6 Months!

October flew by without me even realizing it. Charlie is six months old today, and I truly cannot believe we're here already. When we went to Kavanaugh's this summer, Charlie's cousin Henley was almost six months old, and I remember thinking she was such a real, interactive little kid while Charlie was still very much an infant. And now Charlie is that little social butterfly. He smiles and shrieks and babbles at almost everyone he meets. We went to the grocery store last week, and six women stopped me, I'm not exaggerating here, talking to Charlie and thanking me (literally saying, "thank you") for being at the store with him at the same time as them. He's a magical little guy. All sweetness, smiles and love.

We had a busy month sharing in lots of Charlie's firsts. He's getting so easy and fun to take places, and we've found ourselves filling our weeks and weekends with little adventures, festivals and lots of time outdoors. Charlie had a blast at the Craft Brew Fest, ACL Fest, Natural Gardener (a couple of times), park - his first time on the swings = pure joy, playgroup, voting, the pumpkin patch, Sweet Berry Farm and spent loads of time in the backyard on his blanket playing with the grass, leaves, watching the trees blow in the wind and helping me plant our fall garden.

 

 

Probably the greatest milestone this month is that Charlie is really sitting up. He still topples over every once in a while, but he's really sturdy and strong for the most part. He loves this new trick and when placed on his back strains to pull himself up. His stomach muscles are wickedly strong from all these accidental v-ups he's doing - I guess he loves the core workout. Mostly, I think he loves his new perspective. He's still only rolling from his back to stomach. The doctor doesn't think he's too interested in the other way and isn't concerned because he's doing so great sitting up. He's not crawling just yet, but he's working really hard on pushing way up when he's on his belly and swimming his little legs around, and he's started turning himself around on his belly like a little top to get to toys or tags. He still doesn't have any teeth, but he's working really hard on them, I think. He started real food this month, and we started with the old standby, rice cereal, but Charlie hated it. So we took the advice of a friend and bought the Super Baby Food book which has LOADS of great information on starting solids with kids continuing through their toddler years. It's been a fantastic resource. Charlie has tried avocado (ho-hum), sweet potatoes (yes, please!) and bananas (not a fan) so far. He's eating pretty well, shocking, I know, and I'm looking forward to adding new foods this coming month.

Organic Japanese purple sweet potatoes...isn't he spoiled.

Charlie's doing a great job sleeping. He's been sleeping through the night (from 6:30 or 7:00 until 6:30 or 7:00), and takes two or three naps a day. Dreamy! But we had a major rough patch in the sleeping realm this past month. The week of my birthday he melted down. He fought me at every.single.nap. and would only stay asleep for about 20 or 30 minutes at a time. He also went back to waking up two or three times a night, and I think both of us were in our personal hell for about four days. He slowly worked his way out of it, and since there are no teeth to show for it, I think it might have been a crazy growth spurt coupled with a supply issue. We are back to good this week which means Charlie is back to sleeping and, most importantly, back to his happy, sweet self.

This month was busy and filled with lots of family, friends and fun. I can't believe that Charlie's been with us for 6 whole months, and I really can't believe that in this same amount of time he'll be a year old. Time really does fly. But man are we having fun!