One Sassy Housewife: 6 months with Sam

6 months! Half a year! Can you believe it! Sam's half birthday came and went with little pomp and circumstance... but I may have gotten a teeny bit choked up once when I thought about the past six months and how much our life has changed and how richly our life has been blessed by this perfect little boy.
Here are the det's* on Sam at 6 months.

*I am mostly uncertain how to type most slang. But I still use it, because I want to sound like the cool kids, right? So that was my attempt to say det's (you know, the cool kid's shortened slangy term for 'details'.) Though I am not sure it was a successful written interpretation of the word, here goes my reasoning for spelling it as I did: in grade school when learning about contractions, you learn you should put an apostrophe where letters have been omitted (do not becomes don't, substituting an apostrophe for that superfluous o), then later you learn when shortening words or using slang you can also use an apostrophe for the ommitted letters (until becomes 'til and old becomes ol'). Using this method of thinking I surmised that the shortened slang form of details would likely be det's using the apostrophe to replace the omitted letters, but visually it doesn't read exactly like I thought it would. So who knows. Any English buffs or slang buffs out there want to tell me where I went wrong?

Sam @ 6 months

Weight:

at birth: 9lbs 2.7 oz

at six months: 17 lbs 10oz

Length:
at birth: 19.5 inches
at six months: 26 inches

(Sam is in the 25th percentile for length, the 50th percentile for weight, and... the 94th percentile for head size. Short and stout-- with a GIANT head. That's my boy!)

Eating

BLW is a wonderful thing. When we sit down for meals I take a few things from my plate and put them on Sam's and he eats happily. He had his first meat on Father's Day-- A meatball with Grandpa! That moment warmed my heart, beauce we all know how much mama loves meatballs. :) Sam seems to really enjoy eating and happily tries every new thing placed in front of him. Watermelon is the new fav. He sucks down a chunk of water melon in no time flat, then throws the rind on the floor and screams for another piece. Yum, watermelon!

Also he still has several milk feedings a day, usually before naps and before bed.

Sleeping

Still a pretty good sleeper. Sometimes you sleep through the night... sometimes you need to wakeup for a snack to get you through, and who can blame you?

Daddy was gone for a couple days on a trip last month, and you had a really hard time getting to sleep while he was gone. I would take you upstairs to start the bedtime routine, and you knew it was bedtime, but you kept looking around for daddy. Then you would yell in protest when I tried to put you to bed. You were trying to tell me: I can't go to bed! Daddy is not here! I don't go to bed until Daddy gets home! And we had several really rough night, but as soon as daddy was home again... you cooed and played at bedtime then rolled over and went to sleep right away.

Also, you sleep on your tummy these days. That's how we know you are tired, we lay you down on your back in bed, and you immediately roll to your left and pull your knees up under your behind. You might wiggle around a bit to find just the right spot on the mattress, but you sleep in that exact position every single night... and naptimes too.

You are a morning person, Sam! Wake up every morning between 7:00 and 8:00 and you coo and play and laugh and have the time of your life until about 11:00 when you take your first nap. And it's not that you are unpleasant in the afternoon and evening-- but mornings are your time.

Likes

Watermelon.

Wi-wi and Cha-cha. Your doggies--or anyone's doggies, really--are soft to touch and fun to watch. Bonus points for grabbing the tuft of hair right on the top of the doggie's head, right?

Swimming.

Grandma and Grandpa. And Grandma and Grandpa. (thats right, they are all grandma and grandpa in this family. No Mimi or Nana or Poppa or whatever. We grew up calling both sets of grandparents Grandma and Grandpa, and there was never any confusion or emotional scarring for anyone, so if it's not broken...) Grandpa (S)'s favorite thing in the world is that you will reach out for him when you see him. Oh, man, you've never seen a man beam like he does when your tiny arms go up in the air asking to be held. You love all of your grandparents so much and squeal and play and charm and giggle whenever they are around.

Carpet. We don't have much in our house, but you love rolling around on the carpet at Grandma and Grandpa's house. That's likely where you will learn to crawl.

Dislikes

Cornmeal pancakes that I made. I don't want to talk about it.

Evening nap time, inevitably there is someone over or something you are afraid you are going to miss.

The bouncy seat. We got one of those hang from the door jamb bouncy seat things that we thought you would love, and we try to put you in there, and you just don't love it. You tolerate it for a few minutes to appease us, then you scream because you are done and it is no fun and we are jerks for forcing it upon you.

Firsts

Sitting! You can sit now and balance yourself for several minutes. You are so big!

Swimming! (Which looks mostly like sitting in a small inflatable pool kicking, but you couldn't love it more.) You are the next Micheal Phelps.

First Father's Day! And Daddy was out of town having a guy's weekend away in St.Louis. What a Bum. We gave him a hard time, but celebrated when he returned, and gave him awesome handmade gifts and concert tickets.

Special talents

Rolling across the room at warp speed.

Drinking from a straw. Sippy cups are not your gig. Straws are what the cool kids are using these days. Oh, didn't you know?

"Arms up!" and both your little arms go up by your shoulders so mama can safely install your highchair tray without pinching your sweet little chub.

Singing. When mama is singing, you love to sing along. It's fun when we are at home, cute when we are at church-- and hilarious when mom was at musical rehearsal singing 'As if some tiny person were calling for help...' and right on cue, you belted out Waaaaaaaaaa!

It was awesome.

Things I don't want to forget

The way you explore everything by 'scratching' it. You love to scratch new surfaces and textures. You are very tactile-- just like mama! ;)

You waking up Daddy. Sitting on his tummy playing... with the morning light glowing behind you. It's the perfect, sweetest picture every time, and I adore that moment.

The sounds you make to yourself... low then high, then loud and chesty, then quiet and squeally, then blowing air through your wet lips... you are learning all about your own voice, and I love it.

The chub. (Scroll back up to the second picture where Sam's legs are straight. Go ahead, I'll wait.
waiting...
waiting...
OH. MY. GOODNESS. The rolls, right? I love love love the chub on those chunky monkey thighs. LOVE IT.

That day in the park. With perfect sunny-cool weather. That's exactly how I always imagined us. You (in a clean shirt) playing happily in the shade on grandma's old quilt. Daddy close by (recently shaved) pointing out birds and squirrels, and smiling at me-- with my shoes kicked off (and having a great hair day) laying next to you laughing contentedly at my boys, with a forgotten book laying nearby. And it was like that for about 47 seconds, and then you started crying, and I realized I had forgotten a bottle and this was real life-- but that 47 seconds was perfection that I promise I will never forget. SIGH.

And here's some footage of you at six months old.