Malcolm at 7 Months Old

He's crawling!  Malcolm is seven months old and on the go.  He is a busy guy, rolling, Army crawling ("swimming" as GG calls it), testing out real crawling, and sitting himself up from lying.  I had a moment of sadness at how quickly he's growing when I went in to get him up from his nap a few days ago and he was sitting up in his crib, grinning at me and waiting to be picked up.  He's started reaching for us, and will now crawl to mama and dada.  He also perpetually has a finger in his mouth, and drool running down his chin. Darn those slow-emerging teeth!

Malcolm to a "T" at seven months: happy with a finger in his mouth

His favorite toys are cords, the remote, and anything sister has. He likes forbidden fruit! He also loves his paci, cars and balls (anything he can bat at and crawl after), and anything that makes noise.

He's getting tidier about eating his baby food, and starting to eat puffs and things with some texture without gagging.

He continues to take three naps (sometimes even four) a day, and sleeps from 7-7 with several wake ups in the night. He loves me for my milk.

House hunting: Yep, this fits me just right, ma! 

He's steady enough when sitting to get in the bath with sister now! 

His preferred pose when he needs to see over his shoulder

We hear a good deal of "NOOOOO" followed by Lucy running after him,
trying to keep him from things she's staged juuuuust so. 

Nice try, mom.  

Army crawling under the table

Oh hey...I was just giving this baby a kiss

Buns in the air, fast asleep

Up on all fours, crawling! 

Hey, where'd you go? 

This is what happens when I ask daddy to help me take pictures

And a short video of him crawling at 6.5 months: 

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!  This was the first year since we got married that we spent Thanksgiving with the Hendricks side of the family.  It was a delightfully mellow occasion, centered on thankfulness and family.  

We're thankful for these two little bookworms

Her favorite auntie! 

Clearly they're related! 

Watching a video before bedtime

I love this little pilgrim!

Puddle Stomping

The day was cold and fairly clear, and we decided to go for a walk.  We wanted to mix it up, and since the slides were too wet to be any fun we made our way to a trail near our condo.  Lucy wasn't too keen on walking, as you can see, but she WAS excited about the many puddles we encountered.  She had her rain boots on, which means she was allowed to stomp to her heart's content.  

Hitching a ride with dada

The first of many puddles: they just kept getting bigger! 

There were mammoth puddles to be waded.  The first one Lucy took on and walked almost to the top of her boots before backing out and asking for help around.  The second she felt a little more brave and took right off.  Somehow I knew this was going to be worth recording... "It" just seemed inevitable. What was "it", you ask? Well, watch to the end and you'll see.  

Thankfully she's a good sport about such things and as soon as we told her she could ride home in the ergo she was a happy girl once more.  By the time we got home Lucy was laughing about her misadventure and asking to see the "beedeo" over and over again.  

 

Blurry, but had to capture the aftermath

Daddy cleaning up his girl

She got to wear mama's sweatshirt AND ride in the ergo: she was a HAPPY girl! 

Two studs! 

 I promised her a toy bath and warm cocoa (hot cocoa is intimidating, y'all).  She thanked me by spilling it all over herself, turning the bath brown, sobbing that her bath was ruined for the entire time it took to empty and refill it, refusing to drink any cocoa thereafter, and telling us she was "all done" in the bath about two minutes later...  At which point she started crying afresh because she was COLD, whilst simultaneously refusing and rebuffing all my attempts at dressing her. Gotta love toddlers!

Home for hot cocoa -- which she proceeded to spill all down herself, resulting in the need for a fresh bath! 

Malcolm at 6 months

Malcolm Man is SIX MONTHS old.  I nearly forgot it was his half-birthday.  It was late, the room was dark, but we managed to capture his six month old self.  Babies don't keep despite my attempts to bottle him up and keep him at this sweet, lovable, squishable, phase.  

Height: 29.5 inches

Weight: 20 pounds. 

Head: off the charts, officially. By a good margin. Does this mean he has the largest head ever for a 6 month old? 

So happy!

He is just the happiest little fella!  He lights up at the sight (or sound) of his sister.  She makes him giggle more than anyone else.  He's thinking about crawling.  He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth before plopping back down. He makes consistent backward progress, which is one of the few things that makes him rather grumpy. 

He loves to bounce and jump and will spend long periods of time bouncing in his jonny jump-up. He really, really loves it when we sit with him and he bounces in a circle and discovers we're still there with each revolution.  He sits up by himself and rarely tips over any more. He loves his new perspective! 

He has also mastered grabbing and putting in his own paci this month. I first noticed when I laid him down for a nap and tried to give him a paci only to discover he'd already found one and put it in his mouth. Sweet baby!  He loves to nap, and almost always goes down without a fuss. He does, however, like to get up on his hands and knees to watch me leave the room. Just to tug at the heartstrings further, he likes to whimper at me. Gah! 

He naps two to three times a day. He eats solid foods one to two times a day. He still nurses every three hours or so.  He rolls and pivots and makes his way around the house now, and it won't be long before he's chasing his big sister, getting into all her precious belongings. 

Baby model

Still a spitter! But a SEATED spitter! Sister is helpful with the pillows 

He can sit for long periods of time now! 

He does occasionally cry. It's so cute and sad. He gets lots of snuggles! 

Trying out sister's Paw Patrol hat

 It was dark because time marches on.  This so captures the craziness (and his sweetness) we were experiencing.  I realized just before bedtime that he was six months old today. We'd decided to list our condo for sale (more on that in another post), and I was trying to get our place ready for pictures. Pictures -- right. Malcolm. My son. My baby. I almost postponed for the next day when we had better light, he wasn't wearing his same pajamas that he'd been wearing for 24 hours, that had spit up and food stains on them... But I decided "this is us at six months." And this is him: so cheerful, even minutes before bedtime! I just love this chunka-man!

Look who can get his own paci now!

My sweet baby giant: finally took him out of the bassinet. *sniff sniff*