I keep thinking I need to take Elijah for professional photos, but it just never went well with Josiah, they rush the decision making process, and I was never totally happy. So, I took his six month pictures myself…again. And again, I had trouble narrowing them down. I may go professional, but here’s what we got:
Fun Times!
Months, that is.
Elijah has hit the six month mark. It is unbelievable to me. Life sure does march on. This has been yet another big month with the start of solid foods, sitting up all by himself, striving to crawl, suffering from Roseola, and the re-start of good sleeping habits. He also got bit for the first time – twice.
I wanted to have Elijah started on solids before his 6 month appointment so that I could ask any questions and hopefully encounter any skin issues before then since he does have a very mild smidge of eczema. Sweet potatoes were his first food. He was not so crazy about them and made terrible faces. He pretty much refused to open his mouth at first, but the last three days he suddenly decided he wants to eat and he does great. Rice cereal went a little better, but he still wasn’t loving it until now. Apple sauce still makes him foam at the mouth :) He did love his first taste of ice cream though. I realize he’s not supposed to have it, but he grabbed Josiah’s spoon and had it in his mouth before we could intervene! He is my kid, after all! I remember it being frustrating with Josiah at first, too, and he turned into a great eater, so no worries.
The big feat for the month is sitting up! He’s awesome at it and became a pro in a day. Maybe I should have given him more opportunity sooner? He and Josiah are loving this more face to face playtime. He’s also able to get up on his hands and knees. At first he face planted when he tried to move forward, but now he does a nice rocking motion. He’s so funny to watch go through all of his tricks for practice. It won’t be long before I’m struggling to keep him out of trouble, I’m sure. Does anyone have any tips about how to keep the non-age appropriate toys away from him without encouraging “mine” issues and selfishness by telling Josiah to keep “his” toys away from him? I don’t really want them to have individual toys yet.
On the health front, Josiah came down with what we presume was Roseola and Elijah followed suit just a few days later. Thankfully it was a short, fairly easy course for both of them. Apparently it is extremely common, no big deal, and they never get it again. One down, hundreds to go! Also, while I’m not going to claim success until we have been to the doctor, there have been no more eye infections and I’m hoping we have escaped the surgical procedure by the skin of our teeth! Praise God!
Between travel and sickness, this month’s sleeping habits have been all over the place, but as it comes to an end we find him consistently doing better than ever before! We had two weeks of terrible nights at the beginning, though, then a stuffy nose interruption last week, but now he takes good naps and falls asleep much easier than before. He’s even staying asleep pretty much until our goal time. Yay! We’ll see what next month brings.
As far as the biting goes…Josiah did it. Hard! The first time I didn’t see it but heard the crying and Josiah told me he did it. I gave him a time out then asked him why and assumed it was jealousy or just plain meanness, which was weird because he did it while they played happily. I warned him I’d bite him next time he did it! (I can’t believe I’m that parent! But I wanted to put a quick stop to it and hoped the threat would work.) I saw it happen the second time and things started to make sense. Elijah had grabbed Josiah’s hand and chewed on it, so before I could stop him Josiah put Elijah’s hand in his mouth and bit it. I made good on my word and bit him (can you believe it?) only to show him it hurts when you have teeth and that he couldn’t do that. I didn’t have the heart to do it too hard and worried I didn’t make an impression and bit him for nothing, but it worked! No biting since!
I couldn’t decide which smile I loved more, so I picked three!
Oh, and still no teeth. I can’t say I’m sad :) And now that cute toothless mouth can say “bah bah” and “dah dah”.
The weekend after the first cool snap of the season, I actually had a Saturday off with flexible plans. We took advantage by going to the park with a lunch from Subway.
Here’s some random fun:
And yesterday Jacob didn’t have to work in the morning so he watched Elijah for me so that Josiah and I could have some one on one time together. We went to the splash park and had it entirely to ourselves! I haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy Josiah by ourselves since Elijah was born and it was great! I forgot how fun he could be when I wasn’t having to tell him “when Elijah takes a nap…” or “when Elijah wakes up…” I enjoyed just focusing on him. Such a sweetie!
