Beefcake

Half a year... we made it. I can still remember bringing little Jake home from the hospital, terrified that we were going to break him. And now, I can't remember life without him. It's both funny and amazing to think about how quickly a person can adjust to parenthood. We went from twenty-some-odd years of living life for ourselves, selfishly using our time however we pleased, to trading that in for the world's most demanding, yet loveable, boss. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

We had our six month check-up the other day and our suspicions were confirmed: this kid really is a beefcake. Maybe we're just living up to the Midwestern standard of having "corn-fed" kids. Then again, Josh and I are both very ambitious, so perhaps we're just trying to grow the world's biggest baby. After being weighed and measured last week, the doc told us that she couldn't even give us a percentile... he has officially moved off of the charts for his age. Seriously, what are we feeding him? I think he must wake up in the middle of the night and raid the cupboards. That and he's taking some sort of supplement for height. He isn't chunky by any means, so that weight is spread out on a long frame. I think he's going to be taller than the both of us by the time he's three. So without further ado, here is our "little" beefcake at six months old:

Height: 28 inches
Weight: 19 lbs, 10 oz.

In true 6-month form, everything goes in the mouth.
No teeth yet though, which makes mommy happy.
I love that little toothless grin.

And now we officially need to baby proof. At six months Jake has officially mastered crawling and is well on his way to gaining some speed. The scary thing is that sometimes I hear him before I see him and realize that he's into something that I thought I had put away. Within the same week of figuring the crawling thing out, he started trying to pull himself up on everything. He's still not very good at it, and his balance is terrible, so we've already had a couple of bumps on the head. The boy loves to eat and likes everything he has tried except for yogurt, to which he overdramatically gagged as if we had fed him dirt. I think I need it on video. What good is having a kid if you can't use him for entertainment, right? Now that he's eating solids, he wants whatever it is that I'm having. He has tried a nibble of a Dove chocolate bar and my best friend let him have a taste of her ice cream and he went crazy for both! He even cried when we didn't let him have anymore. Hmmm... what else? Oh yes, he's still obsessed with cups. He wants nothing to do with a sippy cup and wants to drink from a big boy cup. He actually does pretty well but occassionally will dump it down the front of his shirt, thus choking on the full glass of water that just tried to go down his throat. He truly is a character and my life is fuller everyday because of the bubbly, happy, silly personality he has. I am so very much in love.

Some days I sit back and watch him. As he works hard to figure something out or learn a new trick I wonder, "where did my little tiny baby boy go?" I understand now that time really does move faster when you have a child. I also understand why people have more than one. At the rate he is growing, we're going to have to get started on making baby #2!

Here he was at 1 month *sigh*

And now at 6 months and cuter than ever

Okay, Jake, that's enough. You can stop growing now.