First year is half over :(

I can't believe that it has already been six months since Alex was born. He is on the downward slope of his first year. It has been six incredible months though. What a sweetheart! He is such a happy, busy little guy. He is so fast when he crawls now. I call him lightning because he is already on the other side of the room 2 seconds after I put him down. He is very curious and has to check everything out now that he can. He has finally started sitting too. He won't sit still for long but he can go from crawling to sitting and back to crawling with ease. His big thing he likes to do now is pull himself up. He can get up to a standing position just fine but he still hasn't figured out how to get back down. Sometimes he just falls backwards and goes on with playing but most of the time he will let you know that he is stuck and needs help. He pulls himself up on EVERYTHING but the one that drives me crazy is when he does it in his crib. He is supposed to be going to sleep but he keeps pulling himself up and then calling for me to help him get back down. I lowered his mattress thinking that if he couldn't reach the top rail he wouldn't be able to pull himself up but I was wrong. He just grabs on to the bars and uses them instead. As frustrating as it is though it always makes me smile to see such a little guy standing in such a big bed.

We went to the doctor yesterday and found he is still not gaining as much weight as he should be. He keeps dropping lower and lower on the charts. The doctor thinks that because he is so super active for a kid his age that he is burning calories faster than normal. I have to increase his calorie intake so that he can have all the energy he needs to keep me on my toes. I thought that was pretty funny since he already eats a lot. I guess I know now why he is always so hungry (he has resorted to eating the cat food in between meals whenever he can sneak over there because I don't feed him enough.) I hate to think of his appetite when he starts his teenage growth spurt. Much different than girls, that's for sure.

The one thing that has started in the last few weeks that I am absolutely loving is that he has become a mamma's boy. He gets so excited when he sees me. When someone else is holding him and he sees me coming he will literally jump out of their arms and into mine. He gets so excited at the sound of my voice and will almost always cry if I give him to someone else. I guess I love it so much because I know that all too soon he will be too busy for his mom and I'll have to catch him in between activities to try and get a hug. But not right now. Right now I am the world to him and I want it to last for as long as possible. My favorite time with him is when he is really tired and he just lays in my arms drifting in and out of sleep while I sing to him. After he falls asleep I just stare at him thinking about all the different stages in his life from kindergarten to Boy Scouts to Prom to college to marriage. Then as I marvel at how fast the time flew by and how I wish I could hold my wonderful son in my arms as an infant again I look at my sweet little baby boy and kiss his little head so grateful that I got my wish to have him in my arms again. It's sentimental I know but time really will fly by too fast and this is my way of keeping things in perspective so that I don't miss his baby and childhood because I was too busy myself to stop and smell the baby powder. What a sweet spirit he is and what a joy he is in our lives. I can't wait to see what the next six months will bring.

Megan and Alex have such a special bond. Megan is the only one who can get him laughing this hard. He absolutely adores her and she eats it up. This was taken one morning about two weeks ago.