6 months old!



Our little Gabriel is 6 months old now!  Time has flown by and he is growing up fast.  He now likes playing with toys and can entertain himself with them for little tidbits of time.  It turns out that one of his favorite chew toys is a silicone spatula.  It is nice and soft and must feel nice on his gums.  It's also too big for him to accidentally shove all the way into his mouth.

 

He also enjoys normal baby toys.



He is a happy baby and if he hasn't seen you in the past minute or two but looks up to see you smiling at him, he'll smile back at you.

As you probably know, everything goes into his mouth.  Some people said that his cheeks actually look smaller than before.  This may be true, because yesterday he went to the pediatrician where he weighed 24 pounds--so did not gain weight as much as before.  But he has grown 1 inch since the last visit, which would explain why last week his 12 month onesies were really tight on him and we had to upgrade him to 18 month onesies.

 

We recently started giving him water to drink.  He won't drink from a baby bottle, but only from a straw cup.  He loves sucking on the straw and also chewing on it, of course.

 

 

We've also tried giving him some baby food.  He swallows some but mostly he sprays it back out.  Yes, the food doesn't just dribble out of his mouth, but he'll spray it all over the counter.

 

His two little bottom teeth which started coming in a few weeks ago are now more than nubs.  You can see them in the picture, where Elvin has pulled his lower lip down.

 

Gabriel still enjoys taking baths.  Even though he gets fussy in the evenings, when he hears the water running in the bathtub, he gets very excited and starts flapping his arms like a bird.  Here he is enjoying the warm water.

His sisters are still very fond of him.  Karina will give him hugs and say, "My Gabiel..."  (She can't say the "r" sound yet.)

 

Here she is showing Gabriel her telephone.  He wants to grab it to stick it into his mouth, of course.

We are happy to announce that he can roll over!  He will roll over from back to front, but only towards his right side.  And when he does this, his right arm gets pinned under his body, which you can see below. 

 

And he is still a big-time thumbsucker.  He'll suck mostly on his left hand and mostly when he is tired.  Pretty much every time he takes a nap, in goes the thumb, until he is asleep.

 

Our Gabriel is a funny baby.  We can't wait to see what the next 6 months holds!