Cai Alexander: Six Months

So it's a week late, but here is Cai's six month update:

New Things: I can't believe how fast Cai is learning. He seems to change every time I turn around.

• Roll over both ways, consistently. 
• Grab things without difficulty and throw them (occasionally).
• Touch things gently, for a few seconds. My favorites are when he gently runs his fingers through someone's hair (not mine...he's never gentle with mine, but his daddy's and Aunt Katie's) or pet the dog.
• Get up on his hands and knees and even more often on his hands and feet like he's planking. He is so close to crawling. He does this stair climbing move, but he can't figure out that he needs to move his hands too. 
• Stomp his feet.
• Scream and whine. He does a lot of whining right now. He sounds like a morning dove.
• Eat. He loves food. We are doing Baby Led Weaning and he loves it. He doesn't swallow all that much of it, but he enjoys every food we've given him. So far he has had:

• Peppers: red, yellow, and green, roasted and raw
• Onions, roasted
• Lasagna
• Pierogies
• Carrots, steamed
• Asparagus, roasted
• Green beans, steamed, roasted
• Celery, raw
• Grilled cheese fingers
• Grilled chicken leg
• Apples
• Bananas
• Avocado
• Baked oatmeal, made with steel cut oats, breast milk, apple sauce, and an egg
• Potatoes, roasted with herbs
• Mango
• Strawberries
• Celery
• Ice cream and raspberry sherbet
• Pancakes
• Garlic bread
• Oranges and clementines
• Splash in the bathtub or pool.

Sleep: Cai is still napping pretty wonderfully. Most naps are between and hour and two and a half hours. If one is shorter, he usually takes and extra fourth nap. We are still struggling with weaning him from the swaddle though.

Nights are a different story. He is waking up frequently, usually to eat. He eats for about twenty minutes and will not go back down unless he passes out fully first. The past two nights have been especially hard. He woke up five or six times to eat both nights and a few other times without eating. It pretty much sucks. I have to keep reminding myself that this doesn't last long, for good or for bad, and that he's not doing it to make my life miserable. I'm doing my best to treasure these moments while they last. 

I'm pretty sure this lack of sleep phase is because of the fifth leap or wonder week or whatever it's called. The timing is exactly what it should be for that. If that's the case, it should get better in the next day or two.

Likes: Cai's favorite things right now are:

• His dog. Not all dog's, but his dog. When we got home from vacation, Cai lit up when he saw Finn again.

• His star mobile over his crib. It's been there since he came home with us, but he just seems to have noticed it. He likes to touch it when we're laying him down for a nap. Sometimes spinning it before we leave the room after laying him down helps him to fall asleep watching it.

• Peek-a-boo. This is new this week, so technically I guess it should go on the next update.

• His lion teething toy (the cheap version of Sophie Giraffe because we couldn't justify spending TWENTY DOLLARS on a teether, a blue rubber ducky, and a wooden teething ring.

• Animal noises. I've been "teaching" him what noises different animals make and he loves it. It's a way to distract him when he's whiny.

• Reaching for EVERYTHING. 
  

• Trying to drink water from Mama and Daddy's water bottles and cups.
• Rolling all over the floor. It's amazing to me how mobile he is without crawling yet. We've actually moved the coffee table and temporarily made it an end table (my idea, but it kills my sense of style) because the area rug in the center of the room is the only comfortable place for him to try to crawl.
• Being tickled.

We went on our first family vacation as a family of three last week (which is the reason I didn't post right away). We had the privilege of going with Steve's parents, my parents, my grandparents, and Steve's grandfather, as well as both of our sisters and brothers. It was such a neat thing to be able to do. In some ways, it was a great break because there were other people to hold Cai when he gets restless and whiny, but in other ways it was difficult for me. Nobody said or did anything to criticize our parenting (except maybe Granddad who was amazed that we picked things up off the floor and gave them back to Cai without washing them :o) but it is so easy to feel like everyone has a different opinion than me or thinks

there's a better way for us to do things (even if they don't really). I was also hormonal at the time and didn't get as much sleep as I needed. It's just a weird feeling when Cai starts fussing and instead of just dealing with it like I would normally (most likely by letting him cry for a bit) and everybody jumps up to hold him or stands around watching to see what you will do, haha. I'm sure I'm not the only super sensitive first time mama around.