Can I just say -- Holy Sh!t...a HALF OF A YEAR OLD?!
Let me start by saying, 6 months old is my absolutely FAVORITE. Of course every age so far has been my favorite, but now that Nick is six months old, every day is a new discovery and adventure. He learns something new, and screeches in delight at each exciting moment. His laughter is so sweet it literally makes my heart ache.
How Old is Nick: Nick turned 6 months old on August 2nd. All morning and afternoon on the day of his 1/2 birthday, I talked about wanting to celebrate and go out to dinner. My dad said "we'll have to have them sing to him, wherever we go!" And we did go out to dinner...but the restaurant we went to was a combination of SO freaking delicious, and SO freaking hot (they had NO AC), that we completely forgot to sing Nick happy birthday...which is ok because he started freaking out towards the middle of dinner and could only be consoled by a bottle, and being held by my dad. I think he was sweating...that and it was about 2 hours past his bedtime, but who's counting?
Stats: It's good to post late, because then I have his stats from his 6 month Dr. visit! Nick weighed in at 18lbs, 1.4oz, was 26 inches long, and had a head circumference of 17 1/4. This puts him in the 57th percentile for weight, 48th percentile for head, and 29th percentile for height. Which basically boils down to he is still a short, chunky, bobble head. Although if you ask me, he looks 100% proportional and perfect. And the doctor assured us he looked fantastic. He said "hey, 29th percentile for height is pretty darn good, considering when he was born he was in the 2nd percentile!" Touche Doc, touche.
Clothes: Nick is wearing all 6-9 month clothing. A lot of his 6 month stuff is getting snug. I still stand by the statement that children's clothing makers do not have children themselves. EVERYthing is sized differently. Old Navy baby clothes seem to run huge...Target stuff tends to run small...Carter's seems to be the closest to true sizing that I've found. Oh, and Children's place? Fuhgeddaboutit. Mom bought Nick a rash guard shirt to wear at the beach. She said the only one they had left was 18 months, so she grabbed it because it looked small anyway. Small? No. Nick looked like a stuffed sausage in it. It was BEYOND small. But he looked awesome in it anyway :)
Sleep: Sleep is currently my least favorite subject. In the past couple weeks, Nick has learned to roll both directions, use his vocal cords to the best of his ability, and pick up/grab at everything he sees. This combined with the fact that he has also figured out that if he cries in the middle of the night, I come running, has made for some VERY long nights. Nick is waking up about an hour after going down in his crib, and then waking up and crying off and on for the remainder of the night. Last night he went down by 9pm, but woke up at 10:00pm...made it back down by 11:00pm, but woke up crying at 2:00am and wouldn't go back down unless I held him. Finally he was out by 4:00am, we both managed to get about 3 more hours of sleep before he decided he was up for the day. I have no idea how he is functioning on so little sleep, because I'm sure as heck struggling with it. I know I should let him cry it out, but really it's heart breaking. And even if I'm just laying in my bed listening to him cry, I'm still not sleeping, so I figure I might as well go rescue him. I put it all in perspective by thinking "it won't be long before he no longer wants me to hold him in the middle of the night...and I won't be looking back at these days thinking 'man, I wish I'd let him cry more', so I might as well enjoy it now". Optimism is key.
