6...er...7 1/2 Month Check Up

As I left Ando's 4 month check up, I stopped by the receptionist's desk to schedule his 6 month appointment. She paged through the calendar and said, "Okay, that will be...August 28."

"Um, I'm going to have to get back to you." You may recall that that was a fairly busy week for us. We had just gotten home from vacation, I started work, and we moved.

Thus, Anders only just had his 6 month check up today. He's 7 1/2 months old. Poor second child/son of a working mom. His daddy took him in. Ando had to get four shots. See his band-aids on his chubby thighs?Anyway, the doctor's diagnosis is that he's perfect. He's weighs 20 pounds, 3 ounces and is 2'4" tall. That's a perfect 75th percentile all around. Hey, we have a normal sized baby!

Other milestones: Anders just got two teeth at the same time a few days ago. If you look really closely at the first picture, you can see them. He's also trying really hard to crawl. He lunges forward from his bum and ends up on his belly, where he can pull himself in a circle with his arms. Sometimes he makes a bit of forward progress but he's not yet using his legs. You can see how badly he wants to be able to move himself.

Anders is babbling more and more, and saying cute syllables like "dadada" and "nanana." He's also figured out that screaming is both fun AND gets our attention if we've been busy with other stuff for too long.

He's also trying to pull himself up to standing, which is shown in the video below. It's funny because he doesn't use his legs to stand up yet, either, so he just ends up getting stuck with his arms above his head all the time.

My personal favorite milestone happened just last night. Anders has never really slept through the night, and I wasn't pushing it with "sleep training" the way I did with Isaac. But last night we put him to bed at 7:30, I nursed him at 9:30, and then he slept until 8:00 the next morning! It was FANTASTIC! I woke up a few times just enough to think, "Hmm, Anders hasn't woken up yet." Then when Zach brought him to me at 8:00, I was like, "SWEET!" So here's hoping that happens again.

Anders is at my absolute favorite baby age right now. He can sit up and play on his own, but he can't crawl yet. He's such a sweetheart. He is a very snuggly baby. He loves to bury his face in my shoulder or chest and he grabs my face to mush his own face against it, kind of his own version of a kiss. He's very attached to a blankie that I crocheted for him, and it's hilarious because apparently I didn't do a very good job on it. It has probably ten big holes in it, so when we get him up from naps he's got his arms and legs stuck through the holes. I tried to fix it, but I think the yarn is too soft and slippery to hold up to his blankie lovin'. He's much more attached to it then even Isaac was with "cold blankie" at this age, but he doesn't really love the mimi the way his brother did.

When we first moved into our new house, we had the boys sharing a room so that we could have an office and a guest room, but then we had a lot of problems with Isaac's sleep and he was waking up Anders, so we moved Anders out. Now they each have their own rooms, and I am truly loving it. I get to have special quiet bedtimes with Anders the way I did with Isaac--singing him songs, quietly nursing and rocking him to sleep. We're so blessed in our new house!

I think I'd like to push pause and keep Anders just like this for a little while.