Crawling

Can't say he is at an expert level yet, but he is surely crawling...

Andrew - Month 7

As you might have noticed from the videos, big things were afoot in the past month: we've started him on solids, and he's now mobile. It's been quite fun feeding him and trying to figure out his likes/dislikes. He'll try anything at least once, which is great. I can only hope he'll keep it up.

This month also marks his first hair cut, with me behind the scissors. At least at first. Charity was not entirely pleased with my initial efforts so Grandma had to help "fix" it the next day. Unfortunately for Andrew, I subscribe to the "practice makes perfect" school of thought. He'll just have to bear with me while I get the hang of it. I figure I'd I start early, before he knows any better and can complain ;)

I had the great pleasure of staying home with him this month on paternity leave, and I have to say I can definitely get used to this whole napping in the afternoon business (in addition to getting to spend so much time with him). It took a while, but by the end of the month we had a pretty good routine going.

Andrew is at his most random in the morning, waking up anytime between 6-8am. Once up though, he's pretty much predictable. He would take three 30 minute naps during the day every 2 hours or so. He'd eat solids after the first nap, drink milk after the second, and more milk after the third. Any errands I needed to run would happen after his second feeding.

Charity would feed Andrew solids again when she got home from work. After a bit of play, we'd initiate his bedtime routine: a bath, reading Goodnight Moon, and more milk. By this time (about 7:30pm) he'd usually drift off to sleep on his own...

On a good night, he'd wake up hungry around 2am, when I'd bottle-feed him, and that would be it. More often than not though, he'd wake up a couple more times during the night, just looking for comfort. All it would take is a touch or the pacifier and he'd just fall back to sleep.

Sit Up

Oh dear. Andrew learned a new trick today -- how to sit up!

It may be great for him, but I'm going to have to lower his crib down to the lowest position. From a sitting position, he can already haul himself up to a standing position as long as there's something that will support his weight. And in a crib, all four sides can fulfill this role quite nicely. I don't even want to think what mischief he can get into while standing in his crib.

Hence the lowering operation, which will make it extremely difficult to put him down to sleep. Charity can't even reach that far, and will have to put him down in a sitting position first. Not exactly the ideal scenario when trying to get him to sleep.

Pucker Up

Here's Andrew trying kiwi for the first (and only) time. This is the only thing that he has refused to try again. The funniest bit is in the last 10 seconds, after he foolishly trusts Mommy and attempts a second spoonful.

Sorry son. That sour sure sneaks up on you, doesn't it?

Solids

We started Andrew on solids a couples of weeks ago. Instead of starting him on the traditional rice cereal, we went the adventurous route. Here's the scoreboard so far:

• Loves: acorn squash, butternut squash, fish, avocado.
• Neutral: rice and barley porridge.
• Dislikes: banana.
• Hates: kiwi.

The kiwi is sort of a stretch anyway. I didn't expect him to like something so sour. It was fun feeding it to him and watching his twisted facial expression though. Hee hee.

Discovery

Charity: Go wash your hands and give me your pinky.
Mark: OK?
Charity: Give it to Andrew.
Andrew: *suck suck suck*
Mark: So? He does this all the... Teeth!

Yup, Andrew's first tooth is out!

Andrew - Month 6

And just like that, it's been half a year. Half a year! Andrew's still growing like nobody's business, clocking in at 27.5 inches and 20 lbs. 2 oz. at his six month checkup. He can sit with ease, has a new found appetite for toes, and is a general ball of fun to be with. He's also doing the rock-forward-on-his-arms thing that's the precursor to crawling. Lord help us when he gets mobile...

Oh, and this whole stay-at-home dad thing? It's a blast.