Cameron - 6 Months

Half a year flew by. You're eating solids and doing much better with digesting them. Most of the time you start demanding more as we are feeding you, as in we are not fast enough... hopefully Sascha will learn from you and become a better eater. I am once again making most of the baby food myself. I'll be buying a few things that I don't normally cook or things that are not in season at the moment, otherwise I love buying organic fruits and veggies and steaming them. We have 2 great blenders that do a good job of pureeing the food. One that's for smaller portions and a Vita - Mix for the large portions. So far you have tried sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, bananas, apple, peaches, prunes and different cereals. What's not so great is that you stopped drinking your 5 oz bottle of milk that you usually drank. I haven't figured out what it is yet, do you not like the frozen milk? Do you not like the bottle any more? Our nanny is having a really hard time having you finish your bottle. I've even tried to give it to you and sure enough after 2 oz, you refused it. So I tried nursing right after and sure enough you nursed, so clearly you weren't completely full. I've even tried a faster Level 3 nipple and you don't seem to be ready for it yet, since it makes you choke on the milk. At this point I am not really sure how much you are getting since I am nursing 2-3 times a day and you usually get 2 bottle feedings while I am at work. I am hoping that you get at least 20-24 oz a day, but I am really not sure if that's the case.

You hold conversations... in baby talk of course, but none the less they seem to be full sentences of whatever it is your talking about. Your squeals have gotten louder too, seems like you are really starting to discover your voice. You've learned how to make funny noises with your lips which also makes you spit, almost like a horse sound... pretty entertaining since you will repeatedly do especially after we start mimicking it. A day after you turned 6 month we heard your first "DADA" sounds, I am working very hard on the "MAMA" sounds since feeling a little left out. Just Kidding!

I think you're pretty close to almost be sitting on your own. You are definitely getting stronger and stronger. You roll but not too often, usually on softer surfaces like the couch (yes... I do supervise) and inside the crib. We still swaddle you for naps and night time. It worked for Sascha and it seems to work for you as well. However lately I see your arms creep out of the swaddle. Not sure if that wakes you up or not... but I think pretty soon we may have to stop swaddling you.

You have mastered the happy baby yoga pose where you hold your feet with your hands laying on your back and roll back and forth. Very often the feet end up in your mouth. Actually everything you grab or I give to you ends up in your mouth, which of course means you are drooling a ton.

Generally you are a super happy and smiley baby, but there have been a few incidents where you get spooked by someone and start crying. Sometimes they are really upset cries and other time your lower lip starts to quiver and you get this sad look on your face.

Your visit to the doctor was pretty uneventful. I complained about your itchy cradle cap (mentioning how you clawed your head a few weeks ago), but since I was already doing something about it, there wasn't much else to say, and about some eczema under your chin and around the neck as well as behind your knees which I also keep under control with a cream once I see that it's getting really red. You were super smiley and happy the whole time we were there. Of course that changed as soon as the evil nurse came back and gave you shots. You cried after the second shot, but composed yourself quickly after I picked you up and comforted you.

Your stats:
Weight: 15 lbs. 12 oz (16%)
Height: 27 inches (67%)
Head circ: 16.75 inches (16%)

Looks like your weight percentile dropped down, but the pediatrician didn't seem too concerned. I of course was wishing it didn't. :) Your height is keeping steady.

Your wake up times have been anywhere between 5 am to 7am. I think the 7am happened once or twice and I was soo thankful. Your bedtime has been earlier and earlier lately, it's been hard to keep you up past 9pm, so that's pretty much your norm now. I nurse you and also give you a bottle and put you to bed shortly after Sascha is down for the night. Sometimes you guys will get a shared story time which is just so cute! Sascha holds you in her lap and Daddy reads a story. It's so sweet.

A few times you have ended up in our bed when you wake up early morning. Also when I get ready for work and you're up, I put you on the bed next to daddy and you play there for a little bit. You're usually in such a good mood in the morning, I love it... sometimes I just hold you for a few extra minutes after you eat. I treasure our morning snuggles on the rocking chair. How quickly this baby phase passes, I know I will surely miss it once you'll be on the go in another few months.

