It’s hard to believe that our not-so-petite sir has been in our lives for half a year already!  He gets more interesting all the time—and he continues to surprise us with how different he is from Rob and myself.  Holden is still mellow, gregarious, and unafraid.  He engages with others effortlessly in social situations that even some adults would find overwhelming (e.g. loud noise and lots of people don’t bother him at all).  It’s typically around this age that babies start exhibiting separation anxiety or “stranger danger,” but Holden doesn’t seem to mind being around unfamiliar people or places.  As for the separation anxiety, Holden hasn’t been away from me very many times (I think I can actually count on one hand the number of times we have been apart since his birth), so it is tough to say how well he actually deals with being separated from us.

Holden has become a relatively confident sitter, although not without the occasional topple.  He can sit and reach for his toys and keep himself entertained for minutes at a time.  His newest favorite activity is playing with the beautiful wooden train sent to him by his Aunt Annie and Uncle Jerry.  He loves it!  He is still trying to figure out how those wheels work!

Holden is also enjoying tummy time a bit more, although it is not his favorite way to spend his time.  He does little mini-pushups and is starting to creep a little.  He now rolls over effortlessly, but never when his Papa is watching!  He can pivot his body to face his toys (or the cat) for a better view.  If he sees his shadow, he will pause to stare at it, then he will start moving again to watch his shadow change.

Holden is doing very well with solid foods.  He has enjoyed rice cereal, carrots, peas, pears, and applesauce, and knows exactly what to do with them.  As soon as I dip into his bowl with his spoon, he opens his little mouth, ready to receive the first bite.  There isn’t as much of a mess anymore when he eats as he has gotten really efficient with moving his food from the front of his mouth to the back without pushing it out with his tongue.  He makes little chewing motions with his mouth, and emits little sounds of satisfaction “Mmmmmmm” as he chews.  Exercising those little mouth muscles is actually pretty important for speech development!  I’ve been having a lot of fun making baby food for Holden.  Here’s an array of frozen purees:

Along with canned applesauce that I made in September from apples that we picked at the local orchard:

Eventually we’ll just puree whatever it is that we’re having for dinner so he can have it too, but for now, we’re just introducing things pretty slowly.  He is learning to sip water from a sippy cup as well:

Unfortunately, the apples seem to be causing some problems so we stopped offering them at mealtimes.  As soon as he started on apples, he got a bad diaper rash and a rash on his face, which still hasn’t gone away.  I can only assume that it’s from the apples (they have a very low pH), but who knows what the real culprit is.  We’ll just keep him away from them for now and hope that everything resolves.  I just feel terrible every time I look at his sweet face and see those large red patches on his cheeks:(

Two weeks ago I took Holden to the Hearing Outreach Program through the VT Department of Health.  I have no concerns about Holden’s hearing, but the hospital suggested that we do a hearing check since I had a history of chronic ear infections and hearing loss as a baby and young child.  His newborn hearing screening came back great, and luckily, so did the screening that was performed a couple weeks ago!  In fact, the audiologist told us we don’t need to continue to check his hearing unless we have specific concerns.  So that was really good news.  

Last week we also had the first professional photographs taken of Holden.  They turned out great!  It’s hard to pick a favorite, but if I have to, it’s going to be this:

 

And of course we had some cheesy family pictures taken as well:

The thing that I love about this picture is that we could have stepped outside and gotten a picture with real snow, real pine trees, and a real sled—-but we’re rocking the faux winter scene regardless.

And for the heck of it, here’s some more (because let’s get real, it’s impossible to just pick one or two):

Where are my hands?!!!

Tomorrow is Holden’s 6-month appointment and I will be sure to post an update about his growth on here.  He is a gentle soul with a wonderful sense of humor and Rob and I feel so privileged to have shared the past 6 months of our lives with him.