On a more personal note ...

From January 10

Eli's at that point in life (familiar to most breastfeeding moms, I think) where the surrounding world is so very much more interesting that boring old nursing, and so it's a bit of a challenge to keep him interested in eating these days and keep my supply up. I remember this time with Maia, at about 5-6 months, when it really feels like baby just doesn't "want" to nurse any more. I have to remind myself that it's not that--this is the only option he knows. That would be like saying I don't want to breathe oxygen any longer. When this pattern is at its most annoying, I use that old parental refrain: it's normal, it's developmental, we'll get through this. It can be frustrating for me, and I imagine it is for him, too.

He probably weighs around 23 pounds right now, and he's doing all the usual six-month-ish stuff. He's starting to get the core muscles he needs to sit up on his own, and he's rolling all over the place. He also loves to arch his back, balance on the back of his head with his back off the ground, and push himself around with his feet. That particular move looks really odd when he really gets going.

His current phoneme of choice is /d/, so he babbles all day with a repeated "Dada dada dada" refrain, which I'm sure is a kick for Brian to hear. Of course, it's not meaningful babbling--he's not talking about his Dada. It's cute nevertheless. I'm sure we have a few more months before there's some meaning behind his words (just to remind myself--Maia's first meaningful verbal words came at nine months). We can tell by his responses that he knows his name, he knows the sign and word for "milk," and he knows who "Mama" is, so the seeds of language are already starting to grow. :)