6 Months

     Hank is getting to be such a big boy!  He is sitting up by himself and has such a fun little personality.  We don't have to work as hard for smiles and laughs these days.  He does lots of talking and spitting, and we hear a new sound every day.  He loves to sleep on his stomach with his bottom sticking straight up in the air. He sleeps 8-9 hours at night.  When he wakes up around 6am I get him and put him in bed with us.  He talks and flails around for awhile, then we begin our day.

     Henry got his first tooth, and I cried.  I was ok when he smiled for the first time, laughed for the first time, and ate baby food for the first time.  But there's something about the first tooth that makes him really seem like he's growing up.  He'll be crawling soon, talking, and running soon-we don't think he'll ever walk, he'll just go straight to running.

     My job has been pretty straightforward so far:  feed him, change him, get him to sleep, and try not to leave him anywhere.  Suddenly my job seems like it's getting much harder.  Sam and I are about to be responsible for teaching him patience, self-control, how to treat others, and teaching him to love the Lord.  Very soon he's going to enter a world that I will not always be there to protect him.  What if his kindergarten teacher doesn't appreciate his "energy" and doesn't like him?  What if someone bullies him, or what if he IS a bully?  What if he doesn't make the baseball team (or the dance team, whatever)?  What if he dates a girl that is a jerk?  I can't tell him that I don't like her, because then it will turn into this whole forbidden romance, Romeo and Juliet situation.  But I need to let him know that she is a jerk.  What if the jerk girl breaks his heart?  I may be getting a little ahead of myself, he's only 6 months old.

     Henry's 6 month appointment was a little scary.  They did all the usual measurements, then told me his head circumference was in the 99th percentile.  The doctor said that could indicate an illness or brain trauma if his head grew significantly since his 4 month appointment.  He charted Henry's head growth since birth, and there was a huge jump in the past 2 months, which meant there was a problem.  The doctor said he was going to measure Henry's head one more time before we looked into what was going on.  He measured it again and got a different measurement than the nurse!  She was several centimeters off.  His head is normal!  No brain trauma!  YAY!                                 Here's his stats:

Height:  26 inches (53 percentile)

Weight:  18 lbs (60 percentile)

At his 6 month appointment.  Such a stud