Babydays: Six months

June 06, 2004

Six months

Six months ago Gus arrived...'bursting on to the scene' some might say. I'm having one of those days where time at once feels fast and slow. It feels like Gus has been with us forever, like he was never not with us. It also feels like he was just born and I'm still trying to make sense of that whole day. (Remember, my first words after Gus was born were: "I'm so confused!" Guess I still am.)

Six months ago

Today

I mean, how do we now have a little boy intermingled with our lives? John and I still look at each other at least once a week and marvel at the fact that we made a baby. We're parents. We are. John and I. Mama and Papa. Wow.

The changes come so quick. This past week has been full of change. For example, Gus now opens his mouth and welcomes...or practically beckons...the spoonful of oatmeal to enter. Yes, folks, we have conquered the dreadful cereal, whooppee! He's up to three meals of cereal a day, mainly because I just can't keep up with the growing boy all by myself, and also because he's just hungry. Big hunger for the growing growing growing boy. Today was a special food day, though. Today was the first bite of green beans! Yummy green beans, blended up fresh by Papa. I wondered if we would go through the whole refusual phase as we did with cereal, but no! He ate the whole bowlful. Thank you, thank you, Gus. He's also able to hold a sippy cup with some water. Sometimes he gets it in his mouth, and sometimes he can get water by himself.

Gustav's hands. He has such precision now. Just today he was determined to take John's glasses off. So he did. Again. And again. And again. Gus also likes to reach for anything now. This weekend we almost had three spilled glasses of water, all saved by what I'd like to call the Mama reflex (will I always be that fast? Or faster yet, oooh.... ??) Plenty of hands in my food, one in particular covered with eggplant spread (that hand went promptly in my mouth, it was just reflex!) and one dead-on grab of an oatmeal-filled spoon. I now see we need to be ultra careful about what we keep out as it doesn't take long at all to go from table to mouth.

Will. Gus is starting to have preferences and obvious desires. He loves to play on the floor with this little play center that plays music. He prefers when the songs with voices play over just plain music. He prefers to play with the center than not with the center, as I found out today when I put the center over him then moved it away again. The frustration that came out of Gus was amazing, he broke out into tears. I love that he knows what is fun to him.

Rolling. Gus loves to roll from side to side, and is able to do full circles by using this method. He doesn't really roll to his stomach much, but he can. When we put him on his stomach, he is starting to put his left knee under his belly. That scares me. We bought some outlet plug protectors recently. We need to start babyproofing. It's also made me more diligent about vacuuming the floor. We don't want the poor guy to become the human Swiffer.

Play. Gus loves to just play by himself. We can put him down for a little bit and he can occupy himself with the toys at hand. He is also a huge fan of books. Gus will kick and kick and have wide eyes while we go through books. I'm so glad it's fun for him now. Gus also seems to love music. Today at Unity there was a live band and he was kicking up a storm to the beat, it was hysterical!

Talking. No more talking as of yet... no more hi, but it will come. Gus does babble, but not all the time. He definitely likes to take it all in, but he does have bursts of excitement.

The best things ever are the laughter and the full smiles. This boy can dish the smiles out to just about anyone. Gus loves it when John makes silly faces or plays peek-a-boo. I like to run up to him when John is holding him. The giggles make him hide his face on John's chest. We are so in love with him.

Gus, thank you for the best six months ever. I hope we're doing right by you. We love you.

Posted by janna at June 6, 2004 10:55 PM