Week 29 - The Off Week

So Amos was a little off this past week.  I chalked it up to him moving out of the wonderful "Content Just Sitting Here and Playing with My Toys" phase to the "I Want to be MOVING" phase.

He wasn't content just playing.  If he was on the floor, he needed to be standing.

  If he was standing, he needed to be standing by his table.

  If he was standing by his table, he needed to be riding on his dinosaur!  AND if we stopped playing, he cried -- more whined.  Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma Hubbard came for a visit this weekend.  It took a couple of hours and lot of work before Little Man even cracked a smile.

Saturday morning he woke up happier.  It was that day that I first noticed the spot on his gums.  Everything began to make sense.  I thought, "Maybe his attitude this past week was due to a tooth coming in."  Grandma took a close look and she thought it might be a tooth too.  And wouldn't you know it, Sunday evening I got a good look at his first tooth!

On Monday, Amos was back to his normal self.  He played on the floor with his toys for a long time that afternoon.  I guess an off week isn't too bad for getting a tooth out of the deal.  He still slept through the night and took all his naps.  I didn't even know it was happening until right before it popped up!

I think all of his visitors this past week kept him entertained and helped him forget about tooth pain.  Grammy and Aunt Audy came for a visit on Thursday.  Of course, he had to be standing.

And then Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma Hubbard came for the weekend.

Standing was still his favorite pastime.  If anyone came down to play with them, he would search for their hands until he found them and then pull himself up.  They took us out to eat for a late birthday celebration for me.  Amos sat all by himself in a high chair and had dinner of his own.  Here are a few eating pictures from the week.

Most of the time, he's like this while eating.

Sometimes he's like this: 

He was loving some banana. 

The men spent time working on the scooter and car and bike during the weekend.  They had some success and ended the weekend like this:

Can you tell they are related?

Our next adventure???  Crawling.  He is pretty close.  He kind of does the inch worm right now, but he's definitely covering some ground!

The best is yet to come!!!

Looky, Looky....

Someone got a tooth!  I'm a little worried about what might follow, but luckily this one popped up without too much fussiness.  About a week ago, he started sucking on his thumb all the time again.  I thought that we had broke this habit, but now I think it was part of the toothing process.  I hope all the rest are this easy!

Anticipation

We've had a restful few days this past week.  With the snow and cold weather last week, Amos and I stayed inside for the most part.  I finally feel like were back to normally from the holiday crazy-ness!  Amos and I are back in our groove.  Although, Amos' grove is always changing.  He can't quite decide if he is ready to go to a four hour schedule, or if he wants to take all three naps.  Luckily he's still pretty happy, no matter what he chooses.

Still trying to crawl.  Lots of time spent like this with some swiveling - rocking - scootching action going on.

During this restful week, I've had quite a bit of time to just sit and watch him play.  One of my new favorite things about play time is that he involves me!  Pretty recently he's started anticipating things.  If one thing happens, he knows something else is going to happen.

On the changing table, he squeals before I blow on his stomach because when I suck my breath all in, he's knows that's coming next.

If he's playing in the living room and sees me coming towards him he's starts holding his breath and waving his arms.  This is the way he prepares for Mommy Kisses.

If I unfasten his safety buckles, on anything, he arches his back and propels himself forward.  I've learned to be ready.  Speaking of safety harness, check out our latest eating endeavors.

If Daddy is holding him, he knows it climbing time and promptly begins scaling up Dad's chest.  The funny thing is that he never tries to do this on me!

He now knows that if he wants to stand up, all he has to do is reach for our hands and pull himself up.  And if he is standing, he wants to be standing in front of his activity table.  That thing makes music and lights up - perfect for pounding on!

Here's his pounding face.

Action shot.

Crying ensues when he leaves his activity table.

His carseat is where Mr. Frog lives, and as soon as he is in it, he starts looking for it.

A bowl and spoon mean FOOD.  Commence the lip smacking and tongue licking.  Also, bib means scrunch up my neck and turn away.  He hates the bib.

I love carrots.

I hate fruit!  He's getting better.

Love me a chicken breast.

He was mostly just sucking.

Here's him trying out broccoli,

Anticipation is fun!  I think of it as his way of telling us, "I know what's going on, and I think I like it!"

Snow Days...

Being hesitant to get out on the snow/ice for the first time with Amos, we spent Tuesday-Wednesday at home.  With all that time to ourselves, I got busy on a few projects I've been wanting to do for a while.  

Tuesday was Baby Food making day.  Sarah and I used this site to make our food.  Overall I think it turned out pretty nicely!

On Wednesday I compiled all previously purchased ingredients to make soap for our house.  I made dishwashing soap, found here.

Laundry detergent, found here, and my own dryer sheets, found here.

On Wednesday, we got a package in the mail which lead to me making a sign for Amos' room.  I used the cardboard back as letters and mod-podged scrapbook paper on top.  The board is magnetic, so I covered it with left over burlap from Christmas and put magnets on the back of the letters.  I'm going to put it above his bed, so that once he can stand in his bed, he'll have something to play with.

It's the FINE things in life...

Lately, Amos hasn't been doing too much new as far as large motor skills go.  Although, we have had some up-on-all-fours rocking action going on, but we are still not mobile.  He's been more about fine tuning the skills he's got, and working on those fine motor skills, hence the title.

Check out this action.

For instance, he's been sitting unsupported for a while, but now he sways, does extended reaches, rocks back and forth, throws his legs up, falls onto his arm and pushes himself back up, all without falling over.  He still has his spills, but for the most part he's got his balancing moves down!

Also, his time spent on his tummy, is mostly going back between all-fours and upward dog!  He also has the eying-a-toy-and-rolling-to-get-it thing down too.

His eating skills are back - at least when he's eating vegetables.  He is NOT a fan of fruit.  He's had carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, corn, and peas and loved them.  He's had bananas, applesauce, and peaches and hated them.  We just keep trying them and I've been told they normally come around!  Let's hope.  Also, today, with the help of Sarah Corcoran, I have a months worth of baby food freezing in the fridge.  I sampled everything, and with a little bit of salt, I'd eat it.  Let's hope Amos feels the same way - minus the salt, of course!

While Sarah was over, MaKenna and Amos had fun playing together before going down for naps.  They wanted to hug, hold hands and "share" toys!  I see a lot of fun play dates in their future!

One thing I've noticed recently is that Amos is getting good at switching toys from one hand to the other.  I really don't know when he started doing this, but he does it all the time now.  Also, he's refound his hands. I guess I should clarify, he never lost them, he just has a new interest.  He stares at them and opens and closes them, then makes a fist, then does a backwards wave, and spins his wrists around like he's waving a flag and finishes with the yes symbol in sign language.  This can entertain him for quite sometime.

His other new fascination is tags on toys.  He doesn't care about the rest of the toy.  Just the white manufactures' tag that is sticky off the back.   He stares at it, and then gently pets it.  Oddly enough, he doesn't try to put it in his mouth.  He's content staring it down.

What I love is just how smiley he is.  If you've been following the blog, you know that up until the last month or so, his smiles took a lot of work to come by.  Now all I have to do is look at him and he smiles really big.  I may even get a squeal.  My new favorite thing is to put him down with some toys and sit down to read a book.  Occasionally I'll look up and get one of these!

Now that he is staying up longer (around 2 hours) we have lots of time to play together, and apart.  He's really good at playing by himself while I read or get something else done.

6 Months

Weight: 15 lbs, 10 oz

Height: 26 3/4 inches

Head: 18 3/8 inches

He's still long and skinny, skinny with a big head!

Doctor said he looks perfect!  I couldn't agree more!