6 months.

Half way to a year!   The baby boy is 6 months old as of yesterday and while I can't believe it's been 6 whole months since he was born it also seems as if he's been here forever.  He is 6 whole months of awesome.   Everyday we marvel at the happiness and ease that this little guy is.   Despite his sleeping "issues" he is the happiest baby we have had and the other boys were pretty darn happy.   One smiley look at him and he offers the biggest grin.   He screeches and screams and yells and giggles.  He also whines and lets you know rather quickly he's not a happy guy.

His personality is emerging and I am loving seeing it.  I think he's going to be a fun loving happy boy quite similar to his big brother Zachary.  His eyes appear to be turning brown and his hair is filling in with a golden blonde under all of the dark brown.   It's also just as crazy as ever...and likely fast approaching (or maybe well past) trimming time, though I am trying to hold out as long as possible!

At 6 months he is sitting with ease and grabbing anything and everything that comes with in his reach.  Over the past 2 weeks I have offered a few mashed foods to him and despite his what appeared to be eagerness to eat solids he clamps his mouth shut and refuses to eat them.  Thus far he has had Avocado (the first solid), Pear, and banana.  His least favorite of the bunch was the banana and I am wondering if he is going to swear off fruits like his big brother Gavin...the sweet of the banana seemed a bit much for him.  He has mastered drinking from a straw and sips water quite happily.

He is still opposed to napping for more than 30-45 min at a time.  Occasionally he will stretch it to an hour but more often then not thinks that a 20 min nap is sufficient.   We rock him to sleep and when he's feeling especially feisty we can sing him a song and he calms down and drifts off to sleep.  I need to increase my song repertoire as all I can think to sing is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"...I do however know all the verses.  At night he goes from waking once to waking 3 times to once in a rare blue moon sleeping nearly all night.  Though his "waking" is less him waking and more me waking.  He is a snuggly snuggly snuggler and seems to give hugs with all the snuggling into my shoulder and arms that he does.  He also seems to be giving kisses and attacks our cheeks with a big open mouth.  This month he has started making more consonant sounds...we have heard the classic "buh buh buh" as well as a few "muh muh muh"s  I like to pretend he is saying "Mom".

At 6 months he loves his toys and will sit and play with toys for a "long" while on his play mat.  He also wants my iPhone so badly he can't hardly stand it.  Though he would just like to chew on it, he's not quite activating apps yet.   He thinks his brothers are the bees knees and gets quite excited when they come play with him.  His stranger anxiety that he had so young seems to be lessening and while he's not jumping into strangers arms he isn't crying at the sight of them as often.  At his 6 month appt yesterday he weighed in at 17lbs 5.2oz which puts him right at average weight and 26in which puts him at the 25% which is a bit below average height.  Which is right on track for a kiddo from this family.

He is everything we never knew we needed and everything he should be.  He is an amazing little guy and we are so very thrilled that he jumped into to our wild bunch!  Happy Half Birthday Nolan!