October: Eating and Crawling and Standing!

Hello faithful readers! What a busy month it has been! I can hardly take time to write this blog since I am so busy with stuff. I don't know which is more amazing--that now I eat solid food or that I am totally crawling and already pulling up to standing all by myself. Mama and Papa seem to be proud of me but also get astonished, worried looks on their faces as I zoom around and get into stuff (and do a fair amount of head-bonking). Allow me to go into some detail:
FOOD!
I started on the 20th (my 6 month birthday) with mushed cooked sweet potato. You can tell from the photo of Papa feeding me that at first, solid food feels and tastes weird. That's not to say I didn't like it, though! I made (and still do make) some funny faces at the beginning of a solid meal, but now I lean in and gape for more (and, demonstrating my immense intellect, grab for the spoon to show everyone that I know how to feed myself. Sort of. I know how to get food closer to, all over, and occasionally into my mouth/face/clothes/bystanders). See video of GrandB feeding me. The next kind of food I was introduced to was blended cooked broccoli, on the 24th. I liked that and also the mushed banana I got a few days after that. It's all good. Yum yum! I wonder what I'll get next!


ZOOM!
This month, I have been spending most of my time (my awake-and-on-the-floor time, that is) up on all 4s. By the middle of the month, I rock forward and back and scooting my legs forward, sometimes pulling one knee forward. By the end of the month, everyone has officially acknowledged that I'm crawling.
Let me share an extended quote from Mama's notebook:
"He works very hard at this, spending much of his waking day trying to go somewhere. On Oct 15, at an AMIS dinner at Emory, we saw him for first time up on all 4s and holding up a toy in one hand, so that he balanced on the other hand and legs. Wow! On Oct 22, we found him (after a nap) for the first time pulled up onto knees in crib with big grin. Marty was here to see it. In the days following, he loves to practise pulling up to kneeling and getting his feet under him as if to pull up from kneeling to standing. This is not all that easy a task really, especially since nothing in his usual playspaces is good for pulling up (except his crib) because they all move (rocking chairs, plastic toy table) or are too smooth to get a grip on (footstools and chairs). So he does not get to actually pull up except with us, since we seem to have a lot of things to grab and cling to (hands, hair, etc). But on 26th, Ramsay pulled up all by himself (I did help by holding the plastic table steady for him). We've been frantically babyproofing. On the 24th, we finally got the cabinets with detergents etc. locked. "

Other motor skill hightlights: I figured out how to kick on and off the musical mobile in my crib, and by the end of the month, my crib was lowered and the mobile removed, apparently to keep me out of trouble. Before I started solids, I used to get a little bit of Mama-moo in a bottle so that I could get my probiotic/vitamin cocktail. (Now, I get my better living through chemistry infusion with my solids.) Anyway, I get very excited when I see the bottle and like to hold it for myself, as you can see in the picture of me and Papa. Also, I have gotten adept at grabbing glasses off faces. Mama always keeps her hair tied in a bun to keep it away from me.

At the very end of the month, Mama and Papa's friends Eric and Kiera came all the way from Colorado just to let me play with their daughter Madeline. I had my first experience sharing toys. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it was also clear that I had no choice in the matter. With them we also spent some time at the local park, where I, for the first time went down a slide and sat in a swing.

I have started to nap and sleep better with the strict program Mama nd Papa started on me last month. After about 1 1/2 hours of being awake, I get about 30 minutes of quieting time, usually outside in the baby carrier (BabyBjorn). I love to be outside, especially in the fall as the leaves wiggle in the breeze and fall to the ground. I also like to watch cars go by.
I have been working on my vocal skills too. This month I was busy with the letter B, which means lots of spittly bbbbbbb almost at times like spitty ththththth. Also I'm mastering the letter N.
I've been growing out of my clothes since I'm so long, and my nails grow faster than Mama can keep up with. But I guess those are good things.

Weather is getting cold, and I can be found in increasingly cute states of bundle. On the topic of fashions, you all know that October is the month of Halloween. I didn't trick or treat, and for sure I didn't get to have any candy. But I did get to wear a hideously cute "Lil Punkin" top, with matching jack-o'lantern pants. Say that ten times: jack-o'lantern pants. That's fun.
Oh yes, and I turned 6 months old, now I am 27 inches long and weigh 18 pounds one ounce. See you next month!
P.S. I just noticed that you see a lot of Papa and only one of Mama in this month's photos. Don't worry--I keep her plenty busy too. She is, after all, the one behind the camera!