Six Months Old

On November 22 Xavier turned six months old! We're not sure where the time is going, but it is getting there in a fast and very fun manner!

We've made some slow but positive progress this month on the sleeping front. Primarily using the strategies outlined in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, we kept moving Xavier's bedtime earlier and earlier until he started to sleep through the night with more consistency. Daylight savings time helped us out nicely with this. We got to make a 90 minute change with only 30 minutes of "effort". Bedtime is between 6:30 and 7:00 these days and X-man wakes up 1-2 times each night while logging 10-12 hours of sleep. Much better than last month! Naps are still a challenge most days, but we're taking things one step at a time.This was his last full month of nursing exclusively. I am both excited and a little apprehensive about introducing his first foods soon. If he likes solids even half as much as he likes milk, we'll have an eating champ on our hands.

Each week our little social butterfly becomes even more interactive. In addition to clearly loving people, he has finally noticed his "brothers" of the feline persuasion. He will laugh and squeal at the cats, and always smiles when Ventura walks into a room or pays attention to him. A Venty sighting will even (temporarily) stop a meltdown. Yeah! His repertoire of sounds has increased a lot this month, but so far, most of the "words" he uses resemble cute pterodactyl noises more than human ones.
At night, we have transitioned from using our beloved Pea Pod swaddle to a fleece sleep sack. Xavier seems very glad to have his hands at his disposal at night. Sometimes, he can grab his paci and successfully put it in his mouth. This is a key skill to have. Other nights, he will find his tiger lovey and snuggle and hug it to soothe himself. It's SO cute!

Getting one last milestone in just under the wire, X-man began rolling in both directions (front to back and back to front) on his six month birthday. And, now there is no stopping him. He constantly rolls to reach toys, to get a better view of us or the cats and to try to sneak a peek at the TV or the computer screen. Illegal activity, mister! :) He is also working on sitting up unassisted. He can sort of sit up for a few seconds and then he either lists to one side, folds in half at the waist (sometimes using his arms to support himself and other times going way beyond "nose to knees") or falls over completely (which can be painful when he topples headfirst onto a toy!)
Pat-a-cake, baths and eating continue to be favorite activities. New favorites are singing "Pop goes the Weasel" (he anticipates the "Pop!"), watching the "Magic Flower" paper toy as we open and shut it, playing with his frog castanet toy from Nadine in Japan, getting "thrown" up in the air, (don't worry - we don't actually let go, we only play this over a soft surface and we are careful to mind his head and neck) and being kissed on his chest/tummy on the count of three. He will usually be laughing by "2" before the kisses land!

He also likes chewing on everything, "standing", being held upside down and watching the leaves when we go for walks. He does not like the wind.His six month stats from his pediatrician appointment on 11/30 were 16 lbs, 14 oz, 28" tall and 45cm in head circumference. (He weighed 16 lbs, 4.6 oz on 11/24 - Can you guess when his growth spurt occurred?)