6 1/2 MONTHS

You'll be crawling soon! You can now get up on your knees and rock back and forth. You also growl or grunt while doing this, so it's pretty funny. You also do a funny thing where you get up on your toes, and lift your whole body off the ground. It's exactly what the yoga "plank" pose is, if anyone is familiar with yoga poses. It's a difficult pose to do! You've got to have a lot of upper body strength, so I'm always impressed when you attempt it. You can scoot yourself a little bit, by pushing backwards, and you roll around a lot, so when I set you down you're always in a little different place when I pick you up. But you aren't really mobile yet. Not that surprising, though. In our 6-9 month baby group, out of 25 babies, the only ones who are crawling are 8 months or over.

You can sit on your own for very short periods of time, but not without my supervision or you topple right over. This you'll probably do later than most babies, because you are so long. Your doctor said that tall babies have so much body to balance that it takes them longer to figure it out. I do wish you'd do that soon, though, because you get tired of playing on your belly or back.

You've become very attached to dad and I. This is a good thing, though (see theory of Attachment Parenting). You are incredibly responsive to hugs, touch, and verbal responses. You are very easy to soothe when you get upset for any reason. You love to be rocked, and can be rocked to sleep very quickly -- although putting you down is still difficult. I've taken to putting your small carseat in the living room and lying you in that for naps the last couple days. For some reason you much prefer to be set there rather than flat on a bed. I think it's because you feel secure because of the shape of the carseat. You don't instantly wake up, like you do if I normally try to lay you down.

You are still a highly energetic, alert baby. You can be difficult to please sometimes -- it seems you are always wanting some form of entertainment. Lying still and quiet and playing with your toys is not something that is in your nature. You want to be held, taken outside, played with, sung to, carried in your sling, or held and nursed.

You have a third tooth -- you just got it a couple days ago. I have a feeling there will be two or three more very soon as well. This tooth that is just coming in is your upper lateral incisor. If you look on this chart, it is the left #2 (top). I thought it was strange that you're not getting the front top teeth yet but I'm sure they'll be soon. I can tell that your teeth really bother you all the time. You drool profusely and are always trying to bite on something. I think that's what causes much of your night waking, too, although you generally don't seem to be in too much pain at night. You wake about three times a night, now, for only a couple minutes each time. Quite normal for a baby your age. (Although last night you woke up at 12:30am WIDE awake and didn't go back to sleep until 2:30am!!). That's rare, though, thank goodness.

You're a sweet, sweet baby and I enjoy your non-stop, clinging company!