The Witherows of Beverly Hills: March 2012

Dear Jay,

You are six months old! (Actually, you are six and a half months old, but Mommy is late on updating the blog!) It is so hard to believe that we've already had you for half of a year! It has been the fastest and most wonderful half-a-year of our lives!

You now have two very SHARP teeth! We think you are finished teething for the moment, which is a nice relief for all of us, but we know it will start up again soon!

You still like to chew on anything you can get your hands on.

You are starting to "creep" a little. You don't crawl yet, but when you're on your tummy, you like to scoot forward. Unfortunately, you still hate being on your tummy at all, so you don't do this very much. However, when we put you on your back, you use your feet to scoot backwards and you love doing this all the time!

You love playing with toys now! Your favorite toys are Moosie (who lives in your carseat) and Bug (who lives in your stroller).

You also like to play with toys in your room. Almost every afternoon, you and Mommy sit on the floor to play with your toys. Mostly, you just like chewing on them, but sometimes you like to shake them and make them rattle.

Speaking of carseats, you have officially been promoted to your big carseat! Your little carseat has been stored away and you are now using the carseat that should fit you until you're done with carseats altogether. You love your new carseat! You seem to be very comfy in it.

Now that you're not using your little carseat anymore, you get to ride in the cart when Mommy takes you grocery shopping! You're still not quite steady enough to sit up on your own, so Mommy has to keep a hand on you to keep you from tipping. You don't like this arrangement as much as riding in your harness, but you're getting too heavy for that, too. We think you'll start to like riding in the shopping cart more once you can sit up a little better.

But on the floor, with your legs helping hold you up, you sit up great! You love sitting on the floor, and we usually put a pillow behind you in case you fall over (you do not like falling over!). You're falling less and less every day, though!

You have started eating solid food! So far, you've eaten rice cereal, applesauce, bananas, squash, and carrots. You liked rice cereal until you started eating other things, so now you only like it when we mix applesauce in with it. But other than that, you eat everything we give you!

It is such a blessing that you are such a good eater! You eat twice a day, at lunch and at dinner, and you eat about half a jar of baby food at a time. When Mommy forgets to feed you, you get really fussy, which tells us that you really do need to be eating more "people" food. You're still nursing like a champ though, which makes Mommy soooo happy! Eating solid foods means it's also easier to leave you with Grandma Linda sometimes so Mommy and Daddy can have a date! We're very excited to see the new Hunger Games movie tomorrow while you play with Grandma!

Your nap schedule is getting a little more consistent. You typically nap three times a day for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour each time. You're still not sleeping great at night, and last night you woke up every two hours. But Mommy also nursed you most of the day instead of giving you people food, so that may have been why. You still do perfectly at knowing the difference between night and day, though. Ever since you were born, you've done a great job of going right back to sleep at night after you nurse. Keep it up!

Your favorite thing is still sitting outside and watching the cars. The weather here in Florida is getting hotter and hotter, so we don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep this up, but for now, you typically take your early afternoon and late afternoon naps outside. You're not liking your swing so much now, so you usually sit in your stroller.

Unfortunately, you are a very light sleeper and wake up very easily (two seconds later):

The best part of this month is that you have started saying "Mama"!!!!

Mommy gets soooooo excited when you say this, and the positive reinforcement from Mommy makes you say it a lot! We think you know who "Mama" is, but it could just be that you're making sounds at this point. Hopefully, we'll get it on video soon. You also say "Baba" a lot, and a couple of times, you've said "obama"...

We love you so much, little one! You are such a perfect addition to our family, and we thank God every day for giving you to us! We know the second half of your first year will be just as amazing as the first half!

Jay and I were able to visit our family in North Carolina February 25 through March 3. Here are some highlights of our wonderful trip!

Aunt Hannah and Uncle Chris picked us up at the Greenville airport. Hannah's sign says "66.7% of the Witherow Family". :)

We always make a trip over to Hazelwood, where my dad grew up, to visit my grandparents. Grandpa Tilley is 94 years old, and Jay is their 5th great-grandchild.

Grandpa (my dad), Aunt Sarah, and Jay and I walked around the Grove Park Inn in Asheville one afternoon. The views are breathtaking, and the fireplace is huge! In the cold weather, they actually have a fire in there!

On another afternoon, Jay got to visit his Grandma at work! He loved typing at her computer and she loved finally getting to show off her first grandbaby!