6 months

Yes, I know you're used to geek craft posts on Thursdays, but Ganon has just turned 6 months old, and I must commemorate the occasion.  He's been such a good eater lately - he gets so excited when I put him in his high chair!  So far, he loves all his green vegetables, all the orange and yellow ones he's been given as well, but he absolutely hates mashed potatoes.  He was cranky for nearly an hour after we tried to feed him some.  The funny part is that when I was little, I wouldn't eat anything that wasn't mixed into mashed potatoes! 

He's over 2 feet tall and nearly 18 pounds now - a far cry from his tiny beginnings, and only a couple of inches shy of the maximum height for his car seat.  I've been looking at intermediate seats, and I'm leaing toward a Britax one.  That brand seems to have the highest rear-facing maximum weight, and are able to stay rear-facing for the full height of the seat. 

Teeth!  Oh, teeth are the bane of my existance!  Not only did one of my wisdom teeth come in a couple of months ago, but poor Ganon has been getting his first.  He broke out in a mild fever (99-100 degrees) for nearly a day, and the next morning, he had tiny spikes poking out of the top of his gums, just left of center!  His first tooth! 

He has also begun talking and babbling a lot more.  He loves to say "Hi!" on the phone, "hey" when he wants your attention, and "yeah" to agree with things.  He's really quite amazing!

Teeth

Ganon has been sleeping for a nice 6 hour stretch each night - which is great for my rest!  He has started to wake up in pain, though, as his teeth begin to work their way to the surface.  Poor kid. :(  He also likes to nurse about twice as often when the teething pain hits, so I can't get much else done.  Ah well, at least I have the week off of homework!  He's gotten his next round of vaccines as well, and was such a champ again!  This time, I didn't even get his pants back on before he stopped crying!

His little fingernails grow so quickly, I clip them almost every day, and they're still always sharp!  It wouldn't be such an issue if he hadn't started to grab everyone's face...  At least he gives lots of sloppy kisses!

Sleep

Guess who regularly sleeps for 6 hours at a time!  That's right - Ganon.  My body considers that a full night's sleep, so I am just beaming with pride and well-restedness right now.  He's also not an early bird, so he usually goes back to sleep until around 9am. (Yay me!) 

Granted, he hardly naps anymore, but I'll take what I can get! :)

Growing

At the end of last week, Ganon had an appointment with the nutritionist.  Honestly, these sorts of appointments are more for me than him, as he eats nothing but breast milk!  More importantly, they weighed and measured him again - 12lb 12oz and 23.5 inches!  Such a far cry from how tiny he was when he was born!  They plugged the numbers into the computer - he is between the 85th and 95th percentile for height (after accounting for his prematurity), and 50th percentile for weight to height as well as head circumference.  Between that and a nice quiz on my own dietary habits, they determined that he is doing quite well and no changes need to be made.

His incredible height does explain why his 3mo size clothes look baggy, but are getting too short, depending on the brand.  I wonder why baby clothes aren't standardized like men's clothing, instead of arbitrary sizing like women's clothes.  Some of Ganon's 3mo size clothes are still a bit large on him, while he has two 6mo size outfits that are too small already!  It's a conundrum trying to determine which clothes need to be brought out of storage (before they're too small). 

As he grows, he also sleeps for longer stretches at night (4-5 hours at a time!)... but this also means he does not want to nap during the day.  He used to sleep for an hour after eating, be awake for half an hour or so, then sleep more until his next feeding.  Now he eats, burps, and wants to play.  An hour later, he is tired and cranky, but not wanting to sleep, so I have to break out the Happiest Baby On the Block skills and get him down.  He sleeps for an hour or two, then wakes up for a bit of play before he gets hungry again.  My mother claims I stopped napping at 3 months old, on the day I started sleeping through the night.  Accounting for 20-some years of fuzzy memory and exaggeration, I don't doubt that Ganon will stop napping all too soon... but I have solid nights to look forward to!