On your actual 6 month birthday I was determined to get some pictures of you. So when I got home from work, I quickly set a few things up and started shooting. Sascha was on her way to swim class, so I only got a few shots of you together before daddy took her, but that just meant I had more uninterrupted time of the two of us together to try different things. I did get some really cute pictures of you before you got tired and fussy. I only wish I had more time to play around with this awesome camera and really learn how to use it!

A little blurry but the only decent picture I captured of the two kiddos

I finally figured out how to make collages. Much better than posting a ton of full sized pictures.

Sascha - almost 3 and 1/2

Lately you have been asking me ahead of time who are we going to see today? And what are we going to do? You seem to really enjoy being out and about and rarely want to go home. Very often when I pick you up from preschool and we get in the car, you will ask the same 2 questions. And if I say we are going home, you start whining in disappointment. One weekend morning I told you we would see your buddy Sebastian. Later when we came back upstairs to get dressed and you and I were picking out your outfit. You rejected a few that I pulled out and then went ahead and picked a pretty pink dress and said: "I wanna wear this one... for Sebastian... to look at"

I was speechless. Does this boy stuff really start this early? Most of your friends that you play with in preschool are girls, even though the class is 70% boys. But most of our friends have boys your age, and not girls so very often you are the only girl in the mix.

The other funny thing I heard you do is you talk before you go to bed. I stood by the door listening and there was no surprise... you were pretending to talk to Mr. Josh - your swim instructor. You talked about where the pool is, and an octopus toy and then you started describing your day and how your saw your friend Sebastian. I walked into your room and asked you to close your eyes and go to sleep, but you answered with "But I am talking to Mr. Josh". haha Very often you wake up and point to an empty corner and tell us that there is a princess there and you pretend to carry her on the palm of your hand. You have quite an imagination. :)

Your friends at preschool are Vivian, Sadie and Sammy. You finally started to tell us about your day once we pick you up. You started to say "so and so is not my friend" and I ask why? and I don't usually get an answer that makes sense. You make up some random thing...

A few times you have told us that we are not your friends... usually it's after we didn't let you do something and this is your way to be mad at us. You also say "I don't like that" if we give you a hurry up push, pick you up when you are not cooperating or raise our voices.

On Mothers day Daddy got me a pretty bracelet and you gave me a bag that held pretty charms to put on the bracelet with the letter "S" and "C". Sascha knows her letter very well and she wanted to keep the charm too. Now she looks at my bracelet and says that's mine and I keep having to explain to her that it's her letter "S" and I get to wear it on the bracelet and it reminds me of her every time I look at it. It was a very sweet and thoughtful present from Daddy!

You still love giving your baby brother hugs and kisses. Another thing you love doing is getting into his stuff. I am sure it's just a phase (which may last a long time), but all of the sudden you decide to sit in his bumbo chair (funny enough that you actually still fit into it) or climb into his car seat carrier. The other day I found you sitting in his activity go around thing... I had to pick you up out of it which was pretty funny. Or sometimes you'll go and lay on his little floor mat and even put your head where I sometimes lay him into a cushy head pillow. Also when he cries, you often start crying or whining too probably for the same kind of attention. Another thing we noticed is when you talk to Cameron, your voice changes and it becomes super high which is pretty cute.

This picture is from a very fun Friday morning at the Quail Botanical Gardens. I tried to take a lot of pictures there with our camera because it's such a pretty place to walk around. It also has a fun tree house, a water stream and a railroad track which we enjoyed.

I really liked this one where you're standing on the bench looking at a waterfall coming down. Looks like you are concentrating pretty hard.

Did I mention that I love taking Fridays off!?

The next one is of you and your 2 friends Kingston and Troy.

And the last one is you standing on a rock taking a brake from playing in the water stream.