Mommy and Daddy had been expecting that when you started solid foods, you would resist the solids and want your bottle. For the first few months, you inhaled both. Now, you drink an ounce or two at a time and decide you have better things to do (solids, on the other hand, are still inhaled, especially fruit). This has made Mommy and Daddy a little anxious to know if you’re getting enough food; it also means that instead of six feedings a day, you have something like 14 mini-feedings. Not even Hobbits have names for all of those.

Mommy and Daddy feel pretty good about themselves when you fall asleep between 8:30 and 9 with little fuss, and sleep peacefully through till 6. This last week, we have learned the wisdom of not associating our self-worth with your sleep behaviors. We put you to bed on your back in the middle of your crib. Several times at night you wake us up crying because you have flipped onto your stomach and scooted backwards into one of the sides of your crib; you can’t move the way you want to (i.e. crawling forward) and you are awake and unhappy about it. Or maybe it’s gas…or teething…or nasal congestion…whatever the reason, crib time is changing.

Today you attended your first birthday party, in this case a combined party for a 3-year-old and 1-year-old from the stay-at-home parents’ meet up group. The party consisted of play time at an indoor play park (conveniently located at the back of an intimidating industrial park maze) followed by snack/cake time. To you, it was a great time to practice sitting up on your own, mouth a few new objects (not all of them toys), and watch parents scramble around a packed room picking up food from the buffet counter, coordinating napkins, plates, food and utensils for squirmy toddlers, and trying to talk over the noise to other parents. Mommy and Daddy sat safely against a wall with you and only ventured into the fray for munchies and to lend a hand to parents of multiple munchkins. They thought the Angry Bird cake was very creative and delicious…and were very grateful that the birthday parties you will really care about are at least another year or two away…

You have now officially graduated to a high chair for eating and hanging out at the dining table; your vibrating bouncy chair is being retired to very occasional floor duty. Your chair is an old school wooden one (antique store sale) with a tray that comes up and over your head, and a leather snap safety leg-divider. Daddy added some of his own safety engineering with a Mustang replica seatbelt that goes around you and the back of the chair. A phone book serves as your booster seat.

Like all babies, one of your new favorite pastimes is conducting theory of gravity experiments by pushing your toys (and anything else) off of your high chair tray and onto the floor. Sometimes you even look right at Mommy or Daddy and smile when you do this as if you are the most endearing baby in the world. Daddy’s next engineering marvel: a strap to keep your chair toys from hitting the floor…

Today was your 6 month doctor appointment at which you were 26.5 inches long (50th percentile), 15 lbs 1 oz (10th percentile), and had a head circumference of 16.75 in (15th percentile). Your pediatrician was quite happy with your eating and developmental progress, which makes Mommy and Daddy very happy. You were very not happy about your immunizations and flu shot.

For Christmas, Tia Antje bought you a growth chart that compares your length to the length of other objects. Here is your selection so far: at birth, you were as long as the world’s most expensive teddy bear, at 2 months, you were as long as the original space hopper (not sure what this is…may be a British thing), at 4 months, a standard parrot standing on an average bulldog’s back, and now at 6 months, a red fox. Just remember, part of life is about keeping things in perspective.

Someday you will learn that time around vacations acts differently than normal time: before vacation, it slows down, during vacation, it speeds by, after vacation, it leaves you wondering what happened. Today we packed up to return to Houston tomorrow and said goodbye to 2012, a year that has changed all of our lives very much. Next year, 2013, will be like that too. We are very grateful that we could spend the holidays with our families (you have been super spoiled with attention) and while we look forward to the return to normalcy, we will wish they could be more a part of the everyday normal. Maybe next year…

Somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you learned to sit up by tri-podding with your hands. You could sit up but not do much because if you moved one hand, you would tip over sideways or (more impressively for us not-as-flexible older folk) fold in half. The day or so after Christmas, you started being able to stay up without your hands, very wobbly with frequent tips and resets at first, then for longer and longer on your own. You think this is awesome and give anyone in a room a smile and a statement of excitement. Reaching for and holding toys while sitting is still a bit much to handle. Just think what you’ll be able to do in a couple more weeks (Mommy and Daddy are picturing objects being thrown from a high chair…).

Today was your first wine tasting (okay, so Mommy and Daddy did the wine tasting on your behalf but you were in attendance). Making wine has been a hobby in the Brewer family for a couple generations. Grandpa Don has a couple hundred bottles of wines he’s bought or wines he’s made in his cellar (mostly reds and ports as whites don’t store very long). Ever since Mommy has known Daddy, Grandpa Don has tried to pass on his wine making and wine drinking knowledge. At today’s event, Daddy was the official host and explained the qualities we were looking for in the 6 “fruity reds” on the docket. Grandma Lois provided delicious munchies to go with the wines…if you’re taking notes(and you should be), good cheese is particularly important.

Related factoids:

The elder Brewers generally prefer red wines, on the dry side. Ironically, wine is produced and consumed in the Brewer household far more often than beer. Mommy’s favorites are fruity whites and ports. Daddy is more adventurous. Red wine that has only aged a month…is vile.

A few months before you were born and while they were setting up your baby registry, Mommy and Daddy read an article on a baby website with a title like “The Things You Really Need For A Baby”. This article contained a relatively short list: clothes for baby, a place for baby to sleep, a car seat, a stroller, a way to keep baby’s behind clean, and a way to feed baby (bottles, nursing stuff). A trip into a baby store at University Village today to get you 6 month+ pacifiers made Mommy and Daddy smile thinking about all the baby things they have that they haven’t needed or used in your lifetime–and they tried very hard not to overdo it. Sigh…the things only experience can teach you…

This Thanksgiving and Christmas, you were over run by monkeys and happy about it. You received lots of adorable monkey clothing as presents (and from Mommy and Daddy who just couldn’t resist it on sale). Uncle Caleb gave you a small version classic sock monkey for Christmas. You immediately tried to put its whole nose in your mouth and it was love at first chomp. Sock monkey seems to be your new go-to stuffed animal for teething, bouncing, throwing, holding, etc..That said, here is an update on some of your other favorites: mirrors (these never seem to get old…making faces and loud giggles), rattle ball, straps of any kind (great for chewing evidently), blankets and burp cloths (for chewing, snuggling and waving), and the ring holding your key teethers (ironically, the ring gets much more chewing action than the teethers themselves).