More of a Toddler Than a Baby

Yesterday when I got home from work, Luke was playing on the floor. He was in the crawling position on his hands with his stomach down, facing the other way. He heard me taking my coat off, so he turned his head and saw me. He then rotated 180 degrees on his spot almost immediately.

Luke's new mobility has been slowly progressive, but it's been more visible lately. It's not uncommon for us to turn our video monitor off with him facing one direction in the crib, then turning it in a couple minutes later to find him in a completely different position. We finally lowered his crib depth a bit to make sure he doesn't pull himself out.

While not crawling yet, he's certainly close. He usually gets frustrated and gives up, but once he figures it out we think he'll never stop moving. He's so close to moving around that I finally hit the "baby-proofing" stage of parenthood. I'm going to have to seriously lock all the cabinets, cover the outlets, get a new coffee table, etc.

Luke's favorite toy is his electronic musical instrument toy. This garage-sale bargain makes noise whenever he pushes keyboard keys or random buttons. Luke hasn't really figured out how to "push" a button; it's more like smashing. Regardless, the toy is making plenty of noise and lights, and he loves it.

Luke is eating enough food to fuel his ludicrous growth. His transition to solids is complete, and he's eating 3+ meals a day as solids. He still takes 6-8 ounces of milk with a meal as well.

Feeding a baby solids is hilarious. I thought Luke would show us which foods he likes and dislikes, because he made faces of confusion and disgust when we started feeding him solids. We figured he'd just didn't like the food we tried (rice). However, we soon learned that he makes that face with EVERY solid food. That first look is priceless, though. "What the heck are you feeding me?"

Surprisingly, Luke almost immediately took to spoon feeding. I expected it to be a painstaking and slow learning curve. However, it only took a couple feedings for him to have his mouth wide open and ready for the next spoonful of food.

It does get messy sometimes, but usually not. Granted, we're feeding him, and I'm sure things get a lot more interesting when he starts feeding himself. Still, it's nice that we can get through a meal with him in just ten minutes or so, without him being a total mess in the end.

He's a lot more talkative, but his vocabulary is still mostly incoherent. Dada and Mama are common, but he'll say it while looking at anything from me to the cat to his dirty diaper. We've started to try to teach him sign language, but I usually find he gets too distracted to pay attention to me.

Luke's greatest progress is at night. Due to the solid foods, we now have him sleeping a fantastic 10-12 hours straight. He stirs in the night only rarely, and usually we can let him settle down on his own. We used to have to feed him at 11:00 , but we've cut that out so his last feeding is at 6-7. It basically means we have our evenings free again!

Still no teeth. His hair is very blonde and very long; it looks like we've had his hair cut, but we haven't. He's six months old and we're transitioning him into 9-12 month clothing. I'm predicting 6'6".

Just a Teaspoon of Sweet Potatoes Makes Luke Grunt

Not quite as catchy as Mary Poppins. It's true, though, Luke grunted during his entire course of sweet potatoes. However, this is the first meal he's actually eaten anything significant that I fed him (of course he eats everything Melissa feeds him).

Spoon feeding has become easier in general. Usually he grasps for the spoon, and you have to decoy him with a second spoon to get anything in his mouth. Tonight's feeding, however, he just inhaled whenever I got the spoon within an inch of his mouth and the food vanished. He must have been hungry.

Daily he becomes more human-like. Or I guess I should say adult-like, as he technically is a human (he's only 1/8 alien). What I'm trying to say is his behavior is more humanlike.

He has games he likes now. For example, I blow on his face and he blinks and laughs. He likes it when Missy tickles him with her hair. He likes to dance (with our help of course).

He's much more interactive with all of his toys now. He's also very self-entertaining, which is not only convenient, but amazing to watch. He also has about 239048209348 toys thanks to the recent holidays. Thanks everyone... I think... Singing toys put me closer to the edge. The Leap Frog haunts my dreams. I'm taking a 10 minute break from typing. Fetal position.

He also tries to eat everything. This includes food, toys, blankets, carpet, his arm, my arm, the cat, etc. It's fun watching him discover new foods. There's a clear expression on his face that says something like, "What the heck did you just put in my mouth?" While he thinks everything non-food is something to eat, he believes food itself is something to wear instead.

