6 months

Happy half of a year to our sweet boy! I may or may not be teary-eyed as I type those words. It's been another big month for Gray. He has grown and learned a lot and his stages of life just keep getting better and bringing us more and more joy.

At 6 months...

Gray weighs 17 pounds, 1 ounce (42nd percentile). I was surprised in his weight because he hadn't even quite gained two pounds since his 4 month check up. But the doctor sad his curve looks great and that weight gain will really slow down a lot from this point on. He has more than doubled his birth weight and by the looks of his chubby cheeks and legs, we are confident that he is packing on enough chunkiness.

His height is 27 and 1/4 inches (75th percentile). He has grown and inch and a quarter in the last two months and 5 and a quarter inches since birth!

His head measurement is 17 and 1/2 inches (82nd percentile). This isn't surprising considering Mama and Daddy both had big heads. It's just because he is so smart already :)

The biggest milestone for Gray this month is that he has TWO TEETH! Both of his bottom middle teeth finally broke through the skin a week ago. I haven't been able to get a picture of them and they aren't up enough to see when he smiles but it won't be long. He had a really rough time with teething and ran a fever and was up a lot at night and didn't nap well at all. He has been holding his mouth funny and just seems very curious about these new, strange things that are in there. I'd love it if he had a break until the next ones came in, but I'm sure not holding my breath.

He can sit up with no support for about 5-10 seconds and loves to be in the sitting up position. I wrote that just yesterday and today he sat up for almost 2 minutes! I think play time is going to be even more fun for him when he can sit up for as long as he wants to by himself.

He is rolling all around. Though he has been able to roll over both ways for a couple of months, he will now roll several times in a row and can get around a lot, considering he isn't crawling yet.

His favorite toys are his feet, his Sophie Samson giraffe (Daddy made it have a boy name. Plus, it would have been confusing with Sophie the dog), his exersaucer, his crawl ball and any and everything that lights up and makes noise. His Nana and Grandpa got him a Noah's Ark snow globe and he is so fascinated by it. Mean 'ol Mama won't let him put it in his mouth though. He is also loving the Christmas tree lights. He also loves books and his favorite one is a tractor book. Of all the books we read, he shows favoritism toward this one particular tractor book, which amazes me. I also find it so fascinating that boys this young already show such interest in boy things. No one has to teach boys to like tractors and sports and girls to like baby dolls and kitchens, they just do. Isn't it just amazing how God created us?

 

 He is starting to play like a big kid, like riding on Daddy's shoulders. This doesn't make me nervous at all.

And swinging at the park.

He is eating solids once a day, soon to be moving to twice and eventually three times a day. He has done great with eating from a spoon since the very first time we fed him that way. He wasn't a big fan of peas the first time he ate them but other than that he has loved everything so far. He nurses every 2-4 hours during the day. We still give him a pumped bottle with rice cereal before bed and he will take 7 ish ounces. He is close to being able to completely hold his bottle on his own and has become interested in holding his own spoon.

Sleeping is going good, except for last week when he was teething so bad. We are almost done with weaning him from his one middle of the night feeding and he has done great with it so far. Last night he was down to only getting 2 ounces but never woke up to eat. He woke up and stirred and whined a couple times but only for about 2-3 minutes so it was the first time he'd gone all night without eating-yay for this!!! Most nights he sleeps 12-13 hours, waking up anywhere from 1-4 times. Other than when he was teething bad, he usually just cries or whines for a few minutes and sometimes plays for a few minutes and then goes right back to sleep. We let him cry unless he is in pain. We learned at the doctor yesterday that their sleep patterns change around 6 months and it is very common for them to wake up several times after midnight. Naps have been pretty iffy lately. He usually only sleeps an hour or hour and a half so a lot of days he ends up taking three naps.

He has really started reaching for and grabbing things this past month. Gone are the days of being able to eat or drink anything while holding him. He now loves to grab at your face and has even poked me in the eye a couple of times.

He is now responding to praise and gets so excited when we clap for him or say "Yay, Gray!". He is also catching on to games like peek-a-boo and anticipates being tickled by laughing and making funny faces.

I feel like I say this every month but he is talking A LOT!!! We had a family Christmas get together this weekend and a lot of people met Gray for the first time and they all kept talking about how verbal he was. We talk to him pretty much nonstop and I read books with him every single day so I think that has a lot to do with it. I find him looking at my mouth a lot these days while I'm talking. It is so amazing to me how early language development begins.

He is wearing most all 9 month clothes because he is so long but a few 6-9 month stuff still fits. He is also still wearing size 2 diapers but when we run out soon we are going to try moving to size 3.

He loves, loves, loves music! We jam out to all kinds of music every day and it just makes him so excited. He recognizes when it cuts off and will look at you like tragedy has struck. He also loves to be sung to, especially if he is tired or fussy.

He really started noticing Sophie about a month or so ago and LOVES her!!! He just smiles and talks to her all day long. He tries to pet her but she usually runs away ;) One of his favorite things to do is to sit with us on the floor while we play fetch with her. He could watch her run down that hall a million times. She is also warming up to him more and more and has even given him several kisses right on the mouth.

He has started recognizing other babies and can tell the difference between them and "big people". He gets so excited and starts flapping and talking when other babies are around. He also really recognizes Mama and Daddy compared to other people. We always make a big deal when Daddy comes home and he is starting to show excitement with that. Paul was able to meet us at the doctor yesterday for his 6 month check up. We were already back in the room when he got there and when he walked in Gray started flapping and squealing. It was so sweet!

He is starting to show a little bit of a temper. When he's in his exersaucer and gets frustrated he will stomp his foot. He also makes a noise when he gets mad. I guess the complete meltdowns are soon to follow.

Here is our sweet Gray Christopher at 6 months...

I love this picture of him. His teeth were really bothering him and he was holding his mouth funny. It made those sweet cheeks look even chubbier!

Can't wait to see what our little man learns in his seventh month of life!