Titus at 7 months

Well, once again I can say that this month has moved at break-necked pace. It snuck up on me, and now we no longer have a six month old. This month has increased in challenges and enjoyment. Titus is moving and interacting more than ever. He is also moody and can be difficult to get to sleep. He is waking up a lot at night, and I am tired. But, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Almost crawling!

Weight: 17.5pounds (between 10-25th percentile)
Height: 28 inches (around 70th percentile)
Teeth: two bottom ones! They came in two weeks apart.

The first thing that you'll notice about Titus is how active he is. He is on the cusp of crawling. I know I've said that for a week or two, but he will get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. I oftentimes will give him a little help, and he now knows how to move his arms forward. He cannot do it quite by himself yet. He is sitting all by himself and as of Saturday, he is able to get from laying down into a sitting position all by himself. He rolls around the floor, but not as much as Georgia ever did. If he is being held, he does enjoy standing on your lap or on the floor. He will not pull himself up or hold onto anything yet, but I imagine that is right around the corner.When you leave him on the floor for a minute or two, he will be 10 feet away from where you set him down.

He is a boy through and through. He loves playing with boxes of toys. He will hit them so that they make the loudest noise possible. As soon as he can move, I imagine he will be a force of destruction around the house. He does tend to be shy and more reserved (especially compared to his sister!). New situations and places make him uncomfortable, although I am thankful he loves being held by both his mommy and his daddy! At church on Sunday, he reached out for Dave to hold him, and snuggled up against his chest. It was a very cute moment.

Titus is still not "saying" anything. He is mostly quiet, although when upset (or hungry) he makes lots of "aaahhs" and "uhs". He will hold his arms out to be held. I am starting some baby sign language so that he will be able to communicate with us. I am confident that he can hear, so I am not too worried about his speaking skills.

Starting to love bath time now

Sleeping has been quite difficult this month. He is a good napper, thankfully! He currently takes three good naps a day. One is about an hour (or two) after he wakes up in the morning, the second nap is from 11-1 or so, and the third nap is around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Nightime is hit or miss, and he wakes up at least three times a night. The first is right around the time we go to bed - 10 or 11. Then, it really is unknown how he will sleep. Lately he has been waking up an hour or two after he eats - and he is not hungry. I'm hoping this is a quick phase, and I don't really enjoy waking up 4 times a night. He also has become more difficult to put to sleep. On a good day, he'll fall asleep on his own, but as most days are not like that, he needs some rocking and patting in order to fall alseep. It does seem that his sleep is somehow related to his food, so I am trying to keep a journal of sorts.

Mr. Grumpy face

Feeding is a whole new topic. It seems that he has more food allergies than just the milk/soy/eggs. He has now had three episodes of vomiting within a couple hours after eating solid foods. I realized that we were probably introducing foods too quickly to him, so we have slowed down and are writing everything down. It is unfortunate because he seems to really enjoy the act of eating. He vomited after avocados and after pork. We have since tried quinoa (so far no vomiting!) and zucchini. He loved the zucchini, but the three days that he was eating it, he slept really poorly. I'm hoping that it is a fluke, since he loved eating it. This is one of the reasons that I am not in a hurry to night-wean him. I know he is probably hungry since he isn't eating solid foods yet, so I understand he needs to eat at night in order to get his calories.

6 months

Well, our sweet little guy is half a year old. We've been on the road, traveling up to Oregon and back, so that is the reason this blog post is late. I will try to do a blog post on that another time.

Weight: 17lbs, 1oz
Height: 27 inches
Teeth: His two lower teeth haven't popped through, but have been bothering him on and off.
Clothing: mostly 9 month (or 6-9 month). A few 12 month things, although he's not quite long enough for them yet.

Titus is starting to move quite a bit. There's no slowing him down now! He rolls both ways, can rest himself on his knees (if you set him up like that). He sits very nicely (and for a long time, without falling), and then will go onto his back or belly and kinda scoot around. He does 180 spins in his crib.

Sleeping has been all over the place this month. Now being back from our trip, Titus is taking three naps a day. Most of the naps are longish - somewhere between 1-2 hours. He seems to be ready for bed around 7pm. He wakes up twice - once around 10 or 11, and then once again around 4 or 5am. He then sleeps until 7-7:30. He loves sleeping on his side or on his front. It is very cute to see, since Georgia was only ever a back sleeper. Titus will snuggle up with his lovey (again, Georgia wasn't attached to hers at all), and also loves to hold onto a toy. I've noticed that if I distract him with a toy, he'll often just hold onto it, falling asleep rather easily.

Titus is eating just a little bit. He is still very interested in food, especially what other people are eating. I try to find things that he can eat: bell pepper, zucchini, banana, sweet potato, french fries (while on our road trip), chicken, carne asada, applesauce and refried beans. He never seems very excited once he actually tries the food that I hand him. The only exception to that is meat. Most meats I give him, he sucks and chews on quite a bit. All other foods get a funny face and reluctance to eat much more. I don't think he is actually swallowing much of what he is eating. Most of it gets spit right back out after he chews it for a while.

Titus is still very snuggly (again, unlike his sister), and I am completely eating it up. He is the biggest mama's boy  - well, unless Georgia is around and then I am chopped liver ;)  He loves to be held and sit on my lap. He gives huge smiles which can light up a room. He is friendly but reserved. He often looks at me while in crowds of people, as if to ask if everything is ok. He loves watching other kids run around and play. He is still unsure when other people are holding him. He will be okay for 1-2 minutes and then start looking around for me.

This week was the first bath he's taken that he's enjoyed. It is the first time I've bathed him where he can sit up himself, and he enjoyed being able to splash in the tub, rather than just lay there and get cleaned. He is not babbling at all, which I think is okay. Georgia always had a huge vocabulary, but I don't expect that out of Titus. He seems a bit quieter, and he's also a boy.