Six months old

At six months old, Joseph continues to be an amazing, happy baby who we can't get enough of.  His goopy eye finally cleared up at the beginning of last month (tear duct opened up), and so now the only thing that really ever bothers him is his teeth.  He gnaws on his fingers, Sophie the giraffe, burp cloths, Daddy's face, my shoulder, and anything else he can get his hands on.  Poor guy - still a ways to go before those first teeth break through, we think.

He is suddenly quite mobile, rolling back and forth, and you can tell he loves this new ability since he tests it out all the time.  He figured out the exersaucer also, bouncing madly up and down, squealing at the chew toys, and pushing the music button on.  I don't remember when babies are supposed to get object permanence, so I don't know if that's the issue, but I do know Joseph is remarkably attuned to where we are.  If we're in the room, he's happy playing with his toys and rolling around; out of sight, even briefly, and he starts wailing.  I think he thinks we are abandoning him half the time, but that's unlikely given that he's attached to me at all other times.

We introduced him to rice cereal a few times last week, but so far he's only swallowed a couple of spoonfuls - otherwise, the concept is not catching yet.  He's clearly interested, since he tries to grab all my food and and water bottle all the time, but it's going to take some practice.  The boys tried in their own way to be helpful.  Malcolm jumped up and down in front of him saying, "Jophess-Jophess-Joe-Joe-Joey-Joey!" until Joseph laughed.  Michael picked up Joseph's spoon after he dropped it a few times and said, "Maybe he can eat cereal next month."  Hopefully, we can try again sooner than that.

Last week Joseph measured 27.25 inches long (80th percentile) and 17 pounds, 2 ounces (45th percentile).  We are thankful every day he is so happy and healthy.  Love this little guy so much!