The Life and GOOD Times Of The Amlong's: The BIG 6!

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.

He had some dirty faces, but was easily willing to smile, as usual.

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.

Sitting up like a big boy!

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.

Here’s Mr. Sleepy himself. This is what I found one day when I had to wake him from a 3 hour nap.

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!