Dear Max,
Today you are 6 months old and this month I have seen more changes in you than ever. You are sitting on your own very well now. This last month you have been practicing and you have been very wobbly, but in the last few days you can turn your head and reach for things and not fall over. You also are standing very well. You can support your weight pretty much by yourself, you just have to keep working on your balance. You are scooting also. You can raise your body off the floor and put your knees underneath you and scoot. The only problem is you go backwards! You can scoot from one end of the room to the other, backwards. I think you will be crawling very soon and hopefully you will learn to go forwards.
You have taken very well to your sippy cup and you love to hold it and suck down water with juice or just water. However, you will still not drink milk from any other source but the original tap, yours truly. What a brat! This past week you have started chewing. I think you saw Emery doing it this past weekend and she taught you something! You have been eating those Gerber puffs and you are actually chewing them with your gums. At first I would bite them in half for you so you wouldn’t choke on them but now I can give you a whole one and you chew it and eat it pretty fast. This morning you were actually able to pick one up and put it in your mouth. Your coordination is improving so much and it is amazing to see how fast you are learning.
There have been many firsts this month. You got your first hair cut. Your hair has started to curl and there were a couple of long pieces on the side and in the front that I trimmed. Of course I put them in a plastic bag to save for your baby book. You also, as of the last 2 days, have cut your first tooth. I could definitely tell you were hurting today because you wouldn’t nurse much and you seemed pretty cranky. You also got your first spankin’ this month. We initially were going to use a plastic spatula thing to spank you with, but it makes too much noise in church flapping against your pants (haha, that sounds so funny). Now we are using a plastic spoon instead. You are learning tone of voice and that a swat means that I better not do whatever it is I am doing. I know it will take some time, but you will learn. You get upset when I say “No” in a deep, stern voice. I’m hoping using this voice will be enough to teach you so I don’t have to spank you a lot. When I swat you, you just look at me and look at your leg like, “what are you doing?”. You don’t cry, but it does get your attention.
I can’t believe how fun you are now. We have so much fun just playing and going grocery shopping and doing things around the house. I love that you can now sit in the grocery cart and I don’t have to mess with your car seat or wearing a carrier. You love to look around and you try to grab everything, I can’t get too close to stuff. You are babbling so much! It has been such a drastic change in the last month. You were cooing before, but now you are babbling all the time. You say, ba, ma, ga, goo and that’s about all the cohert noises I can acutally spell out.
It’s official, you are a thumb sucker. You usually suck your thumb when you are tired, or upset (you use it to calm yourself down), and lately you suck your thumb in between every bite of food, which drives me crazy. Mostly though, you suck your thumb when I put you down for a nap. If I see you sucking your thumb, then I know you are tired and I put you in your crib. You are sleeping great and taking 2 long naps and 1 short one. You are like your mama, cranky if you don’t get enough sleep. I make sure you get your naps.
We had so much fun this past weekend getting to see your cousin Emery. You played together, you hit her in the head with the elephant on your exersaucer and made her cry. She splashed water constantly while yall were taking a bath and made you cry. Mostly though, you just watched each other and tried to grab at each other. It was so cute watching the two of you together, I pray there will be many more years of watching the two of you grow up knowing each other.
I can’t wait for what the next month holds. I am finally realizing how fast you are growing up and I am trying hard to cherish each moment and each stage because I know it will be gone soon. I love you sooooo much!
Love,
Mama
