6 Months Old!

I absolutely cannot believe that Nathan is six months old.  My baby is not a baby anymore.  It's so sad.  SO SO SO SAD.  And I'm not even a 'baby' person, at all.  I've never been the type to love to hold babies, but when it comes to my own, I wish they would be babies FOREVER.  Well, maybe not forever...but longer than this.

Nathan weighs 20lb 10oz and is 28.5" tall.  He's a big boy.  He has started wearing 12-18 months clothes and wears size 3 shoes.  To allow you to understand why I'm so blown away by his size and how weird it is to see him wearing the clothes he's wearing, let me give you these stats for comparison:

     Matthew - 19lb 2oz at ONE YEAR OLD
     Kayla - 20lb 6oz at ONE YEAR OLD

Yes, that's right.  Nathan is a little larger than Matthew and Kayla were at a year.  It's nuts.  So now you understand why it's weird for me to see Nathan wearing clothes that I know Matthew was wearing at a more developmentally advanced stage.

Speaking of which...Nathan is going to be a slow baby.  Another Matthew, I think.  Thank you, Vander Ende genes.  He's mastered sitting.  He still topples over on occasion, but I don't leave pillows around him anymore because it's not that often.  It's so nice...however...because he has learned to sit, he now HATES laying down.  Tummy time?  Ya, doesn't happen anymore.  Laying on his back?  Sure, a little.  Rolling over?  What's that, again?  I haven't seen him roll for weeks, so he probably doesn't even remember anymore.  He just sits and plays.  I'm not complaining...it's just a little funny to see this big baby sitting on the floor.  Oh, Nathan.  Each in their own time.

Nathan is eating three meals a day now, and he quite enjoys it.  He LOVES fruit and adult food.  He typically has 2 Tbsp rice cereal and some fruit for breakfast, bread with cheese and some fruit for lunch, and then a vegetable with potatoes and some prunes for dinner.  He loves eating what I'm eating, so he's tried everything from hash browns to waffles to cake to dried mangoes (yum!) to corn.  Matthew and Kayla love to let him try everything they eat too...especially if it's a candy.

He is no longer a two-hour bottle baby, but easily goes every three hours.  With the introduction of food, his naps have definitely increased in length (for the most part).  His morning nap is now usually about an hour long.  If we're out-and-about in the morning then his next nap can sometimes be stalled until 1pm, to be at the same time as Matthew and Kayla's.  If I'm lucky enough to do that, then he'll have one more nap in the late-afternoon still, to total three naps.  If we're at home, then he usually has four naps still...probably because he's not getting as distracted because I'm frantically trying to clean/tidy the house because I'm seldom home all day long and so housework suffers.

Nathan has become much better at sleeping at night.  He goes to bed at 8pm (at the same time as Matthew and Kayla, which is so nice!), and then gets one feed during the night, usually around 3/3:30am...and he is content with only receiving 3oz.  I'm pretty confident that he is only waking up for the cuddle with me, because there is no way that he needs the extra milk.  I'm not ready to start trying to drop that feed, and I really don't mind getting up for the five minutes it takes me to feed him.

Nathan has started showing strange.  He's even done it with my parents a couple times.  I think it's cute, because he just wants me :).

Nathan loves Lacey, my parents' dog, and he also loves it when I talk on the phone.  He starts smiling as soon as a dial a number.  He also loves it when Matthew and Kayla jump in front of where he is playing.  No one can get him to laugh like Matthew and Kayla can.