Milestones: Well -- we have certainly hit all the milestones! The nurse at the doctors office ran down a checklist and I was so proud to say "yes!" to everything she asked...with the exception of sitting on his own. Nick is rolling both ways, screeching in delight, cooing and babbling at objects and people, responding to noises, putting his hands together, grabbing objects, interacting with toys and people, bearing weight on his legs, and passing items from one hand to another. He loves all of his toys, especially a blue bird we keep on his car seat that has long skinny legs and can be pulled. And his most favorite object to chew on remains his fist. It's so sweet when he slobbers all over his hand and then rubs that wet hand on your face. Such a charmer. ;) 
Movement: I guess I covered this in milestones. But he is really on the move. If he's laying on his back, he'll push off with his feet until he's scooted upwards -- usually rolling off his play mat and then protesting with loud angry cries until we rescue him. He also loves his walker/play table. He'll walk around the table, but typically not to play with the toys -- more so to grab at the laundry basket, the ottoman, or Whinnie -- whatever is within reach. It's so cute to watch him try to grab at Whinnie...usually by the time he makes the connection that he can reach out to her, she's moved out of the way and he misses. But this morning, he grabbed a chunk of her hair and was so delighted to pull on it. Good thing she is the most tolerant dog in the world...she just rolled over in hopes that he would figure out how to rub her belly. 
Food/Appetite: Nick still loves all food. He's eating 2-3 solid meals a day, and has even already had turkey (pureed of course). He also still has 4 8oz bottles per day, usually only finishing about 6-7 oz of each. He tried avocado last weekend for the first time, and it didn't seem to sit very well with him -- he spit up stinky guacamole for several hours after that meal. But otherwise, he hasn't seemed to have any aversions to any foods -- and he's always been a spitter, so we're used to being covered in regurgitated sweet potatoes and bananas.
Adventures: Nick went on his first beach vacation!
We only actually got him down to the water/sand once, which makes me sad because he seemed to really enjoy having his toes in the sand. The rest of the time we spent in the pool, and napping poolside. The beach air did wonders for Nick's sleeping. He would nap 3-4 times a day, for a couple hours at a time, and then slept 8-10 hours at night. Too bad it didn't last when we got home.
Movement: I guess I covered this in milestones. But he is really on the move. If he's laying on his back, he'll push off with his feet until he's scooted upwards -- usually rolling off his play mat and then protesting with loud angry cries until we rescue him. He also loves his walker/play table. He'll walk around the table, but typically not to play with the toys -- more so to grab at the laundry basket, the ottoman, or Whinnie -- whatever is within reach. It's so cute to watch him try to grab at Whinnie...usually by the time he makes the connection that he can reach out to her, she's moved out of the way and he misses. But this morning, he grabbed a chunk of her hair and was so delighted to pull on it. Good thing she is the most tolerant dog in the world...she just rolled over in hopes that he would figure out how to rub her belly.
Food/Appetite: Nick still loves all food. He's eating 2-3 solid meals a day, and has even already had turkey (pureed of course). He also still has 4 8oz bottles per day, usually only finishing about 6-7 oz of each. He tried avocado last weekend for the first time, and it didn't seem to sit very well with him -- he spit up stinky guacamole for several hours after that meal. But otherwise, he hasn't seemed to have any aversions to any foods -- and he's always been a spitter, so we're used to being covered in regurgitated sweet potatoes and bananas.
Adventures: Nick went on his first beach vacation!
We only actually got him down to the water/sand once, which makes me sad because he seemed to really enjoy having his toes in the sand. The rest of the time we spent in the pool, and napping poolside. The beach air did wonders for Nick's sleeping. He would nap 3-4 times a day, for a couple hours at a time, and then slept 8-10 hours at night. Too bad it didn't last when we got home. Also, Nick's Great Aunt Sis (my Aunt) came in to town to visit yesterday, so they got to meet for the first time! And of course, he smiled and loved on her the entire time -- such a good boy. :)
All in all, aside from the sleeping issues, Nick is the best little guy and we couldn't have asked for a better baby. He's cuddly, sweet, and always mild-mannered. He rarely cries -- only if SUPER hungry, or over tired (and then of course just recently in the middle of the night). He loves to jump in his bouncer and play with his toys. And more than anything he LOVES to have people to interact with. He has yet to meet a stranger. I joke that we're going to have to teach him well about strangers because he is steal-able cute. We fall more in love with this little heart breaker every day and can't imagine our little family without him. Can't wait to see what the next 6 months have in store!
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