John Paul at 6 Months and 8 Year Wedding Anniversary

Another few milestones have passed without my recording them on the blog.  So I'll play catch up later with all the other cute things from June (like the Art Show at the girls' preschool and John Paul's first foods) and write about these two things.

First off - JP turned 6 months on June 1.  Here are a few stats from his 6 month appointment (which took place on June 5):

Height = 29" (grew 1.5 inches in 2 months) >99th percentile
Weight = 21 lbs 6 oz (grew 2 lbs 3 oz or 0.85 oz per day) ~97th percentile
Teeth = ZERO and not even a hole in the gums to indicate the imminent arrival of one (not even yet)
Mobility = pushes backwards on his tummy, sits very well though occasionally still topples over, and also can stay up on all fours for a few moments when put in that position.  Once he got himself in the all 4s position - I put him down on his tummy, and looked over a few moments later to see him on all 4s, but not for long!
Verbal = Has been saying "dadadada" for almost 2 months (since just after 4 months), and "mamamama" followed within a few weeks (like early 5 months).  Has said "mamadada" a few times also. :-)  And is now really keen on "bah!"  Not sure if he's going for "ball" or "bath" but I think it is ball.
Sleep = generally goes down between 7:15 and 7:45 after the routine of bath, books (getting better at this on my part) and nursing.  Wakes up around 5:37 am (that time sticks out in my head as being relatively consistent, strangely enough).  6 of 7 days he has pooped through his clothes upon his wake-up fussies, and rather than enduring his cries while I change him before nursing, I have started to just wrap him in a spit rag and nurse in bed before changing him up.  Oh well!
  Eating = has "tried" watermelon (as in we let him suck on a big piece a few days after his 6 months) - seemed to like it.  I finally gave him some organic yam around 6 months 1 week for a few days.  He didn't love it, spit it out (not so good with the spoon yet), and while I did see some of the digested and passed through results in his diaper the next day, he still has baby poo. :-)  Today I gave him some mashed avocado with similar results - doesn't seem to love it, not good at taking the spoon.  I'll keep trying and introduce plain whole milk organic yogurt this weekend.  But I'm not going to stress about his not being too keen on eating for a month or so yet.  Magdalena didn't actually start on any solids until just after 7 months, and I know he is still getting most of his nutrition from breastmilk.  Since I'm still nursing 3-4 times a day (more on weekends) it is hard to tell exactly how much he eats, but I'm thinking around 48 oz per day.  I have been able to freeze about 6 ounces more each day that what he eats via bottle, so I've been producing somewhere in the lower 50 ounces daily.  Just this week I am starting to wean myself down to stop pumping in the morning and just do it once a day at work.   We have 9 of those Costco organic salad containers full of breastmilk in our deep freeze and are still using last February's milk right now, so I don't think we are in any danger of running out any time soon. :-)


Yes, I am pretty darn cute :-)

Now for the 8 year anniversary - Congratulations, honey!  Alex and I celebrated 8 years on June 12, though the actual celebration will have to wait since he was traveling for work, just home tonight.  Still, it's the Crazy Eight years - we are so blessed and look forward to eight times eight more!!!