6 months – Losing that little baby look…

(N.B. As always, the pictures are scaled in the HTML to fit this page – to see them clearly, please click on photos to enlarge)

Dearest Torsten,

The title of this month’s post came from something Mama’s cousin (your first cousin once removed – Mama only recently figured out how this works in English, which is pretty scary…) said, and she’s right – you’re losing that little baby look fast, and you’re growing into a big boy faster than Mama can keep up with.

This month has held a lot of firsts, and Mama hasn’t been there for many of them. You’ve learned to roll over from your back to your tummy, you’ve had your first fruits and vegetables, you’ve got a big boy laugh now which is horrendously infectious, and perhaps most significantly, you understand the idea of bedtime, and you’re not entirely happy about it. You don’t throw tantrums over bedtime or anything, but you do realize that the bedtime routine is about to mean bed, and your brain thinks it’d be much more fun to be awake than to sleep, regardless of how tired your little body is. It’s sort of funny.

And speaking of fruits and vegetables, now that you’ve entered the wonderful world of almost-big-people-food, you definitely have preferences. I’m inclined to think it’s related to texture. So far, what we know is this:

Pears? Ugh, pears. Here’s Papa feeding you your first pears…

Yeah, you could do without pears. You weren’t all that convinced 5 minutes later either, when Mama took a turn with your first fruit.

And you’re still not convinced.

Now bananas… those you’ll do, once you’ve figured out after the first two bites that they aren’t pears, and you’re very decorative with them:

But what is it that you really go for? The choice that will stain the most: sweet potatoes! Ooo, yes, the sweet potatoes, they are good. Mmmm sweet potatoes. And really, they’re so good that you really need to put your fingers in your mouth afterwards to spread the joy. Eventually they’re all over your face and hands and, well, I guess that’s what babies are supposed to do.

But yes, that’s right – given the choice of tasty foods, you want to be sure to eat the stuff that’s going to turn everything orange once it gets all over everything. Next in the “learn to eat” queue is either carrots or green beans, and I’m pretty sure you’ll pick the carrots for their staining value. We’ll see.

Anyway, enough about food. This month has been Papa Month for you, and you are totally enjoying it. I admit to being jealous – when Papa comes home with a new story about what you’ve done that day or tells me what your latest trick is, I do wish I’d been there to see it. That said, I don’t begrudge you two your time together or Papa his own discoveries about you – it’s pretty awesome to have a Papa who’s so involved in your life, and I know your Papa agrees that you are the best thing since… well, anything.

(Note that Papa found that you can totally bring down your lion playmat gym (above), and you think you’re totally cool when you do it. Also note that the *ahem* interesting sock fashion was chosen by Papa!!!)

But as I said, you’re growing up fast. It’s not just that you’re bigger, though you are – you’re nearly 19 pounds! That’s pretty normal, actually, just a bit above average, but you’re super tall as well (in the 98th percentile), so you’re still our skinny snuggly little thing. Oh, and your head is in the 96th percentile or something, meaning that there’s a brain in there just ready to make trouble. So yes, you’re bigger, but more importantly, your personality is really shining through. You talk, you laugh, you imitate Mama and Papa, and you have opinions about lots of things. You’re so curious, and you take such delight in things. This morning, you and Mama watched a big yellow butterfly land on a rose, and you were just in awe. You’re a sweet little boy who loves people, although you’ve started to get upset when Mama and Papa leave the room, and you sometimes just can’t help smiling, even if you’re so tired and cranky you want to pass out.

Also on the “new things this month” front, your hair is growing back a lovely light brown, except for that little bald spot you keep rubbing on the back of your head, which seems poised to stay around for a while:

(You can tell I’m your Mama by the way I think the back of your head is really cute )

What’s probably most exciting is that you’ve turned into a sturdy little guy who can do things – you can sit or stand up with very little support, and in point of fact, that’s what you’d rather be doing most of the time. We got you a jumperoo to play in, and you bounce up and down and up and down and giggle and smile for long periods of time. We’re pretty sure that once you’ve learned to move from Point A to Point B (something that’s probably coming extremely soon), we’re in big trouble. You’re probably going to be the kid who disassembles the DVD player and puts it back together to make a sentient toaster. But first, you’ll observe the DVD player for a while to see what it does. You’re definitely a combination of both of your parents (and, I think, probably the best of us both).

The cool thing about you being such a grown-up baby (as opposed to the fragile, newborn kind of baby) is that you’re ready to experience a lot of things you couldn’t before. You’ve played in the big bathtub and the shower now (and boy, do you think the splashing potential of the bathtub is awesome!), and you’re ready to take some Mama and Me classes at the swimming pool, something Mama is looking forward to.

You get a lot more out of walks than you used to as well, and you really love them – you love looking at the trees and the cars and the people, and you’re definitely aware of everything around you. You really enjoy being outside in the garden with Papa and you love looking around at colorful displays and objects at the store. According to Papa, you have a propensity to giggle at women, especially those with long hair. At least you don’t do to them what you’re still doing to Mama, which is to remind her that you really miss breastfeeding, and that if you wanted to, you could… ahem… gain access all by yourself if Mama didn’t stop you when you try. That last bit is pretty funny, because you do it with the most endearing smile on your face and cute babbling, like “C’mon Mama, I’m cute, you’d do anything for me, right???”

Ah, the guilt! And you show every sign of remaining übercute as you get bigger, so I’m really terrified of what you’ll con me into once you talk.

But I’m looking forward to it anyway. You’ve reached such a fun age, and you’re really the best kid ever. We’re having a great time being your parents, and Mama is really, really glad she’s able to go back to being Mama more often now.

We love you lots, Torsten Monster!

Love,

Mama