.  You also swam in a big pool for the first time.  You LOVED it, kicking around the entire time!  You also created your first finger painting.

You got more shots at your doctor’s appointment and you did awesome!  I held your hands and talked to you the whole time.  You cried when the needle initially went in, but looked at me as I talked to you and stopped crying.  I picked you up when she was finished and snuggled you and that was the end of the tears.  You are such a brave and pain-tolerant boy!  

You are up to 17 pounds, 5 ounces which is the 47^th percentile.  You’ve stayed steady around the 42-47^th percentile in weight since you were 3 months old.  You are now 27.8 inches long which is the 90^th percentile!  I guess that’s why I keep thinking you look really long in your pictures!  Your head circumference is 44 cm which is the 56^th percentile.  Your head has steadily grown, from 5^th percentile to 9^th percentile to 22^nd and now 56^th!  Maybe you will end up with a big head like your daddy!

You are still wearing size 2 diapers, but I think we are really stretching it.  You probably should be in size 3 diapers.  We just have quite a few size 2 diapers left, so we are trying to use them all.  I’ve been using cloth diapers all day long since I’ve been home, so we only use disposables at night time.  That’s why we’ve ended up with so many extra!

You now wear 6 month or 6-9 month clothes.  You can wear 9 month clothes too.  Our favorite outfit this month has been your overalls.  You look absolutely adorable in overalls!  I think you have really small feet because you just now fit into the booties your grammy and grampy bought you.  They are so precious and remind me of baby high tops.  I melt looking at your chubby legs with the booties on!

You definitely recognize your daddy and me.  When you are in a room with other people you prefer to look at one of us.  When I take you on errands with me people will stop to look at you and talk to you, but you won’t peel your eyes from me.  I love that you know who your daddy and I are!

We're still waiting on your teeth to come in.  You have been drooling and slobbery for over a month now, but have no teeth to show for it!  I keep thinking it will be soon.  I bet next month I'll be writing about your new teeth!

Now on to daddy:

6 months in and I am still amazed at how happy you always are, even when you are sick. That is right, middle of June, both you and I managed to get sick. But it never seems to faze you. 

This summer you and I have gotten to spend some time together alone, just daddy and Carter! More or less, everything always goes fine. I just never do things the same way as mommy! True, your hair doesn’t always get combed, your buttons on your jammies get mismatched, and I occasionally feed you after your jammies are on which results in a second pair of jammies, but things could be worse!

I have a blast watching you play on your activity mat and your jumperoo. You absolutely love both of them. Just the other night your mother and I were working out in the garage while you were on your activity mat going to town. You reached up and grabbed the owl and started yanking on it so hard it came off in your hands. You were very surprised!