Baby Gant Days: 6 months old !

Look at what a big boy he is.

What a difference 6 months makes! Within approximately one week of turning 6 months Benjamin (1) started sitting up steadily, (2) would roll over with ease: front-to-back and back-to-front and (3) stopped spitting up with great frequency and volume. It was rather amazing!

All the doctors say that a baby's esophageal sphincter muscle calms down and starts actually doing it's job (keeping food down) at 6 months time, but I just wondered if that would truly happen for Benjamin. I had told Drew some weeks ago that if Benjamin did not stop spitting up at 6 months I was going to be pretty down. But that is nearly behind us. A new day has dawned for our little guy, and we're thrilled at his advancements.

Because of his work schedule, Drew does not get to see much of Benjamin each day. But, Benjamin clearly knows who his daddy is and loves seeing him and spending time with him. Whenever Benjamin wakes up in the later evening, Drew first tries to console him and loves having chances to cuddle with him. We're losing our baby day by day. This is supposed to happen, but it's still hard.

He's tipping the scales at 20lbs, 3oz and running 27 inches tall. I don't know how to keep him in clothes. He's busting out of Jasper's old clothes, and anything less than 12month-sized clothes are too small. Soon he'll outgrown his car seat (at 22lbs), and he's in size 4 diapers. Size 4!

The foray into solid foods has begun with the introduction of rice & oatmeal cereal. He did not reject it out of hand like his older brother had, but we quickly determined that he likes it thick and warm. Anything too thin, and the mere process of getting his lips and tongue around the spoon would push the watery cereal out of his mouth. But he'd turn around and open wide like he wanted more. Ah, parenting ... it's such trial and error! We've got Benjamin going on both rice cereal and oatmeal cereal. Jasper loves oatmeal himself, so he thinks it's pretty cool that Benjamin likes it too.

He talks and babbles in a beautifully happy tone. He's most eloquent after eating, when his belly is full and he hasn't a care in the world. He's full of smiles most all of the time and still thinks one of the best things in the world is his older brother.

Here Benjamin is trying hard to figure out what his brother is eating ... it's Cheerios, of course. On this particular day, Jasper had been feeling sick all morning, and here after a long nap he was feeling well enough to eat something. I gave him dry Cheerios, and he took the bowl out to the living room and sat right next to Benjamin. He could not have sat any closer to him, and it was absolutely adorable!

Despite the fact that he looks tippy, Benjamin actually has remarkable control over his body. He can reach far ahead of himself to get something and then pull himself right back up.

As you might imagine, everything still goes in Benjamin's mouth. On Easter Sunday, when I picked him up from the nursery, two workers told me "we think he's teething." I just smiled, sort of laughed and said "did he get anyone's jaw?" That seems to be his favorite thing on which to gnaw. I'm not spat upon anymore, but I'm nearly drooled to death every day.

Benjamin does not have any consistent wake-up time in the morning. two weeks ago, for three days running he was sleeping past 8:30am ... one day until nearly 10am. I couldn't believe it! Then 4 days later he was awake at 6am. Go figure! Despite the weirdness to his wake-up time, Benjamin still naps like a champ (thank you, Weissbluth).

Benjamin likes to play with both the piano and guitar. He loves it when he can get the guitar to play music (and loves it especially when Jasper turns it on and dances for us!) I wonder if this indicates any musical affinity.

Benjamin likes being in the jumpy seat, and here it appears he's doing an Irish jig. He can get some serious air while jumping, but it doesn't take long for him to go from laughing to crying.