Six Months

Dear Gabriel,

I'm so sorry I missed our five month letter to you. Life got really busy suddenly and before I knew it, two months had passed.

So much has happened in those two months. You have grown exponentially and have become such a joy.

Stats
I don't know exactly what you weigh or how long you are right now, but your six month appointment with Dr. Thomas is Monday. I will edit this portion after the appointment to include your current stats.
You wear exactly the size you should wear: 3-6 months. You're almost too big for this size. I've been taking daily pictures of your outfits as much as I can so I can document the cuteness of them. It's sad that you have too many outfits to wear them more than once! The outfits in the larger sizes are fewer so you stand a better chance of wearing them twice. Someday I will post your daily pictures. :)

Nicknames
We've always called you by nicknames, but I think now is a good time to list the things we've called you throughout your life: Gabe, Gabey, Gabey Baby, Baby Love, Baby Lovin, Bugs, Bugaloo, Bugaboo, Bugalug, Chunk, Chunkalunkin, Chunkalunk, Chunkalunka, Lovey, Lovey Bear, Boogs, Booger, and Mister. My mom, Grandma Lori, calls you Junior Samples, which I think is pretty funny.

Sleep
Of course, over the past months, I have struggled with our sleep situation. You seem to sleep best with me, but I felt such pressure from the world (society, our culture) to have you sleep in your own bed in your own room. I even had this picture of you in the nursery and me going in in the morning to say good morning and get you up in your lovely room.
But I have realized that I actually like co-sleeping. I like going to sleep with you snuggled close, listening to the sound of your even, warm, sweet breath. I like knowing you're alive all night because you're close and I can reach over and feel your tummy rising and falling. And my favorite moments with you are watching you wake - being with you as you open your eyes and greet the day - and watching your sweet face as you sleep. I love being the first and last thing you see each day. I love knowing that my voice is the first and last thing you hear, not your own cry as you call for me. I love knowing that you feel safe and warm and loved rather than scared and cold and alone.
I know these days are fleeting and I have fought with myself and with the world around me. I have rushed you and I have let the word rush me. You will grow up. You will grow to a place where you no longer nap in my arms, at me breast. Where I can no longer watch you sleep. Where I can no longer snuggle you close. Those days will come too soon. I have learned and loved to relish these moments and be okay with being still and napping with you.
You still do not sleep through the night - you still wake every two to three hours and want to nurse for comfort, usually. But I've learned to be okay with that.
This is the mommy I want to be. Peaceful, cozy, warm, trustful, and content with allowing you to grow at your own pace.

Eating
Oh, this has been fun. In the last month or so we've been introducing you to solid foods. You've been super interested in eating and so we've followed your lead and our instincts.
You're still exclusively nursing. When I say "introduced" I mean, tidbits here and there and allowing you to play with your food.
So far you've had breads of various kinds (sourdoughs, honey wheats, plain sliced bread, banana bread), pizza crust, French fries, graham crackers, Nilla wafers, bell peppers, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, carrots, cantaloupe, grapes, apples, yogurt, cheese, steak, chicken, and lemon. I think that's all. Oh, and ice cream (fro-yo, frozen custard, gelato), and you are crazy for it. Especially chocolate ice cream. I think your favorite food, other than ice cream, has been sweet potato.
Now I know what people (and you!) may be thinking: "Oh, dear God! This baby doesn't have teeth, can't chew, and she's giving him _____!?" Well, indeed. You've largely just been sucking on these items. A few, like the sweet potato, ice cream, French fries, you've been actually swallowing, but most things you're just chewing, sampling the flavor, sucking the juices. It's been a really fun way to introduce solids to you and I much prefer it to commercial baby foods or even purees. I just give you bits of what I'm eating.
I plan on maintaining this method for a while. I hope to nurse you well into your toddler years, so I don't believe you will be nutritionally lacking, and as your teeth come in and you naturally wean, you will be more adept at actually consuming the food. Like everything else, I'm in no hurry for you to start eating solids as your only form of sustenance. This has helped maintain my sanity. I have watched a few moms stress because their baby, who is only eating solids, won't eat or won't eat enough. I like that I don't have to worry about such things.

