In the meantime…
look at this sweet little face. Taken yesterday as he woke from his afternoon nap.
Des’ half-year birthday
Little Des turned 6 months old on Tuesday the 18th. I wanted to post this then, but this is the first chance I’ve had. Busy times.
I’m amazed at how fast six months can go by, but I’m also glad that those months are behind us. The best part of the first year is definitely the second six months, so I’m looking forward to a baby who is becoming more and more fun, responsive, and social.
He’s had some big developmental milestones over the past few weeks. He is reaching out and grabbing anything that catches his fancy, and he’s good putting it right into his mouth when he gets it. He’s scooting around and I won’t be surprised if he’s crawling in a month or so. He’s this close to sitting up unassisted. He can definitely do it, but if he doesn’t pay close attention he just topples right over. I give him a week to have it mastered.
Socially, he’s coming alive. He loves to interact with us, but he seems to enjoy G the most. And of course, G loves interacting with him! G’s favorite times are when he’s playing in his room and I bring Des and lay him on his tummy in front of whatever G is doing. I can go get some work done, and they get some great quality time together. G loves explaining all about his towers (or train tracks, or parking lots, or his coloring, etc.) to him, and Des just lays there happily watching the entire time.
One thing he recently started doing that I find both funny and maddening is that when he’s nursing, and he’s done with his down-to-business eating and is just “hanging out”, he begins blowing raspberries. On my boob. Like I said, cute, funny…and maddening! LOL! I say his name as seriously as I can and tell him he needs to finish eating or we’re done, and all I get is a full-of-boob smile and more raspberries. Silly little boy!
The biggest news is that after six months of exclusive breastfeeding, he started solids this week. Nothing drastic, just little bites of our food while we’re having dinner, but I’m amazed that he took right to it! Gray was resistant to any solids at six months, so I waited longer with him, and he ended up having serious issues with anything that wasn’t liquid consistency…he was 9 months old before he could gum on any type of mashed table food without gagging, and he was a year old before he could eat real table food without gagging on it (and often, he would throw up—he just couldn’t figure out what to do with that chunk of food on the back of his tongue). I remember on his first birthday, we had to have an ice cream cake because he couldn’t handle chewing and swallowing real cake! Ah, memories. 
But to my surprise, Des had this eating thing mastered the very first time. I started with pinches of bread, and was amazed that he gummed it right down and then fussed for more! So far this week he’s had rice with teeny bits of beef, bread, and turnip greens. He loved it all and kept popping his little mouth open for more, even fussing when I wasn’t fast enough getting it to him. I’m wondering if he’ll even be interested in commercial baby food at all, since he’s taken so well to bits of table food right off. I’m wondering how his weight gain is going to play out now. He’s still teeny tiny at 13 lbs (something like 5th percentile for his age). I guess we’ll see what happens!
Recently, we had pizza for dinner and I let him suck on my crust. He loved it! Watch the video to see him going to town and then what he did whenever I’d take it away:
The next day we were so mean that we tried it again, just to see if he’d react the same way. He was cool at first, but man, did he ever get mad! In my defense, it was time for him to nurse & go for his nap, so I had to take it away anyway. He was picked up at the end and taken and breastfed, so don’t trust him when he’s acting like we’re starving him. 
The lighting is also much better on this one since it was daytime:
But, I don’t feel old
A couple of weeks ago I got a chance to go see my favorite indie rocker play a live show in town. It took a lot of planning and things were required to go perfectly in order for me to be able to go. He was slated to play at 9pm. The routine here is for me to nurse D at 8pm for bed and then while Philip puts him in the crib for the night, I spend a few minutes snuggling with G before he goes to bed at 8:30. So the plan was for me to be ready to go by 8:00, then do my usual routine with both boys, and it went off without a hitch. I was done with both boys’ bedtimes and ready to leave by 8:30.
It was just me going by myself, since Philip would be staying home with the boys. We made arrangements for a friend, who was going to be there helping to host the show, to meet me in the parking lot and escort me in. Oh, I forgot to mention the show was at a small bar downtown, hence me wanting (and probably needing) an escort! I always have problems with creepy guys hitting on me at bars, and with me being alone this time and this bar being downtown in kind of a weird part of town, both of us felt like it was a good idea for me to have him get me safely in and out of there.
The whole reason for explaining all this is coming up. So I got there a little after 9pm, called said friend from the parking lot, and waited for him to come out and walk me in. He did, and I stopped at the door to pay the cover charge and get ID’d. I had put my trusty driver’s license in the back pocket of my jeans, and as I reached back to get it, the guy doing the IDing stopped me and said,
“Eh, you definitely look old enough,” and proceeded to stamp my hand.
OUCH.
I looked at him deadpan and gave him my most sarcastic,
“Thanks.”
He just chuckled and waved me in.
I am old.
And apparently, I officially look it. I mean, he had no question I was old enough. That stings a little!
Aside from that painful dose of reality, the show was good and I’m glad I got a chance to go. Of course, in my oldness, I left at 10:30 so I could get home and head to bed by 11:00. I guess in reality, it’s not so much oldness, but motherhood that required my early exit. Not much incentive to stay out late when you know you have to be up at 4am for a date with the breast pump. LOL!