Okay, I had to talk about it somewhere. Solid food poop is completely disgusting. I tried to think of a joke to talk about it more, but it really is disgusting.

He's decided on a new sleeping position. He likes sleeping on his stomach. This is an interesting development. You see, he likes to suckle his bed sheets. So this means that from our perspective (camera on top of the crib) our baby is face down on the sheets all the time. We try to adjust him occasionally so we know he's breathing, but we've started giving up. He also tries to turn his head with a pacifier in his mouth, which results in no pacifier and all three of us awake. We'd unswaddle him, but he still hasn't learned how to not try to gouge his own eyes out when not swaddled. One of these days we'll probably just have to bite the bullet.

His hair is growing, but according to my mom it's coming in even. He's still quite blonde and brown eyed. His eyes continue to generate massive amounts of gunk; we're not sure if that will ever end. Supposedly it can last for up to a year. Maybe it's a blessing, because if he was any cuter I'd probably squeeze him too hard when I hug him.

Luke also likes to eat brains and designed a death ray blaster. That must be the 1/8 alien in him. He prefers his brains scrambled, which is why I don't let him get too close to Melissa.

Aunt Sarah Comes to Visit

Luke had a chance to visit with his Aunt Sarah today. He thinks that she is fascinating to look at. He also decided that it would be best to communicate with her by sticking out his tongue and blowing spit bubbles as hard as he could.

New Year's Update

Luke is still growing like a weed. He has tried several solid foods now and to our surprise squash and peas have been favorites over pears, bananas, and cereal. He is becoming more interactive now and has a very high pitched squeal that he uses to communicate his likes/dislikes. Luke now shows when he wants something like his bottle by holding out both hands and breathing fast while squealing.

I took Luke to see a physical therapist today to work on his neck muscles. He has been holding his head slightly to the left so we're trying to stretch out his muscles to help him hold his head a little straighter.

With the way he tries to move, I'm guessing crawling is not too far off!

Luke's Christmas Accomplishments

Wow! The past couple of weeks have been a busy learning time for Luke. He's now sitting up for several minutes unassisted. He's taken several falls from this position, but he's getting better at maintaining balanace. Luke has many new toys to explore. One of his favorites is a singing frog named Tad....that counting song stays in your head for many hours!

Luke is more willing to try some solid food now. He does, however, prefer to take the spoon and attempt to put it in his own mouth. This usually results in cereal or fruit everywhere!

One of our favorite accomplishments is Luke's newfound ability to say "dada!" He doesn't distinguish when he says it yet, but he knows how to say it. We're still working on "mama."

Luke didn't quite know what to think of all the Christmas celebrations we had. He did enjoy trying to eat wrapping paper!

Luke still prefers to roll to his side or stomach after we lay him on his back. We usually hear a loud "thump" about 10 minutes after we lay him down. This is the sound of him rolling and hitting the side of the crib. He seems to be sleeping better at night though!

Checkup and Solids

Luke went to the doctor for his checkup and second set of shots on Tuesday. He enjoyed smiling at the doctor and looking at the pretty lights. He weighed in at 16 lbs and 15 oz. which puts him in the 75th percentile for weight. He is growing like a weed though...his height jumped up to 27" which puts him in the 95th percentile! Of course, he objected to the vaccinations. His crying was fairly short lived compared to last time. They recommended starting him on some cereal. Luke's not too keen on the idea yet. Most of what goes in his mouth comes right back out!

Rolling the Other Way

Luke is growing up so fast! He has been working to turn himself over in his crib and finally succeeded last night. He managed to get his legs stuck between the crib slats in the process. He's anxious to start moving and can scoot several inches. He'll be crawling before we know it! Luke is now able to sit by himself for about 5 seconds before he topples over! We're just amazed each day at the new things he is able to accomplish.

We're working to get rid of his swaddle while sleeping, but he likes to move so much that it doesn't always work. He has decided that he prefers sleeping on his side. Despite the fact that we always put him to bed on his back, he twists and wiggles until he has himself completely on his side and then he goes to sleep.

I'll post some new pictures since he's finally getting some hair back! My scale also says that he's up to 16 1/2 pounds!