Happy Half Birthday, Gabe!

Gabe is six months old today, and he is one round and happy little dude. The last time I weighed him (on our wildly inaccurate scale) he came in around 21 pounds. And that was a couple of weeks ago.

Gabe now passes toys freely from one of his hands to the other. Sometimes, when less-than-happy, he will complain “yah yah yah yah” and a “da” or “ba” will sneak into the mix. He laughs easily, in intoxicating gales. In the bouncy chairs at home and at daycare, he now launches himself on great springy trajectories, sometimes even lifting his feet from the floor. And he turns in them freely to get at the toy he wants – which is usually whatever he can get in his mouth.

No teeth have emerged yet. He (along with Chris and myself) has weathered a second cold, but thankfully he is shrugging this one off. For him, it’s been just a little cough. Chris, on the other hand, feels run down and spitting out ectoplasm. I have escaped my nemesis, “lung-butter”, thankfully.

I have caught on that I need a plan for weekend mornings, because, of course, Gabe wakes up promptly at seven and wants to start his routine. If I get him and myself dressed and out of the house, then I’m much more likely to enjoy the rest of the day. So, destination coffee shop! Maybe next weekend I’ll take the (silly) barista’s advice and change Gabe on the sofa. Perhaps a good soaking of pee will convince them that a changing table in the restroom would be good for business.

Next weekend I will also be having a designated mom-sleeps-in morning. I have avoided this so far because I wanted to keep up my milk supply, but in a strange turn of events, Gabe has started turning up his nose at most of his daily formula bottles. And my milk supply immediately picked up the slack. So, a skipped nursing may result only in wet discomfort for me, which I can tolerate.

Happy half birthday, Gabriel!