Desmond is SIX Months Old!

Six months! Can you believe November was six whole months ago?  I hope the next six months go a little more slowly. 

First, let's point out that being six months old is really tiring.

Check out those gorgeous eyes!  And no, you can't ever get away from the drool.  

This closeup shows evidence of Desmond's favorite pastime - scratching his own face.  I swear all I do is cut that baby's fingernails (which he hates), but he always finds a way to scratch himself anyway.  Hopefully this will end soon as he becomes more and more skilled with putting his hands exactly where he wants to.

Tall baby!

And look at that rolling-over action! 

As you can see, Desmond is growing nicely.  In fact, we think he is perfect-sized.  Demonjello had better watch out!

Food:  He's still taking 7 ounce bottles.  Some he (almost) finishes. Others he drinks one ounce of and leaves the rest.  So, while he has anywhere from 8-12 bottles/day, he's still getting a perfectly normal amount of formula - probably 30ish ounces, give or take.  He's getting better about his baby cereal and purees.  He's had rice cereal, baby oatmeal, squash (which he liked), and peas (which he really really did NOT like).  We're going to try some sweet potatoes this week.

Motor Development: BIG progress here.  As previously mentioned, Desmond finally managed to roll over and is now a rolling FOOL!  Well, strangely, he's a back-to-front rolling fool. If he's on his stomach and doesn't want to be, he still just cries about it, even though he is fully capable of resolving the situation all on his own.  He is also sitting up for much longer stretches.  We still make sure there aren't any pointy things nearby for when he inevitably does lose his balance and tip over, but he'll go for minutes at a time. It's really quite impressive.

Sleep: Desmond usually goes down for the night by about 7:30 or 8.  He wakes up for a bottle at about midnight (give or take an hour), and he usually sucks that one dry.  He wakes up again at about 3 (again, give or take an hour), when he may or may not drink much of a bottle offered to him, then he pretty much sleeps until 7:30.  So, not horrible, but actually sleeping through the night shouldn't be that difficult.  At the very least, I think we could try to lose the 3am wakeup, since he doesn't seem to actually be hungry then.

In other sleep news, Desmond is not really swaddled anymore.  They still wrap him up at daycare, but at home he's just not that into it.  Sometimes he needs it to help him calm down a little, but eventually he gets sick of it and squirms out.  The best part? He's a side-sleeper!  It's so adorable.

Teeth: Still no teeth, still drooling like a fountain and chewing on everything in sight.  Frankly, I like his toothless grin and hope he keeps it for a long time. :)

Mood: HAPPY!  Boy can you tell when he's tired or hungry. But if his basic physiological needs are met, he is a happy boy. Always smiling when he sees you, always making googly eyes at his big brother, kicking with excitement when we read Bath Time every night. He is also just about guaranteed to laugh if you pinch his inner thighs.  That's pretty awesome.