Happy Half!

Dane is 6 months old! We can hardly believe how much he's changed in the last couple months especially. So many new skills, so much more personality. At his half birthday, he weighs around 15 lbs, is 25 inches long and has a head circumference of 20 inches. He's started to eat solid food, can roll over from his back to front, has begun to mimic us in his speech and loves to learn. He can do a push up on his tummy and is especially fond of riding the knee, fart noises and being tickled by dad. He's also just starting to teeth pretty hardcore, which is causing him some pain and making him gnaw on anything in proximity. One of our favorite new developments is how interested he is in touching faces. He loves exploring his world and is getting very close to scooting. We've been taking so many pictures lately as he continues to grow and change; you can see some of the fun below. Here's to many more wonderful months ahead!

Blowing it

Dane had us both dying of laughter last night, as he figured out how to make...well...some noises he's heard his dad make. Of course, like any good boy, he thinks fart noises are hilarious, so he was very pleased with himself for figuring out how to make these noises with his mouth. He couldn't stop! It's so cool to see him really thinking about things and trying to replicate what he sees us doing. For example, he has a toy ball with a bell inside that he's just learned how to hold on to. While he was holding it the other night, I shook it to make the bell ring. He looked at the ball more intensely and then started to try and shake it himself. He's really starting to blossom mentally, which is so exciting for us.

Bathtime Fun

Dane's been loving all things water related, especially bathtime lately. It's amazing how a bath can snap him right out of even his worst scream-fests. It's almost magical, and we get to enjoy the benefits of his happy place before bed each night. We love to see him smile, laugh and kick around; it makes us even more excited for when he can start walking, as we think he'll be swimming and water-skiing shortly afterward:)

First solid food

Dane's other newest skill is eating solid foods with a spoon. We've started off with oatmeal and rice cereal, and have pureed pears, peas, squash and apples on the docket. He's very funny with how he's testing out the texture, not completely sure if he likes it or not. He makes a ton of hilarious faces, but overall seems to be doing well. We have his 6 month check-up in early October, so it will be fun to see how much he's grown in the last two months. He's already moving out of the size 1 diapers, which seems crazy when we remember how we thought he'd never make it out of the preemie size.

Super swimmer

Since our last post, we went on a week long vacation without the babe and then have gotten into a very busy (because of frequent call nights) 2 weeks. Through these weeks though, we've been working on getting Dane into the pool whenever we can. He seems to love it and we're even practicing dunking him. He's not 100% on board with that yet, but hasn't started crying yet, so that's a good sign. Here's a video of his natural kicking skills.

New camera, lots of old and new photos

We finally upgraded cameras a little bit ago so we can start doing a better job of catching all the great moments as Dane is getting bigger each day. We definitely need some practice, but are starting to understand it a bit better. I finally got around to loading the last month's worth onto the computer, so thought I would share a few of them with you.