teeny....tiny.....

TOOTH!

Yep, this morning I found a wee little tooth poking out of Will's bottom gums. I should have known it was coming, as his shirts have been soaked in drool all the way to his belly button this week, instead of the normal chest level. But he's been drooling and biting things for 3 months now, so I had almost stopped watching for teeth. But there it was this morning! Interestingly, instead of poor sleep before the tooth poked through, he has had 2 nights of sleeping 8-8, so hopefully teething won't be too terribly uncomfortable for him. When I told Matt the news, he asked if this means that we can just start feeding Will hamburgers. Will was excited about that possibility:

I guess the days of the adorable toothless grin are numbered!

hooray for uncle alex!!

Will's Uncle Alex passed the Level III CFA exam today! What a huge accomplishment. Will was so excited about the news that he asked to take some pictures:

Way to go, Alex!!

sunday brunch

William had his first taste of REAL food today! We pureed a sweet potato, and he loved it! I assumed he wouldn't really love it at first, since he hasn't been a big fan of the cereal. I was wrong! He didn't even make any weird faces, although we were ready with the camera just in case. I think he would have eaten the entire bowl, but I cut him off after a couple of tablespoons to be safe. Either he just loves sweet potatoes (not that I would blame him), or he's going to be a great eater.

what is this, mom?

more please!

yummy!

half a year!?!!

What in the world?? William is 6 months old?! I can't believe that half of a year has passed since he was born. In some ways, I feel like he's been a part of our lives forever, but it also feels like just yesterday that we were checking out the crazy Dallas snowstorm before heading to the hospital on February 11th. When I think about how much joy he has brought to our family, I just feel so blessed! What a fabulous, hilarious, crazy, active, entertaining, wonderful little boy.

Since today is Will's official 6-month birthday, we took some pictures (anyone surprised?). Even with Mimi there to help wrangle the crazy man, it was tough to get pics with the bear this month. Will was much more interested in eating, knocking over, or slobbering on the bear than sitting with him. Here are a few of my favorites:

hanging out in the backyard (didn't last long in the heat!):

the bear didn't stay up for this, but Will looks cute:

sweet boy:

the smile that makes me so happy!

doing one of his favorite things, blowing bubbles:

another favorite, talking:

and this is what happened when we tried to pose him with the bear on the couch (another favorite = rolling over):

sooo close to crawling!

You may wonder why my sweet baby becomes progressively more naked in these photos. Or, if you have a little boy, you may not wonder at all. If you're curious, he spit up on the shorts, so they came off first. And he never liked the button down shirt, as he is a casual kind of dude, so eventually that came off too. Makes it easier to try super-hard to crawl if you're naked, apparently!

Here are a few fun facts about Will at 6 months:

• His check-up isn't until the very end of the month, but according to my measurements, he's almost 18 pounds and about 27 1/2 inches long. Growing boy!
• He rolls over faster than you can blink! Literally the second he is put down anywhere, he tries to flip. Maniac.
• Soooooo wants to be crawling, and he's getting closer each day. He definitely gets up on all fours and rocks, but hasn't really made much crawling progress in that position. He moves by army crawling or crawling backwards (?). Or there's still the ever-efficient barrel-roll.
• He can sit up if I sit him, but not for very long. He really seems to like playing with toys while sitting up, so he plays while I sit behind him for balance.
• Shrieks, squeals, laughs, babbles, grunts, yells, and bubbles. Lots of noises come from that tiny man. My favorite is when he talks to himself in the mornings or when he wakes up from naps, and I hear it on the monitor. I much prefer to wake up to a squealing baby than a crying one in the morning! :) Lately he has even added a few "ba" "buh" and "ma" babbles every once in awhile. But mostly he squeals and blows bubbles.
• Not much hair yet - but definitely gonna be a redhead!
• He really enjoys his toys now, and can be distracted by them when he gets mad. His favorites right now are his big soft blocks, the "take along tunes" music toy (thanks vaughnie!!), sophie, and anything that lights up.
• Still drooling more than it seems his body should produce and chewing on everything, but no teeth yet
• Still nursing well. He eats oatmeal sometimes, and sometimes not so much. I think it will be fun to start veggies and fruit and see how he likes them.
• Loves his exersaucer and jumperoo, but likes someone to be sitting right next to him while he plays. He's a bit of a ham and likes the attention and giggles he gets. :)
• I often call him my monkey because he uses his feet like hands. It's so funny to see him playing with toys with his feet. Just yesterday he accomplished something he's been working on for a couple of months now. He finally got the toes into his mouth! Success!
• Sleeping very well at night. He sleeps from 8ish till 7ish, and most nights wakes up one time to nurse, but there are nights here and there when he sleeps straight through. When he does wake up, his wake-up times are completely random - who knows?!
• Naps are short! He still needs 3 a day, probably because he never sleeps longer than 30-45 minutes. But he's always very happy when he wakes up!
• He loves to be outside, and even when he's fussy, a quick trip outdoors will usually help. I can't wait for cooler weather so we can play outside more!

I love you, Will!!! Happy 6 months!

mimi + mema

Today we had a very fun visit with Will's Mimi and Mema. It is so special that Will gets to spend lots of time with his grandparents and great-grandmothers since they are all here in the Dallas area. He is a lucky boy!

so happy!

checking out the cat, who is not at all interested in him:

Will loves Mema:

precious!

So much fun with Mimi! Will is going to miss her when school starts in a week!

a new way to play

I don't think this quite counts as "sitting up" since Will didn't sit himself up, HOWEVER...I was able to get a few pics of him balancing in a sitting position today. Today is definitely his best day yet at staying up when I set him up, so I'm wondering when it will all click and he will start sitting himself up. Since he is already pretty good at the army crawl, I have a feeling that as soon as the sitting thing comes together for him, I'm going to have a fast little man on my hands!

By the way - it's reeeeally tough to get good pictures of the sitting baby because our camera lens requires me to be fairly far back, and he topples over pretty quickly most of the time! Here are the best ones I got:

hi mom

these blocks are a huge hit lately:

my favorite:

ah, so much happier to be on my tummy!!

mom, PLEASE stop taking pictures of me!

On a completely unrelated note, after our sitting up photo shoot, I was going to take Will outside to feed our antisocial koi fish. We are trying to feed them every day in hopes that they will stop hiding from us. Anyway, as I came up to the back porch, this is what I found:

Don't be alarmed. She is not dead. Our sweet outside cat, Omar, was sleeping and trying to stay cool by sprawling out with her head hanging off the edge of the elevated porch. Poor cat! I feel awful that she has to live outside when it's 110 degrees, but I think if we brought her inside, we would for sure have a death match between our two cats. For those who don't know, our cats fight through the glass door every day. Like jumping into the glass, puffed out tails, hissing, wanna-claw-your-eyes-out fights. These fights are always instigated by our declawed inside cat, Ally, who has absolutely no reason to hate the outside cat who must battle awful weather, bugs, and other animals on a regular basis. Ally always wants to fight, but would most certainly lose if the door wasn't between them. I have tried to explain to her that Omar is a street cat, and pampered inside cats should never fight street cats. So there you have it. A semi-sitting baby and cat drama are the highlights of my day today. And I love it!