6 months

talan has now been around for a half a year. that's insane to me. in many ways it seems like he's always been here, but it still seems like i just had him. he continues to be a great baby, although this may have been the most challenging month with him. now, i know what a tough child is, and i'm not about to say that talan is tough by any stretch. however, he was a bit crankier and a bit less content for part of this month. he has been sick, so i'm blaming it on that. and teething. you can always blame teething, even though there aren't any teeth to be seen.
talan has been tough to figure out a nap schedule for. he is a pretty good sleeper (aside from the fact that he STILL has to be swaddled to fall asleep), but i seem to remember hayden being very routine oriented. he took naps at the same time every day, even at this age. talan seems to need a nap early one morning but much later the next. now that hayden will be taking the bus, he should be able to at least get his naps when he needs them. most mornings he wakes up and will go right back down to sleep for another few hours. and lately he has been taking a great afternoon nap. night time has been another issue. he still goes down around 8 or 8:30, but for the past 2 weeks he has been getting up once, if not twice a night. something he hasn't done since his first weeks home. so, needless to say, we aren't too happy about this. again, he has been sick with quite the runny nose so i blame that. and again, teething. always teething.
talan can more or less sit on his own, but he doesn't quite know it yet. he typically will sit in between my legs, nothing propping him up, with just one hand resting on my leg. for whatever reason he thinks that is what is sitting him up. and as soon as he realizes he is actually doing it himself, he'll fall over.
the other nite he decided he wanted to travel around the living room so he rolled all the way around. then he decided that there had to be a slightly better way of getting around. that's when he got himself up on his knees and start to scoot, just a little, across the floor. he was really close to crawling and i can see that happening at any time.
he loves his jumper which is set up in the basement. dave will come downstairs after dinner every nite and bring the boys with him. talan will just sit and jump in that jumper for an hour. now, whenever you pick him up, he starts jumping.
he is doing really well at eating "solid" foods now. he finally opens his mouth without much prompting and it takes him far less time to eat than it did last month. he eats his oatmeal cereal, carrots and peas. as soon as he finishes the open jar of peas in the fridge he'll be moving on to green beans. i had forgotten just how stinky and thick baby food poop is. diaper changing is no fun.
he has lost much of his hair and looks like a chemo patient. hayden was born with a full head of thick hair that he kept. the only hair he lost was in the back of his head from where he rubbed it. talan has, what a neighbor pointed out, as mr. t hair. he has blonde hair covering his head but basically just a strip of long baby hair down the middle with some wisps on the sides as well. sometimes we try to spread it out so he doesn't look so sick. usually from straight on you can't tell just how sickly he looks.
he grabs EVERYTHING. something else we really don't remember hayden doing. at least not nearly as much as talan does. wherever you sit him, he finds something that he just has to have. weeks ago he grabbed my glass at the table. luckily hayden was there and caught it before he knocked it down. and he is a huge fan of the remote. if he sees it, he will do everything in his power to get it.
he has taken quite an interest in the cat lately. anytime he sees dante he'll just stare at him. and if talan is on the ground, he tries his best to get over to him to pet him. dante keeps a safe distance as i'm sure he remembers just what happened once hayden started moving. now he has to try to stay clear of TWO kids.
i took him to get his 6 month pictures taken today and everyone kept commenting on how long he was. he goes in for his 6 month check up on monday so i guess we'll see if they were right. most people comment on what a big baby he is. so we'll see what those stats are in about a week. as well as have them try to figure out why in the world he's waking us up in the middle of the nite!!!!
even with the middle of the night feedings again (where he typically only eats a couple of ounces anyway) and the couple crabby/non content days, we wouldn't trade him for the world. even super baby has a bad day once in a while.
happy 1/2 year talan!