He has his check up later this week. I'll post stats once we have them. In the meantime we got giraffe photos with a few bonus pictures of the whole stack of kids.
Xavier is still a very charming guy. I'd say little guy but he's never really been little. He's wearing six month clothes now, and quite a few labeled six months are already too small. He fits best into the ones labeled 6-9 months. I don't remember that distinction being important the first two times. Pants and shirts are generally still ok at the six month size. But he's outgrown anything with feet especially and even some one piece outfits. I can still fasten them but he has a couple extra inches of leg hanging out at the bottom.
In other big news, he's just started to move around. He can't roll over on either direction yet. I suspect that's a reflection of how heavy he is as well as how infrequently he gets tummy time. (Once to twice a day in case you were wondering. Usually it's when I'm getting change or the bigger kids are both out of the house or confined elsewhere in the house.) although he can't roll, I found he migrated several feet from the position I left him on his activity mat. That happened for the first time on his four month birthday.
That means we can't have little choking hazards lying around anymore. It's not that we have had so many as much as I've been a bit lax about enforcing the pick up but no more.
Another big development happened on MLK Day. Michal had the day off for the first time in almost a decade and we all went out for lunch. I had Xavier in the front pack infant carrier. We've officially entered the stage where we have to clear at least a quarter of the table of everything. He grabbed my basket and thoroughly enjoyed moving it around. Everything was plastic or otherwise unbreakable as well as empty this time. But I had completely forgotten about this stage.
He's much better at reaching out and grasping things. One of his favorites now is his sister's hair as she is often in reach. Luckily he's pretty gentle and frequently lets go of his own accord at this point.
Xavier is one hundred percent on board with bottle feeding. We've done it enough times now that he recognizes the bottle visually and starts squirming with excitement when he sees it. He's still on a strict breast mil diet but if the choice were up to him, that would definitely not be the case. He is enraptured by people eating food and will lean, squirm, and lunge in the direction of food. I gave him a clean plastic spoon last week for the first time and he tried so hard to get some food out of it. He put it in his mouth every which way and had drool running all down the handle into his grasp.
Otherwise, he's nursing every two to three hours during the day, with less time between feedings in the evening before his biggest stretch of sleep. He ranges in total time from about an hour and a half to two hours over a 24-hour period.
He can easily grab soft cloth items and stuff them in his mouth. He also has no trouble with things that are firmly attached and can chew on those too. But he has not mastered untethered objects yet and quickly loses them when they drop out of sight and he forgets about them.
Xavier is sleeping about fourteen hours a day. Most of that is overnight. He's definitely not a morning person. He goes to bed between ten and eleven pm most nights and doesn't open his eyes again until ten or eleven the next morning. That's awesome except that Theo has to be at school at 9:30 four days a week.
Xavier has no napping schedule and generally cat naps four to six times during the day. Those range in length from about 25 to 40 minutes. He can fall asleep just about anywhere as far as I can tell and regularly sleeps swaddled in his bassinet, in the Bjorn infant carrier, in the stroller, in the car seat, in the bouncy seat, or in the swing. He'll also occasionally catch me off guard and just pass out on the floor while lying on his activity mat. I look over and he's peacefully snoozing.
Last week he started having a mega-nap about once a day. It's not at a regular time or even guaranteed once a day, but I think it happened about four to five times last week. It usually lasts two the three hours - much, much longer than normal, and almost always when's he wrapped up and in his own bed in the room with the space heater to keep him extra cozy.
Xavier rarely cries. Every once in a while a big burp will get him riled up as it prevents him from nursing. Otherwise, if he's fussing, he's almost always overtired. He rarely goes more than two hours between naps, and typically more like an hour and half before he's pretty much done.
Xavier has outgrown the baby bucket! By the time we returned from our sundry east coast travels, he no longer fit into it. Instead we dip him into the big tub with his older siblings once a week or less to rinse him off. He's not opposed to the idea but doesn't really get much out of it either, except cold.
In the past month, he's also mastered sucking on his thumb. He doesn't do it super often (not every time he gets tired or fussy or anything) but when it happens he's really into it. I can often hear him slurping away at it, which clues me in to the fact that he's hungry again.
Xavier likes toys, especially the ones with faces, but definitely still prefers real people and interactions to any type of toy.I have yet to notice any color or pattern preference, but he's very willing to share his award winning smiles with strangers and familiar faces. He's got an awesome belly laugh that he employs when he's tickled about anything. Sometimes in the evenings he gets punchy right before he goes to bed and just making eye contact is enough to set him off. His dad shaking his arm up and down rapidly is always good for a laugh, and he still has tons of tickle spots on his jaw, collar bone, ribs, and especially his feet. His feet are hilarious.
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