Six Months with Theo

I've been pretty quiet here lately, because the last month or so we've had a full house. Our friend, Michele, visited us from Denver. My Dad came to visit from Mississippi. Elie's cousins visited from Toronto. My aunt and uncle drove up from Oregon. Our friend, Daisy, and two of her friends visited us from Austin. And we've made many trips to Vancouver to visit family there, and they've done sleepovers here. It's been a full and happy summer.

To top it off, we leave for France in two days, and we will be gone a month. So, we've also been planning and slowly packing, to make sure we don't forget anything crucial, like passports.

But I wanted to post a quick update on our life with Theo, before our little one turns seven months old and these milestones are forgotten.

We were standing in the ice cream shop the other day, and I was holding Theo and kissing his neck. He was giggling and squealing, and two young women next to me both said, "That is my favorite sound!" It's ours, too. There is no sweeter sound in the world than his laugh, and the soft sound of his voice as he's starting to experiment with talking. It melts my heart every time I hear it.

Nothing makes Theo happier than being on his Daddy's shoulders. Or when Elie puts him on top of his head and spins him around, or when we make him fly like and airplane or 'drop' him. I think our little boy is going to be an adventurer. He certainly loves meeting new people, and will stare into the face of someone new, studying them. It usually makes people laugh, because he will look at them so intently.

And boy does this little one love music. If he's upset about something, all I have to do is start singing and he's immediately calmed. When Daisy was here, we all sat around the breakfast table, playing music and singing. Theo sat in our laps and listened for at least an hour, just looking from person to person, listening and banging his hands on the table.

Needless to say, we think he's amazing. 

On the developmental milestones, he can sit solidly, although we still don't leave him alone, as he can topple over. He's not crawling yet. He's just starting to push himself across the floor, if I hold my hands on his feet to push against. But he can stand! He can stand on his own when holding on to the side the couch or to our hands. For some reason, he has no interest in rolling. We can't figure it out, because he can do it. But he seems uninterested. Perhaps we never let him get frustrated enough to force him to practice more. I'm sure it will come in time.

Theo has amazing eye contact. He can reach for and drop his toys and move them from hand to hand. He loves playing peek-a-boo. if he hears a sound, he will turn his head to see where it's coming from. And I'm pretty sure that he knows the sound of the garage door opening means Daddy is coming home. His eyebrows go up and he starts turning his head, looking for him. He loves, loves, loves when his Daddy comes home. When he sees Daddy coming through the door, his little feet start pedaling. his arms start flapping, and he gets the biggest smile on his face. I'm still a little envious.

But the biggest change from month five to six is his interest in food. Our little Theo loves to eat! Oatmeal, barley, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, zucchini, blueberries, bananas, avocado, chicken, fish, apples, pears, plums. He loves it all. The only thing he really doesn't like is beets. He cries when I give him beets. I agree, they are an acquired taste. I don't even like them all the time. His favorite food so far is peaches. And he and Elie will go pick plums of the neighbors tree, and Elie will let him gum the inside of the plum. He loves it.

We're planning on letting him taste a few of the French delicacies that are appropriate for his age--maybe a little morsel of croissant or a bit of soft baguette and jam. When we decided to have Theo, we said we would still travel and go on adventures with our child. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, so we'll see what kind of a traveler we have. We're optimistic he's a good one. If you like, follow along on Instagram or Facebook, where I'll post regular updates on our travels in France.