6 Months

Dear Kyle-

You celebrated your 6 month birthday this past week and I can’t believe you have been in our lives for half a year! Where has the time gone? I remember when you were a newborn, we could not wait for you to grow out of your colic and time seemed to be going so slow, but ever since those days left us, time has been flying by!

For your six month birthday mommy got some fun presents for both you and me to use. We finally purchased a BOB jogging stroller and a Kokopax carrier. I love both of these items and so far you seem to enjoy them too! I have been working at getting back into running and you have become my workout partner. So far you have fallen asleep on almost every run I have taken you on which has been great. You get a nap and I get a work out in! You were getting too big for your Bjorn front baby carrier so I upgraded to the backpack. I highly recommend this to all my mommy friends out there! It is really comfortable and makes carrying you around so much easier. I can put you in it when I go grocery shopping or when we play fetch at the park with Eros, and also when I am trying to cook dinner and all you want to do is be held.

You continue to grow and change so much these days. I stare at you in amazement sometimes at the little man you are becoming! Now that you can sit up right you enjoy playing with all your toys on your activity mat. I love to watch you play and talk to yourself. I try to imagine what you are thinking and saying, and you make it very hard for me to get anything done because you are just so cute to watch! You are also very good with your hand coordination and can pick objects up with ease. Your Sophie giraffe, blocks, and baby cell phone are some of your favorites right now. In addition to your toys you LOVE your jumperoo (Thanks Aunt Holly!). You learned how to jump in it this month and can really get yourself going. It is so fun to watch you giggle and smile. You also like to growl when you are jumping which is too funny.

We are working on increasing your “tummy time” to continue to build your core muscles but right now you show no signs of wanting to crawl. You are very content to just sit and play with your toys. This is fine with mommy, it makes my life a lot easier not having to chase you around the house, yet.

This month you have also really taken a liking to your dad. As soon as he walks in the door your face lights up with joy and you smile and laugh. It melts my heart and breaks it at the same time since he will be leaving us very shortly. I will have to make sure we read our daddy books and look at videos and pictures so you don’t forget him.

Winter cold season also struck our house this month and you got your first cold. Luckily it did not turn into an ear infection but you had your first stuffy/runny nose. It made for a week of sleepless nights for mommy and daddy but you seem to doing much better so hopefully that is the worst of our cold season this year.

Your adventures with solid foods are going well. We gave you sweet potatoes for your 6 month birthday and you were not quite sure what to think. You love your rice cereal and will eat about 2 tablespoons twice a day with no problem, so I thought for sure you would love sweet potatoes and other solids since you enjoy your rice cereal so much but you are a bit unsure. We tried avocado the next day and you liked that more, but the slimy texture made it hard for you to keep it in your mouth and I think more of it ended up on your face and hands than in your tummy. We tried yams (the orange sweet potatoes) today and you actually seemed to prefer it to the yellow sweet potatoes. Right now it is all about the experience of eating and trying new things so I am not too stressed about you getting any sort of caloric nutrition from these meals, and I am sure in time you will get the hang of eating other things besides rice cereal and breast milk, or you will be one cheap date when you grow up :). I am going to move onto fruits next week and am curious to see what you think about bananas and pears.

Your 6 month check up went well and you are continuing to grow healthy and strong. You are 17lbs and 26 inches long and wearing 9 month baby clothes now. We are going to be starting you on some physical therapy next week to help strengthen the left side of your neck. The doctors say you have slight Torticollis on the left side of your neck which basically means we need to lengthen the muscles so you are able to hold your head straight. If you look back at all the photos we have taken of you, your head leans slightly to the left in each one, mommy and daddy just figured it was because you had such a big head. The good news is you can move your head from side to side with ease and the doctors feel that after a few weeks of physical therapy the problem should be cleared up.

You are such a joy in our lives and I am so thankful every day to be your mom! I have to say that so far this is the best stage yet in your short little life and I can’t wait to see what the upcoming months have in store for us as you continue to develop. Thanks for making me smile every day little guy!

Love-
Mommy