A Slice of Bryce (#13): Six Months!!!

I guess it's time that I stop dwelling on the fact that Bryce's first year is flying by. Today, he is halfway there, which, to me, is unfathomable.

Here's what has happened in the past month:

1) Bryce is still not sitting up entirely unassisted, though he can make it for several seconds without toppling over. We gave it a shot with the photo session today, and you'll see the end result in one of the pictures...

2) He HAS, however, started working on moving from one place to another with a mixture of rolls and scoots. No more laying him in a spot and expecting him to stay there, as evidenced by the fact that, twice yesterday, I left the living room for a couple of minutes and heard a THUD!, which ended up being his head hitting the hardwood floors as he rolled his way off of his mat. It took me two such incidences to learn my lesson (much to B's chagrin), and have now begun putting soft pillow barriers at the edge of his mat.

3) His scooting motion is pretty amusing. I've only seen him do it a couple of times, but the ladies at school say he does it all the time. While lying on his belly, he buries his face in the mat, which helps him to arch his back and propel forward with his legs, all with his belly still lying on the ground. Hard to describe. Impossible not to giggle when you see it. This movement has me thinking ahead to what I envision his first crawl will look like. If it's anything like his scoot, it'll be cute.

4) I'm amazed at how B loves to spend time on his belly. Neither of the girls were EVER like that. If they rolled onto their bellies, they would soon be whooping and hollering for help to get back over to their backs. Not B. He'll lay there and play with his toys forever.

5) Bryce's occasional sleeping woes continued this month. It didn't help that he suffered an ear/eye infection that required a 10-day cycle of Augmentin, which quickly became my least favorite of the antibiotic options for kids. It's got a bitter taste, and apparently doesn't do well on an empty belly, which I learned with B the hard way. (Note: If the bottle says "take with food", that apparently means that the kid should eat FIRST, not immediately AFTER the medicine. They really should be more clear in the instructions.) Anyway, as a result of the infection that brought with it a fever and nasty diapers, B and I got to spend a couple of quality days home alone together, and I think feeling below-par caused him to wake up once per night (for a week or so) and need to be soothed by a feeding session with Mommy. Thankfully, he went back to sleep each time, so I can't complain much. But I think he's fully recovered now, and his sleeping pattern is slowly getting back to normal.

6) Bryce has pretty much perfected his rice cereal and Level 1 baby food eating. It's probably time for me to make the jump to Level 2, which will bring some additional textures and tastes. Currently, he's eating rice cereal for a "snack" when he gets to school in the morning, and then he gets a jar of fruit at lunchtime and a jar of veggies at dinner. Still no sign of him cutting back on the amount of breastmilk he drinks. The boy can put down some milk, now.

7) The biggest annoyance at this age is that B has outgrown his infant carrier, but still can't sit up in a high chair or shopping cart when we're out and about. That will change this coming month, I'm sure.

8) As you'll see in the pictures below, Bryce's mouth is seemingly always open these days. And the drool never ends. Which is disappointing, since it means he is always wearing a bib, and I don't get to see much of the cute outfits he's wearing! I remember with the girls thinking that they were NEVER going to stop the slobbering and spitting up. But they did, and I know B will, too, so I'm trying to just live in the moment and be thankful that the bibs keep me from spending all day changing his clothes.

9) The biggest change in the past month that I've seen is that Bryce is really grabbing for his toys now. And I can tell that he's so close to holding his arms up to me when I reach to pick him up. That's one of my favorite milestones - it's nice to feel wanted!

I think that's it for this month. Happy half-birthday, Bugaboo!