six months of pure bliss

Today my baby boy is six months old and I just can't believe it.  Six months seems so long and yet so short; on the one hand I can't believe that my tiny newborn baby is now half a year old.  Then on the other hand, I feel like it can't only be six months that he has been with us, surely it's been longer than that!  I have a hard time remembering what life was like before he was born, I only know that it paled in comparison to life with him.  He is truly the best thing that ever happened to both Steve and I, and we love every single minute with him.

This last month has been so full of changes for him that I can barely recall all of them.  He had just started to sit up at five months, now he is doing it with ease.  He reaches and grabs at anything that might be near him and his big eyes carefully watch everything that is going on around him.  He pushes himself backwards all around the house, and doesn't really get bored or unhappy until he has backed himself into a corner (or under the couch).  He gets up on his hands and knees and violently rocks back and forth, willing himself to move.

At his six month well baby checkup, he weighed 18 lbs 12oz (one less ounce than at 5 months) which puts him in the 50-75% for weight.  He was 28.5 inches long, which is 95% for his age.  His head has grown too, and is now 45 centimeters, which puts him in the 75-90% for head circumference.  It is amazing how much he has grown...he's doubled his birth weight, grown 7 inches in length and his head has grown almost 10 centimeters.  No wonder babies eat and sleep so much, that is a lot of work!  His feet and hands have grown quite a bit too.  His little feet have grown almost an inch and a half since birth!

On Saturday his first little tooth came through the skin on the bottom, and other than sleeping a little more fitfully at night, teething has been kind to him thus far.  I can see the other little bottom tooth just under the skin, about to break through.  I can't believe my baby has teeth!  I feel very lucky that it has been so painless thus far, and hope that teething continues to go so smoothly.

We went outside to take some six month pictures, and as you can see, he is a little ham for the camera.  Probably since I've been taking so many pictures of him each and every day since birth.  He literally starts smiling as soon as I pick up my DSLR or my iPhone.  

Although he is quick to smile, he also makes lots of other silly faces, which I just love.  Since birth, he has had such an expressive face and it just keeps getting better.  I don't exaggerate or fib at all when I say it has truly been the best six months of our lives.  I love my days with Riggs, often spent doing my own thing while he does his, each of us looking over at the other every now and then to make eye contact and smile.  Other days we cuddle a lot more and spend nearly the entire day interacting with each other through play or reading or just sitting still together on the couch.  Steve misses him all day at work, and often goes straight to him when he gets home from work, wanting just to squeeze him and soak up that mellow, peaceful energy and bask in those wide, mostly gummy smiles.

They say that you will never know what it's like to actually have your baby, to hold them in your arms and to spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week with them.  They say that you no matter what you expect, it won't match reality.  And for us, I guess that's true.  I don't think either Steve or I anticipated how much we would truly love Riggs, and how much we would enjoying just spending the minutes and hours of our days with him.  Often we lay in bed at night together as a family, Riggs sleeping quietly, usually with his little hands clasped together over his chest, and Steve and I just smile and stare at him, wondering out loud to each other how we got so lucky to have him.  He is such a joy, and I thank God everyday for blessing us with his happy little presence in our lives.  We love you Riggy!