6 Months: Smiles, Sitting up, Bioterrorism and Seeing the World

Toby, aka Little Mitchell Man, is 6 months old and weighs in at around 19lbs. As most parents seem to say, this new stage is my favorite!! Every new stage will be my favorite! It's been a VERY fun month with Toby. Look at those little teeth, sweet dimples and chunky legs! Sometimes it's just too much. In spite of his first real cold this month, he's continued to be a happy baby, still smiling at everyone he meets. He has been pretty quiet as far as his baby chatter goes....we'll see!

 

 He enjoys sitting up and playing with his toys or taking baths. He jumps forever in his jumper and LOVES to sit and read books. My favorite is reading books with him. He just snuggles in on your lap, listens to all the words, looks at the pictures and even helps turn the pages. He's such a smart little cookie! One of our favorite things is when he's done with his bath, we'll stand him up on the counter to look at himself. He just smiles when he sees himself and dances around. It's literally the cutest thing he does. It's hilarious! Speaking of baths, we did have a run in with baby eczema. Poor little guy was all dry and red on his back and head. Turns out we were washing him too much (LOL, can we say first time parents?!) and using a soap that was too harsh for his sensitive skin. So he's now on Aveeno and it's all cleared up.

 He still makes the silliest faces, with those crazy eyebrows of his! And from time to time lets out a good cry....I can't resist posting a crying picture here or there. That little red nose is just too cute! He is VERY observant of the world around him. For instance, he still tracks us around the house and now follows the dogs around the house too. He'll watch them play and chase each other for long periods of time. They are still nervous that he'll catch them (as evidence, the picture below) but it's so cute when they snuggle up with him or check in on him when he's playing on the floor. Toby is always trying to grab on to them so I'm sure one of these days, soon, he'll catch a puppy!

 A couple days after Christmas we went up to Dustin's Grandparent's house to celebrate his Grandma Dora's birthday and Christmas with the Mitchell Family. It's always a fun day with all the cousins, opening presents, lots of food and playing by the lake. Toby had a great day, took a very long nap, photo-bombed us and got to meet his cousin (second cousin?) Conor. Conor is a couple months younger than Toby but they were all smiles when they met. Toby was, of course, trying to grab a hold of him and play. But in this picture, they are holding hands.

I don't think we have a picture of it yet, but Toby has learned how to give kisses (thanks to his Mommy!). Well they aren't exactly kisses  yet but he grabs (literally, ouch!) your face/hair/eye and pulls you towards his open mouth. Sooooo silly but so sweet!

We had our first experience with everyone in the house being VERY sick at the same time. For a couple of days we named Toby a bioterrorist because we are certain both of the sicknesses (head cold and stomach thing) came from him! But after a weekend of cleaning everything, we are all on the mend. He gets a little fussy and sometimes has a hard time going back to sleep (or down the first time) when he is sick but thankfully we still have that trusty swing that lulls him back to sleep. One night, while he was sick, he literally slept the entire night - 8pm to 5am. (That's a first!) I woke up at 3am well rested but worried so I tip-toed into his room and saw he was still breathing, coughing in fact. And let him be until we had to be up at 5.

This month has been another one full of joy, sharing life with our little sweet pea, bioterrorist, snuggle bug, Terby, Tobz, Little Mitchell Man! It's now time to start him trying out solid foods....something he and his Daddy D-Train might have already started when Mommy wasn't around....LOL. Any thoughts/advice about this next stage are welcomed! Can't wait to see what new adventures await us in month 7!