Without A Doubt: Elliott - Six Months Old

It's a little hard to believe that our sweet Elliott is six months old. Even though I've tried to embrace the infant days and savor every sweet baby smell, I think these past six months have gone even faster with Elliott than with Madeleine. That said, I feel like our family is hitting its stride.

Elliott's sweet personality is shining through more and more each day. He is smiley and bright, causing strangers to regularly comment on his good nature. He doesn't really have a bad time of the day, but his best time of the day is definitely when he's naked on the changing pad at bedtime. This kid has some lungs and can squeal with the best of 'em. Wow! He uses his whole body to show his excitement, waving his arms and legs and blowing raspberries, too. It's quite charming most of the time, except at meal times, and then it's just messy.

Speaking of meals, Elliott's entry to the world of solids is the biggest change over the past month. He eats oatmeal/rice cereal for breakfast and either thick purees and/or large, soft handheld food for dinner. So far, he has tried avocado, sweet potato, asparagus, red potato, pears, applesauce, and bananas. I'd say banana is the favorite thus far and not just for its creamy, sweet flavor but because he loves holding half a banana and shoving it into his mouth for little bites. Elliott is a very social kid and loves to sit at the table with the rest of the family at meal times. He has made big strides in his ability to sit in the booster seat over the last couple of weeks. In general, he can sit either in tripod (leaning forward with weigh on both legs and his arms between his legs) or with some assistance.

Even though he has taken to solids really well, Elliott hasn't backed off his breastmilk consumption and still gets fed five times a day, sometimes having formula mixed in. It seems like he is starting to lose some of his baby rolls, but the scale says that he has gained a full pound in the last two weeks. Although it doesn't contribute to his heft, Elliott grows finger nails at an alarming rate; I have to cut them about every two days.

Elliott needs lots of fuel to keep his moving body going. He still isn't completely rolling over, but he is oh so close. Any time he is put down, he spends most of his time on his side, just about completing a roll one way or the other. He even sleeps on his side about half the time, sometimes resulting in arms and/or legs getting stuck outside the crib. A large part of me is nervous that he has made it to six months without rolling, but the practical part of me knows that he is never going to stop once he gets moving. He already scoots from place to place on his back and with rocking side to side, and he is clearly interested in keeping up with Madeleine.

Speaking of Madeleine, Elliott is totally enamored with her. He lights up when he hears her voice, turns to look at her, smiles, basically makes her the star of the show. George and I have already caught ourselves telling him to not encourage her (to act up). In order to try to keep up with his big sister's chatter, Elliott is often very chatty himself. He usually says baahh, baahh, baahh or bwah, bwah, bwah on repeat, though I have caught a couple of mah, mah, mah and baap, baap, baap sequences.

Finally, I hate to talk about sleep. Each and every time that I mention it, we end up having a four to five night stretch of wake ups. Nonetheless, I'll do it again. We seem to be in a good place with two solid daytime naps (usually two hours each or a three-hour afternoon nap if the morning one was short) and a little cat nap just before dinner. I can see that last nap going away soon as it seems to be starting later and later. Elliott goes to bed between 7pm and 8pm and gets up around 7am. He was having wake ups most nights, but we did some minimal sleep training a couple nights ago and have since had full nights of sleep. Elliott still sucks his left thumb to show that he's getting tired and to put himself to sleep. I think it's here to stay. If he's really upset (a pretty rare occasion), I'll give him the pacifier, but he immediately takes it in his hand and either chews on the side or just holds it.

He fought several viruses this month, and I'm so happy to have him back to his happy, healthy self. Mind you, he never really acted sick, but his breathing and congestion said otherwise. This is a really long update, but Elliott is just so much fun right now. I can't wait to see where the next month takes us!