Potty
Don't worry, this isn't about some weird potty training method! Again, I'm in no hurry! But along with solids come new waste elimination experiences. We've had to adjust to new pooping habits! For most of your life, you pooped daily. If you didn't poop one day, we could rely on you to poop the next. But once we introduced solids, and you started to get a little older, your poops stopped coming. Initially we thought you were constipated, but now we're coming to realize two things: a) we introduced solids, so your poops are more formed and harder to push out and b) you're processing breastmilk much more efficiently before and using more of it so there's less to poop out.
Now your poops come about once a week and boy, howdy, they are epic!

Daily Schedule
You are super regimented and all on your own! I didn't have to train you to develop this schedule, you did it all on your own!
8:00 am wake up
9:00 am nurse and nap
10:00 am awake and ready to play
12:00 pm nurse and nap
1:00 pm awake and ready to play
3:00 pm nurse and nap
5:00 pm awake and ready to play
7:30 pm nurse and sleep
It's so nice that you are wonderfully predictable. If you're fussing, I can look at the clock and know exactly what to do to meet your need. Sometimes you do sleep longer or at different times of the day, but generally, this is how we do.

Milestones
You're still smiling a lot and laughing often. You will smile when not prompted. You always smile at me. :) Your laughs are fewer, but still so joyful. You like being tickled (ribs and thighs, especially), but sometimes you'll laugh at things that are silly like your daddy and Rocky.
Tummy time has been so exciting lately! You are kind of creeping around - you try to crawl toward something but you always end up pushing yourself backward. But boy can you roll! You roll all over the place! I don't have to baby proof because of crawling but because you can get to something by rolling to it! Sometimes you get stuck in corners or up against a piece of furniture and you'll fuss until someone rescues you. You cannot wait to crawl and get so frustrated when you can't.
The big new thing is that you are now sitting! It took you about a week to learn how (October 5-13, 2012) but now it's one of your favorite things. If I lay out on your back you point your toes and lift your head and grunt until I let you use my fingers to pull yourself up to a sitting position. I say, "Sit up!" and you know what to do. You love to look around the room, watch Rocky, watch the TV, and play with your toys. Sometimes, you'll bend waaaaaay over to reach a toy and fall over onto your tummy. This usually upsets you and I have to rescue you. You really enjoy sitting outside in the grass. You dig holes with your heels.
Along with sitting up has come reaching up for me. I love it. I will walk by you and you seem to remember that I exist and you want me to hold you. It's wonderful.
You can't seem to wait to stand. You like for us to hold you up and you sort of bounce/jump. It's so cute!

Favorites
You're aware enough of your surroundings and have object permanence now to have favorite items. You love a really cheap giraffe rattle. She doesn't have a name. We just call her "Your Giraffe". You're really good at manipulating her so you can chew on her face or the rattle's handle. You also really like a robot toy we've named Domo. You talk to him when you're disgruntled in the car. It's really funny. You enjoy your play gym.

Events
Early in the month I ran my first 5k and you came along for the ride. It was at SeaWorld, so we ran first then went to all the shows. It was your first time at SeaWorld. I went once when I was eight months pregnant, but that was it. You slept through most of the run, but loved the shows! Well, the first show we went to, the walrus and sea lion show, was too loud and made you cry. The second show, the Azul show with the beluga whales and dolphins, you really liked but the soothing music soon put you back to sleep. You were asleep for the Shamu show. So that was your first trip to SeaWorld!
Grandma Lori and Great Great Aunt Sharon came to visit for a week. We went to the zoo and the Drafthouse with them. They also baby sat you one night while they were here.
You stayed with a baby sitter that wasn't family for the first time. The Allardyces were very nice to watch you while we went out to eat.
Because it's October and fall, we went to the South Texas Corn Maize. While there, we did the maze, went on a hay ride, and visited a pumpkin patch were we picked up pumpkins to carve for Halloween. Halloween is technically in your next month so you will get to hear all about it then.
Establishing and maintaining traditions is very important to me and this is my favorite time of year (October - February), so hopefully you'll get to hear about all the wonderful things we've been doing over the holidays.

So there you have it! Your sixth month in review. I suppose it's your fifth month in review, technically. :)

We love you, Kidlet.
Mommy and Daddy