Cream!
Josiah and Jacob made me laugh out loud harder and longer than I have in awhile the other day. They were playing in Josiah’s room and Josiah had put Daddy to bed for a nap in his toddler bed. Despite his best pleading Josiah wouldn’t let him get up. Josiah is great about not getting out of bed until he is “released”, so I guess Jacob was just respecting that. I gave Josiah the idea to get Daddy out of bed and change his diaper. His face lit up! He liked the idea.
Jacob thought he’d been freed and came into the living room, but Josiah was hot on his tail with the diaper changing rug (a new addition in our home). He made him lay down on it, then ran away to get a diaper, rash cream, and wipes. After some sweet pleading, Jacob finally let him get his pants off, but drew the line at his boxers :) Josiah just stood there, cream in hand, innocently asking him to let him put on cream, as though it was perfectly natural. I was dying laughing.
Jacob refused to let me get a picture. Go figure.
Stretch!
I enjoy writing and as a result I have several posts that I’ve never posted. I was going through them the other day and found this one from before Elijah was born. Jacob wouldn’t let me post it at the time because so many people would be looking at the blog when Elijah arrived. Maybe it is safe to do now :) Here it is:
Just a funny story – sometimes you get it where you can. Warning, this may be more than you want to know!
When we were at the hospital on Sunday the nurse was examining me. Now, remember that on the previous Friday my OB said I was 5 cm dilated. The nurse was busy doing her thing and I about freaked when she said I was a 7. She had already said that she and my OB never agree on a number and that she always estimates larger than Dr. Million. When she saw my reaction, she said “well you are definitely more than a 5, and a good 6 for sure, but if I S-T-R-E-T-C-H (ouch!) I can get a 7!” Holy cow!
Jacob must have picked up on my facial expression because when she left the room Jacob said, “my mouth is this big” (as he opens it wide), “but if I S-T-R-E-T-C-H it, (he inserts his index fingers into the corners of his mouth and pulls) I can get it THIS big”! Then he says, “but that hurts and it’s not meant to do that!”
Sometimes he does make me laugh!
By the way, the doc on call confirmed a 6.
Wednesday we had just a hint of fall in the air! It was overcast yet beautiful since we could play outside and not sweat to death, though I’m sure it will be short lived. Elijah was recovering from a fever, but we still enjoyed it. While Elijah napped I opened our backdoor and “kicked” Josiah out while I did laundry letting the cool breeze in the house. I noticed Josiah repeatedly looking at the door where I was so I called out to him and he said, “look Mommy! Baby birds! Baby birds, Mommy!” as he pointed to the ground. I yelled to him not to touch and ran out. This is what I found:
Then Lilah joined the fun and he played with her with a stick. She kept attacking it and biting it, so he kept telling me Lilah was trying to eat the stick which later turned into him literally trying to make her eat it.
Isn’t he just cute?
And later in the afternoon, when Elijah was awake and feeling better, we went for a wagon ride, though it was a bit warmer. This is how we do wagon rides. You have to excuse Josiah’s funny face because he was enjoying a snack. 
In a previous post I noted how Josiah is testing his limits lately and that I think it is related to the craziness of our lives recently. Well, now I’m convinced. Since he was sick over the weekend and then Elijah caught it, we’ve been forced to slow down and hang out around the house. It seems to have been good for him because he has been a joy to be around for a few days now. I guess he just needed a chance to chill out and be a family with no place to be. What a great reminder to slow down and put our babies first. Hopefully we can make it last.
Thursday was even more beautiful. Here is some of what we did:
We had a repeat of kicking Josiah out to play while I did chores with the door open, except this time Elijah got to join in the fun and sat on the porch in the various infant seats we have. Later, I packed Elijah into the Moby wrap and we went on a walk.
After lunch and naps, we headed to Grandma’s to steal some ingredients for dinner. She wasn’t home so we left her a surprise on her driveway. I drew everything Josiah asked for and he made nice dash marks everywhere.
The end. Work on Friday :(
