Halfy Birthday

Happy Half Birthday (or "Halfy Birthday" as my mom has been calling it) to my favorite little fella!  The last six months have flown by!

What can Tyler do at 6 months?
~He's a tummy time expert.  He definitely prefers being on his tummy to his back.  He can "army crawl" around in circles to get to out-of-reach toys.  In the past couple of days, he's also started scooting backwards off of the rug and onto the hardwoods.  I think he prefers how slippery they are (reduced friction = less work... my little scientist).

~He "talks" (ok, grunts).  He's definitely saying something, but he's not quite to the stage of making syllabic sounds ("da da da" or "ba ba ba").  In particular, he likes "talking" to the robots on his fleece blanket I made him (seen here) that hangs on the glider in his room.  I guess they're his friends.  He also likes "talking" to the overflow drain in the bathtub.  Um... it's his friend, too?

~Speaking of the bathtub, my kid LOVES bathtime!  We're talking squealing, jumping out of my arms to get up the stairs faster, attacking his bath towel when I hand it to him kind of excitement.  The past few days, he's gotten in and immediately started splashing like crazy.  One night I even had to change my clothes after bath time because he had drenched me!  He likes sitting up in the tub with our support (so he can talk to the drain and reach for his duck or dinosaur toys on the edge of the tub).  He's pretty hilarious... unless we have company.  Kara stayed with us last week and after building up his excitement in her head, he was a much mellower version of his normal bathtime self.  She probably just thinks we over-exaggerated.

~A few weeks ago, he started eating solids (oatmeal cereal to be exact).  I've already used the all-caps LOVE to describe bathtime, but it applies to his cereal, too.  All the literature I read about starting solids focused on what to do if/when the kid refuses the food.  Not a problem with my little (or not-so-little) fella.  No need for the airplane to fly into the hangar or for the train to go into the tunnel.  He opens his mouth wide for every bite without any hesitation.  He may be teething a bit because he loves gnawing on the spoon after getting the cereal off of it.  I have to wrench it out of his hands to get the next spoonful.  He now gets 1/4 cup cereal (with milk) twice a day.

~He's gotten a lot better about his playtime.  At Christmas, our families got him toys for ages 6mo+.  At 4 months, we could play with the toys for him (push the buttons, etc), but he just observed.  Now, he pushes the buttons, spins the dials, pushes the beads, etc.  Tuesday, he was lying down on the floor with all four limbs up passing a ball from hand to hand and pushing against it with his feet.  He is occasionally able to roll his toy cars around on the floor, though he mostly just puts the wheels in his mouth.  He's just now starting to sit up (with us nearby) and play with his toys.  I for one will be very happy when he can sit up on his own.

Other things?  He loves to stand with assistance (more than sitting, which is what I think is delaying that milestone) so he can play with the top of his mobile.  He's getting more into reading books (his favorite right now is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" that Grandma gave him for his halfy birthday), though again, he mostly just wants to put it in his mouth.  He's fascinated by Mama's toys (the remotes and my phone), but those are off-limits.  He's still not sleeping through the night.  I'm hoping as we up his solids, he'll be able to.  Oh, glorious sleep, you elude me right now, but I hope to get you again soon.

I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting, but this post is nearing novel-length, so I'll stop for now.  I do have pictures of him playing and eating solids.  I just haven't had a chance to load them on the computer and edit them.  Stay tuned!