Sneak Peek for Next Week

Matthew is still so much fun. He passed the 6 month mark a little while ago, which is crazy. He's been with us more than half a year??? He's only been with us half a year??? (I am going to spend the rest of my life incredulous about kids' ages, I can tell.)

For the most part, it's awesome. I sort of have to laugh to myself that he was better at both sleeping through the night and rolling over 6 months ago than he is now. (I didn't want to admit either of those milestones back then, but I didn't need to worry . . . he stopped both at about 9 weeks and only does them intermittently now.)

ohhhhhhhhhh so little

But he's great! Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks.
(side note . . . I realized that the people who are going to watch these videos will get to see him in person soon, which sort of defeated the purpose of sharing the videos. Oh well. Now you know what you'll look forward too!)

• Toys. He loves toys! He is just so content with a pile or basket of toys to examine. Of course, the sorts of toys his parents play with (such as cell phones) are the most fun, but plastic colorful ones suffice too.

• Grabbing. He loves to grab our faces and clothes and stick his fingers in our mouth and eyes and whatnot. He also makes cute faces of his own.

Oh, boy. Such a beautiful baby. Only problem is, people were starting to think he was a she, no matter how much blue he was wearing. So when his hair touched his eyelashes, it was time for a haircut. And thus begins another boy of mine dealing with bad haircuts for the next several years of his life. (It's not as crooked as it looks in this next video . . . I blame the blurriness :D)

Speaking of gross motor skills, in addition to scooting while sitting, he scoots on his tummy all the time. Always the opposite direction of what he intended. He also likes to propel himself onto his tummy while sitting. Sometimes Kevin or I hear him squawking and see him stuck in some strange way and ask, "How on earth did you get there?" I'm excited for when he can go where he wants to go. (And a little nervous . . . if he manages to reach a drawer of clothes or tub of books, it's usually empty within a minute. What happens when they are all in reach?)

• Jabbering. I love how much he has to say! Blahs and bahs and dahs and squeals and all of it. Naturally, he stops the minute he sees a camera (I would too), so I have bunches and bunches of movies where I coax him to keep going, and he just smiles the whole time. I didn't bother uploading those because I finally got this one instead.

We were all sick on and off in January, and his laugh changed temporarily during that time. "He laughs like Bert," Joseph remarked. Kevin also calls it a machine gun laugh. Either way, as cute as it was, it's nice that he no longer laughs like he does in this video.

• Solid food. He loves it! It sure is gratifying to feed a child and have them like what you put in his mouth. Even when he shudders a bit.

I guess this next video isn't of him eating. He just has a really cute way of growling. And frowning.

Luckily, we mostly enjoy smiles around here! What a great little guy!