Happy Half-Birthday, Fionny!

It has officially been half a year since we welcomed our little guy, Seamus Fionn, into our lives and our hearts. In some ways, time has flown. I seriously don't know where October and November went. And don't even talk to me about the Summer. Blur. Just a hot, humid blur.

At other times, though, it feels like a very, verrrrry long time since Conor and I were still just a happy twosome. Has it really just been 6 months? And, more importantly, prior to these 6 months...What did we talk about? What did we do with ourselves? It's hard to even remember sometimes. That said, I have to admit that I DO fondly remember what it felt like to get a delicious 8 hours of completely (no night feedings, no diaper changes, no breast pumping) uninterrupted sleep. I almost wish I didn't remember. Sigh...

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Yes, yes, our boy is 6 months old. Any way you slice it, it definitely feels like quite a milestone. Let's review his development up to this point, shall we?

At 6 months, our boy weighs in at 19.5 pounds and measures a little over 27 inches long. These measurements, in addition to his head circumference of 44.5 cm, put him squarely in the 77th percentile for weight, height, and that whole head thing. Not too shabby, kid.

As far as developmental milestones, Fionn has been hitting all the marks. I won't bore you with the details. You can pick up "What to Expect In the First Year" as easily as I can, right?

The much more interesting thing to us is to look at what he is on the cusp of doing. And, lemme tell ya, Fionn is SOOOO close to crawling. So close. Like he can just taste it. But he just can't quite get it. Not yet anyway. At this point, he is doing a strange sort of Pilates-like move where he gets up on all fours, rocks back and forth a few times, and then hikes one chubby leg up into the air along with his little booty. This motion, sadly, usually disturbs his balance which only leads him to land back onto the carpet. Face plant! This picture captures the Pilates move, although now he performs it on all fours instead of on his stomach. A much more challenging pose, if I do say so myself.


This whole thing is very frustrating to our Fionn, as you might imagine. Especially when he has his sights set on a certain something (or someone, such as sweet Luca), and he can't seem to get to where he wants to go. Of course, when necessary, Fionn still employs his patented "rolling" technique which allows him to arrive safely (if not all that efficiently) at his desired destination. It'll do in a pinch. However, you can almost see it in his face as he does it. A sort of shame. Like he's slummin', and he knows it. This feeling often leads to fussiness on Fionn's part. I think this picture captures his "why won't my legs cooperate?" frustration pretty well.


Another thing it hopefully captures pretty well -- Fionny's teeth! Our boy might be having difficulty with the whole crawling thing, but man...he has got growing teeth down pat! He has two teeth on the bottom, as you can see in the picture. AND, just in time for his 6-month birthday, he sprouted THREE more yesterday! Yeah...that made for a fun learning experience for Mommy who didn't understand the reason for his howling in the middle of the night last Saturday. Now I get it. Sorry, little guy. I have the Infant Tylenol poised and ready to rock tonight, you better believe it!

Now for my sappy mom bit...So I know people tell you that parenthood just keeps getting better and better all the time. But they are really telling the truth! Who'd have thunk it? I have to say that the last couple of weeks have been just so much fun. Of course, there are hard, terrible moments. There will always be those. And many of them will involve ginormous poops! But I digress. There will always be hard moments, but the truly fun, heart-warming moments are starting to outnumber the hard ones. And that, my friends, is good stuff.

I leave you with a sampling of some of The Good Stuff.

Good Stuff #1. Fionny loves it when we read to him. I still can't get over how he can figure out the difference between a normal talking voice and a reading voice. But he can. And he smiles like nobody's business when I pick up a book. It also calms him which, in Fionny's case, is a lifesaver. Here is a pic of Mom and son, spending a little QT with a picture book.


Good Stuff #2. That smile. Oh, that smile. How it just melts me. And, as if that wasn't enough, we have determined that our kiddo appears to have a set of dimples, which you may or may not be able to ascertain from this picture. Regardless, you can't deny it. He is a little stud muffin. Well, helloooo, ladies.



And, finally, Good Stuff #3. The kid is funny. He is feisty and spirited and...just downright hilarious. It is truly impossible not to smile at his little animated expressions and funny little sounds. It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway: Oh, how I delight in him! My Fionny. What a wonderful, wild ride it has been so far...And here we are, just 6 months in. Happy half-birthday, our fair-haired little stinker. We love you!