Six months is a fun age. Liam seems to be learning and doing new stuff all the time. He's not a fragile little baby anymore. He's a big boy! Literally. His six month stats:
Length: 29 inches (98th percentile)
Weight: 19 pounds (75th percentile) (There are some hefty 6 month olds out there, apparently!)
Head: 17 inches (They didn't tell me the percentile, but somewhere around the 25th, I think.)
Since his four month check-up, he has grown 2 1/4 inches, gained 2 pounds, 4 ounces, and his head grew half an inch. He's definitely not as chunky as he used to be. He is settling into being a long, slender baby. He didn't gain as much weight this time, and I think it's because he moves so much more now. He jumps like a mad man in his jumperoo. He's constantly rolling back and forth. He's basically never still unless he's sleeping. He does still have his chubby cheeks and chunky thighs, though! As for his head size, I honestly don't think anyone who measures his head gets the same number every time. They all seem to measure it at different places. I watch every week at Cranial Technologies, and there is some variation. Liam's head has obviously been undergoing some transformation since his four month appointment, but I think growing half an inch is really good!
These days, Liam is sitting up very well on his on. One day he was sitting up for just a couple seconds then falling over; then the next day he could sit up for long stretches. It's amazing how babies just literally start doing something well so quickly. He still falls over some, of course, but not nearly as much...plus he's got that DOC Band protecting him.
Liam's favorite song is the ABC song. If I sing it to him, he gets the biggest grin on his face! It has even been successful in calming him down if he's crying. I know it's this particular song that he enjoys because if I sing anything else, he just looks at me like, "Silly mommy. Why aren't you singing the ABC song?" Hopefully he will learn his ABC's at a young age!
As for other languages, we do expose him to several other languages each week. I count to ten in English, Spanish, and Japanese to him every day, and speak the little bits of Spanish and Japanese I know. I usually play some foreign talk radio in the background while we're playing just so that he can hear other languages being spoken. Supposedly (I'm not sure if this is true or not), at around 7 months babies have determined what sounds make up their native language, and they basically tune out unfamiliar sounds of other languages. But if they have heard the sounds of other languages before 7 months (and they keep hearing them), it will be easier for them to learn that language in the future if they choose to do so. Like I said, I'm not sure if that's completely true or not, but it has been proven that young children learn languages better than adults. I think there are other windows of language-learning time in the first few years of life. So it can't hurt him to hear other languages right now. We usually play Japanese, Spanish, French, German, and Chinese. Hopefully, he'll be a polyglot one day!
Liam's food horizons have expanded lately. He's been eating solid food for a few weeks now. So far he's had carrots (nay), butternut squash (yay), sweet potatoes (yay), and apples (yay, after the initial sour face!) along with rice cereal and oatmeal. So we're slowing adding in new foods. My plan is to make his baby food, and I'm hoping to start that up totally this weekend. I made the squash and apples, but gave him jarred carrots and sweet potatoes. He's only getting organic stuff, especially in this first year. On his official six month birthday, we let him try out a sippy cup. He's gotten good at taking his bottle, putting it in his mouth, and occasionally turning it up to get liquid out, although he doesn't do that every time. So I was just curious if he would kind of know what to do with a sippy cup. He grabbed it and put it in his mouth (although everything goes in his mouth these days), but he never turned it up (without assistance) to get liquid out. He preferred to play with it, of course, but I think he did well for his first time.
One of the new things he does is if he's sitting on my leg, he starts bouncing himself up and down (if his feet can touch the floor or couch). It's really cute and a good workout for his legs. I think he's trying to do what he does in his jumperoo. Also, he's quite grabby these days, and nothing within his reach is safe. He gets a tight grip on it, and it goes straight in his mouth (unless mommy stops him, of course). He is always messing with something! He also loves to eat his feet these days. They must taste delicious. He will also occasionally put his knees under him when he's on his belly. I can tell he wants to go places! He already can a little bit. He's been known to end up several feet away and facing the opposite direction from where you put him down.
Liam also has a sense of humor now and laughs at things that are genuinely funny. It's the greatest thing ever! Funny faces, jumping up and down, funny noises...they all make him laugh, along with the tickles. So cute! He also is quite talkative. He's always babbling and making different noises. One of his favorite things to say is "hey." Sometimes he even says it back to us if we say it to him. He also says "hey" to the cats, and then they run in the opposite direction. He likes those cats so much, but they don't want anything to do with him. One day, he'll be buddies with Squirt at least...hopefully.
Now for pictures! He sat up this time! He only fell over a couple of times :)
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| In all the ones with his band on, his mouth is wide open, so this is the best one! |
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