26 Weeks. 6 months old. Half a Year.

Adam's 6 month appointment went well today. Other than a diaper rash we're struggling to get rid of and a little spitting up and a wheezy cough, we're finally not in a doctor's office to talk about how sick he is!

Today Adam is 18 lbs, 10 oz and 27 3/4 inches. He's the size of a normal 1 year old. But apparently he's not only advanced in stature.

The pediatrician was very impressed that Adam was smiling and "waving" to everyone in the halls. His social development is also close to that of a one year old. He sometimes attempts to mimick sounds - like "hi", "yes," -- I know he's not saying them because he knows when to use them but he's practicing the syllables. When you talk to him, he giggles. And you may have seen the pictures - he recognizes the camera and shoots me a smile, and I would swear he's practicing his different poses. He's a giggling, face-grabbing, hugging, body-climbing little monkey who can't sit still.

Speaking of not sitting still, he still loves the walker and is very deliberate in his movements. His physical development is close to that of a 9 month old's. When you put him down to sit, he'll do it for a while and can even stop himself from falling. But he's so desperate to crawl that he goes flat to his stomach pretty quickly. And last night, at my parents house, my mom was telling him to get on his knees and "rock, rock, rock." And he watched her intently, thinking about it, and shook his little butt in the air. Then twice he shook his head back and forth. It was pretty incredible. Then he'd smile at us while we all laughed.

He is shaking his rattles, can do tricks with the pacifier, and drinks out of the sippy cup extremely well. Our pediatrician asked me to introduce the sippy cup today, and I said "oh, he's great with the sippy cup. He's been using if for about a month and a half." She shook her head, wrote it in his file and said, "well one more thing to show how amazing he is." Now we're going to start putting his formula in sippy cups more often. Are we really almost done with bottles? The thought makes me both happy and sad.

The daycare had mentioned some concern about his not quite being able to sit up on his own - and okay, I realize that 5 1/2 months is in now way a milestone to be seriously concerned that a baby isn't sitting up, but they were concerned specifically about the curve of his back. While they aren't doctors, I did appreciate that they brought it up - they see a lot of babies, and they seen him every day. I didn't even mention it to many people, mostly because I figured that with the number of specialist and doctors he has seen, SOMEONE would have mentioned it by now. I took him to the chiropractor, who said she didn't see or feel anything abnormal and he was fine.



Our pediatrician agreed, and said that she doesn't care if he's not doing a whole lot of sitting up (he can sit up unassisted, for several minutes, but is just dying to crawl so he doesn't do it long). Her take on it was that maybe he sees just sitting up as boring, and since he's going for standing, walking/running, and crawling, he's actually taking on the harder motions. Who cares if he doesn't like just sitting there so much? He's fine.

The Nexium twice a day plus the hypo-allergenic formula has graduated him from a constantly spitting up baby to a "Happy Spitter" who spits up more than normal but isn't suffering from the effects. He is clearly getting enough to satisfy him and he's not in pain. I can handle that. The gastroentologist today said "he's fine," and "not to change anything and call her as a follow up in 3 months." I can tell you now, I'm not calling her. And currently I'm not going to change anything, but is he really supposed to be on Nexium AND hypoallergenic formula for 3 more months? We'll see about that...

THAT'S THREE DOCTORS IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS WHO HAVE SAID, "HE'S FINE." WOO-HOO!


I can't help but be proud.  A part of me is sad that he's zooming through "baby-ness" so quickly, but the rest of me is elated that he is so intelligent, so social, and so developmentally on top of things. He's a joy to be around, ALWAYS. We are so, so lucky. I don't care how often I have to go shopping for the "next size up" in clothes - he's done with his 9 month clothes completely and I think we're just going to skip to 18 month clothes and save the money. Maybe I can use it to get a pedicure. Oh, or to pay off debt. That's what Shannon would say.

But seriously, I could use a pedicure.

He just pulled his band-aid off from the vaccinations and stuck it to the side of his walker. Then he laughed at me when I asked what he was doing. My days of not baby-proofing the house are numbered.