Little Lord Steed:Six Months Old

At six months of age Little Lord Steed has become rather adept at moving around on his belly, rolling all directions, pivoting on his belly, and doing whatever else he can think of to reach an object on the floor that is just out of his reach and that he has just got to put in his mouth. I will admit that I have not spent a whole lot of time observing Little Lord Steed closely when I put him down on the floor. But I do know that when I put him down one place on his back, then leave the room and come back a few minutes later, he has usually moved well off his blanket and is facing the opposite direction from which he was placed and is now on his belly. And quite often all of this movement has been in a grand effort to reach some small scrap of paper, which he is then sucking/chewing on. This kid loves to put paper in his mouth--maybe he needs more fiber in his diet? (Or maybe I need to take the scissors away from his brothers?)

Speaking of diet, we have started to give him rice cereal every now and then, when we remember to, and while he seems very interested in putting the spoon in his mouth, he does not seem to enjoy the rice cereal all that much. He's more interested in trying to grab stuff off our plates and mouthing that stuff, rather than actually eating it. He did have a very small piece of sweet potato the other night and did actually eat most of it, though I think he found the flavor too exciting. At least the faces he pulled were exciting for us to watch.

He is getting close to crawling. A number of times today he got on his belly then pulled his legs under him, then started rocking back and forth. It is fun to watch him develop and reach milestones, but this is one that I am not looking forward to. A moving baby is a dangerous baby.

Jan 22 we moved him out of our room and into the crib in the boy's room. This move has been a good one. Good for me and good for him. It was rough the first few nights and he still usually wakes up once at night to eat, but overall he is sleeping well. In fact, just this week he has been going down around 8pm(!) waking up once to eat, and waking up for the morning around 7am. Though on Tuesday he slept all the way from 8pm to 7am with out waking up once! Amazing! I hope this pattern continues. The other good thing about the move is that he seems to be learning that being put in the crib means, 'go to sleep'. It used to be that we would put him in the crib for bed and he would scream for 45 minutes or more and then fall asleep, even though he was already tired, but now we put him in , and he settles right down and falls asleep with little to no crying.

Little Lord Steed has developed a most horrible high-pitched scream. A scream that pierces my ears and causes them to ring, and pierces my soul and causes it to bleed. It is that awful.

After me (if I walk by and don't pick him up he screams), Little Lord Steed's favorite person is still the Big O. The Big O can get a laugh out this baby every time.

He still loves to bounce on his legs and flap his arms. He is now much more interested in his toys. He loves to put anything in his mouth and then explore it. He still drools a lot. Is getting more hair. Can almost sit up without support. When he masters this skill I think he will be a much happier baby: He will be able keep his toys closer to his body for longer periods of time. Right now, he'll have a toy, drop it and then have to struggle to get to wherever it has rolled off to, which he often gets very frustrated by.

Today Little Lord Steed was not at all happy, so picture-taking did not go well. I got very few smiles and lots of crying. I commented to Theric that I think Little Lord Steed is the least smiley of all our children. I think this has always been true. Getting him to smile is difficult. And he also seems to be more fussy than the other two were: he always wants to be held. I remember the Big O and Large S being content lying or sitting, playing with a toy while I prepared dinner or performed some other task. But not Little Lord Steed. He wants your constant attention.

My how time flies!

Little Lord Steed, I can hardly believe that today you are halfway through your first year of life on earth.