Weight: Right under 14 lbs. He is still pretty lanky but he is definitely getting longer. We will get updated measurements next week at his 6 month check up.

Health:  He is doing pretty well; no health concerns as of late. He is full on teething now. Still no teeth, but I feel one on the top trying to make an appearance.

Diet: This has been a big month diet wise! It is the last month he will be primarily fed by breastmilk. We are going to start the weaning process next week. He still is mostly fed with breastmilk with one formula bottle right before bed. We do have formula on hand for when we are out an about on the weekends though. He is really difficult to nurse right now, so when we are going to be away from the house it is just better to feed him with formula. When I do nurse him, he will only latch for a minute, then yank himself off and scream. Then latch for another minute before he pulls himself off in a fit again. It is a cycle that goes on for awhile. He will only get about 5 minutes of actual latched on feeding (even though the whole experience may be about 20-30 minutes) done before he is screaming so hard that we are both in tears. The real kicker is that he will then be hungry again in an hour or so. This has been going on for the last two months. So doing this out in public is not ideal. This behavior paired with the fact that I am barely scrapping by with making enough milk for him throughout the day (with extra pumping on the weekend and nights) is why we will be stopping our relationship with breastfeeding this month. Some days I feel really good about this decision, and others I feel really guilty. But the reality is, it is just not working for us, and we are both pretty miserable about the experience. On the plus side, we started REAL SOLID food this month. George could not be a bigger fan of real food. He attacks it with such ferocity. We have done a combination of purees and the Baby Led Weaning approach. Right now he is much more favorable of the purees. His pincer grasp is not the greatest, so feeding himself usually ends up with more of it on the floor. He does grab it (after sufficiently smashing it into the tray) and attempt to bring it to his face. He usually drops it before he can knosh on it. When he does get the food pieces to his mouth, he usually spits those big pieces out more than he does with the puree. So we are experimenting with both the puree and whole foods. He is getting a better grasp on holding a spoon for himself though, but he doesn’t understand dipping it in the bowl to get more. So I dip it and then he takes it from me to put in his own mouth. He honestly just tries grabbing the bowl itself and tipping it into his mouth. My mom got a great video of this and shared it on Facebook, but I can’t figure out how to save it for myself. He growls at you if you don’t get him food fast enough, which then turns into crying if you are really slow. He just wants the food now! He is also known to lick it off his bib once we are done with what is in the bowl. This kid LOVES eating real food. So far we have tried sweet potatoes (his first real food), peas, pears, squash, bananas, carrots, mashed potatoes, french fries, and pizza sauce.

Clothes:  We are still in 3 month clothes and size 2 diapers. He is definitely growing so we may be into 3-6 month range here soon.

Sleeping:  Sleep is a funny thing right now. George refuses to take naps at home. At the babysitter’s, naps no problem. Actually, he will take naps with us, but only if you are holding him for the entirety of the nap. We aren’t good at the transfer to the crib part so we always wake him up. And once he is up, he is up. So I guess it should be a testament that he doesn’t want to miss anything while at home and loves snuggling in our arms. But it poses a real problem on the weekends when the no napping means he is cranky or that we have to hold him all day. We have tried a lot of different things to get him to nap, obviously none of them seem to work. So suggestions are welcome at this point. As far as bedtime, it has been interesting this month. I had several suggestions over the course of last month with the nap/sleeping through the night situations that he needed to go to bed earlier. He was going to bed around 9pm and getting up at 4am, with very little napping throughout the day. So we tried the earlier bed time, and are still trying it. We feed him around 6:30, give him a bath, then put him to bed around 7:30. Like clockwork, he never sleeps longer than a half hour. Only two times in the past few weeks has he stayed asleep longer. At first we tried consoling him to sleep for the next TWO hours. We would take turns every 15 minutes trying to get him back to bed. We are silly parents, obviously this was not working. So the last week we have been still putting him to “bed” at 7:30. But now after he wakes up from the only nap we ever can get him to take, each of us will take one turn to try to get him to sleep before we let him stay up with us. And he seems pretty content and calm staying up until that last feeding that we do around 9:45. And now he has been staying asleep from 10pm until we wake him up at 5:30 am. It is one of those things that we have to follow his cues instead of worrying about doing what the books say. My only concern for his sleep is on the weekends when we fail to get him to nap. During the week this process seems to work just fine, and he seems happy with the amount that he is getting.

Likes: He is generally a really happy baby. He loves to watch us dance, and he will laugh so hard at us being silly. He likes it when you bicycle his legs. He gets a kick out of it, pun intended. Basically any funny noise you make at him will make him giggle. George loves to be in the baby wrap so we spend a lot of time with it. He has several toys that he loves now, his favorite being this plastic ball thing. FOOD. He loves to stand. He would rather be doing that than sitting. Speaking of sitting, now that he is able to sit up more, baths are a little easier for us all. He is starting to like it more because he has more room to kick his feet around in the water. He loves to munch on his own feet too. I swear his foot is in his mouth a majority of the day.

Dislikes: Naps. Being alone. Not getting food fast enough.

Milestones: He rolls from stomach to back on both sides. He has not rolled from back to stomach yet, but he is flailing around a lot so I think it will happen in the next week. He does roll to his sides, just not completely over. While he is on the floor he will scoot himself around in circles whether he is on his back or stomach. He seems pretty content not being mobile and does not show any signs of wanting to move forward or backwards. No rush. He will move when he is ready. He is ready to sit on his own now though! He sits unassisted for a a few minutes. He also likes to bend all the way forward like he is doing the butterfly stretch and then bend back to a seated position. It is like he is mocking me with his flexibility.

Quirks: He gives neck hugs now. Best moments of the day. The night my grandma died, he held my face with his hands for the first time. I was leaning over him, and he just reached up and put his palms on my cheeks like he knew I needed it. I cried big fat ugly tears all over that sweet face. He likes to hold my face a lot now. He makes all kinds of humming and squealing noises now.

We parents are: ready for the academy to be over. Tom is itching to get on the road with the police department, and I am itching to have my husband back. I am also in shock that this little fella is 6 months now.

The dogs are: have bad cases of cabin fever. So we have been having some behavior issues. They do however love to help clean George at dinner time. They are interacting a lot more. It is really fun to watch them play together. Watch this video for some surefire giggles of George trying to eat Grace’s nose.

It’s hard to see how much they change from day to day. You forget how small they used to be.