6 months old - really???!!!

Last night as I was up at 3am feeding Kellen and he was smiling back at me it dawned on me that today he was 6 months old. And then I shed a little tear! WOW..the time has flown and it's crazy to think back to those early days and that he's already been here for half a year. He is such a wonderful little guy! He has a smile that just brings so much joy and his spirit melts our hearts every day. We can't remember or imagine our lives without him. I'll post some pics and more thoughts later today!

**Update**
okay, so this is a day late now! We had a busy day yesterday - it was an all day work day for me and Kellen was in Salem for the day...so by the time everyone got home, we ate, bathed Kellen and did our bedtime routine, I was beat! The boy is very busy these days! He's fully sitting up and in the last few weeks has started to army crawl - he's not getting up on his hands and knees but he moves his arms and legs with his belly on the ground and gets to where he needs to go...the boy can move fast - especially if he's zeroed in on the remote control or telephone!! I'm not sure what it is, but babies sure love what they shouldn't have! There is certainly a new person with clicker control in our house!

In so many ways, this age is so much easier - but there are new things that make it much more difficult! It's great that he'll sit up by himself and really play with toys now. He can entertain himself for a bit, which is nice! But he also is super busy and starting not to sit still for very long. We used to be able to hang with him on the changing table for a long time and he'd have SO much fun...no longer! He now wiggles and squirms to get down and it makes changing his diaper or getting him dressed a real challenge. Speaking of diapers - now that he's sitting up most of the time, we've had a lot more blow outs - the poop goes straight up his back (I guess the floor is stopping it from soaking into the diaper)! After about 9 days in a row of poop up the back and all over his clothes, we've now figured out that he likes to poop after his breakfast and I no longer sit him up...on his belly he goes and the poop stays in the diaper like it should. Bathing is a bit easier now and a lot more fun! He's now in a small, inflatible tub that sits in our tub and he has a lot of fun splashing and playing with toys! He's still easily distracted which makes eating more difficult - he just wants to check everything out, get his hands on it and put it in his mouth! It is fun to see exploring and so into everything!

This is the last week of swimming and I think he's really enjoyed the pool! Last Saturday he did a dolphin dive, which essentially is where the teacher holds him and dives him under the water, face first! He did it twice and didn't even shed a tear. We'll try to capture it on video this week. We probably won't be able to pick up swimming lessons again until January - the summer we are too busy and then fall we'll have football games. I guess he won't be qualifying for the Olympics, after all!

We probably get the most comments on his hair! It's growing and continues to stick straight up! He's rocking a pretty great Faux-hawk and I have to admit it's pretty darn cute!! His eyes are still blue and I'm growing attached. I think that I'll be a little sad if they change on us now!

Sleep has become a lot harder lately. I read that when babies make these big developmental leaps that it's harder for them to sleep because they are dreaming about practicing all their new skills. I'm not sure whether it's that, teething or if we're just spoiling him...but he has been waking up a lot at night and won't easily go back to sleep like he used to. In fact, when we try to replace the pacifier...he moves his head back and forth really fast so that we can't get it in. It's actually pretty hilarious to see and if I weren't so tired and it wouldn't make it worse, I'd try to catch it on video! Anyway...I've been having to pick him and and rock him or nurse him back to sleep multiple times throughout the night for the last couple of weeks. This lack of a good night's sleep is really starting to get to us! The other day I couldn't figure out if I had to go to work the next day or not and last night I'm certain that Aaron told me to either bring Kellen into our bed or to put him in the garage! We also still swaddle the boy, which worries me that he'll be 16 and we'll have to get him all wrapped in his swaddle for him to sleep!

All in all - he's sure a happy, sweet boy! Aaron and I go into his room every night before we go to sleep and say to each other how lucky we are to have him and just how darn good and cute he is!