. . . Liam lately (6 months)

Our big boy is half way to one -- time flies when you're trying to keep up with an active baby! He has truly grown in so many ways, and all my mommy friends were right . . . each stage is more fun than the last! I am really trying to savor the passing months though. I love that he isn't super mobile yet (but I'm sure that's right around the corner), and I love listening to his baby babbles and squeals. He is finding his voice and will have "conversations" with us or Murphy. He also loves to be the center of attention and tries to get people to notice him when he sees someone new. He is such a flirt! He also LOVES to Skype with family and friends and will perk right up when he hears Skype ringing on the computer -- not kidding. It's like he's thinking, "Oooh, goody, who's going to talk with me now??"

 Right now Liam is fitting perfectly into his 6 month clothes, but I bet it won't be long till we've moved to 9 month. There are a few things he's outgrown, but for the most part he's still in all 6 month stuff. Lucky for us, the clothes in the Netherlands are sized a little differently and seem to fit that "in between" stage that's a little bigger than 6 months but not quite 9 months. So that works out for us! He still wears size 2 diapers, but I think we'll be up to 3s by the time seven months rolls around.

We've started solids and he is doing AWESOME. As of right now, he has tried rice cereal, bananas, avocados, and sweet potatoes -- his first reaction is always, "Huh? What's this?" and then he dives right in and practically shovels it down. After the first two days of super dirty bibs he now manages to get most of it in his mouth and is doing great with swallowing. It's so cute to watch him try to suck his thumb when there's food in his mouth because it helps him to swallow it. Precious. Making his food has been pretty easy so far, though it's only been a few weeks . . . talk to me next month and we'll see! I think this weekend we're going to go to two meals a day and see how he does. Right now he still gets all his breastfeeding meals, with his solid food for "lunch" around noon each day. So if we move to two meals a day we'll likely do solids at noon and around 6-ish, after his feeding.

Liam's sleep schedule is getting better, though he still is only sleeping about 9 hours a night, and usually needs soothing most of the first part of the night, before finally settling into deep sleep between 2-3 am. I'm hoping that solids at dinner may help him with getting better night-time sleep. Also, the last two days he has not been napping well AT ALL. One nap a day does not bode well for either one of us. No joke. Let's see what this next month has in store . . .

Liam has finally started rolling from back to belly without any help, and boy is he quick! As soon as I lay him down, he will flip right over and start playing with stuff. Before I know he will be rolling all around! I've heard of babies who basically skip crawling because they can roll everywhere faster -- he may be one of those! We also got Liam's jumperoo . . . at first he couldn't reach the floor even on the lowest setting, and then he could touch with one foot, and now he already is touching with both feet and bouncing all around! He really likes to make it make music and light up (partly because he knows Mommy will dance when she hears the music -- he's learning cause and effect already!).

I love my little munchkin more and more each day, and feel so blessed to be his Mama.

Lucky, lucky, lucky me.

~Jessi