Team Schuurman: Chronicles of a 6 Month Old's Mama

     I said it last week, and again tonight, "I'm so happy where we are right now." Yes, we want more children one day, but right now, it's so amazing to be a family of three.
     We were in Marcus' room a few hours ago, watching him play with his new toy. He was happily exploring the new colors, shapes, and sounds of this contraption while Mark and I sat on each of his sides, gazing on in proud delight. We borrowed this toy from a friend at church and so far, he loves it. I used antibacterial wipes to clean the small, intricate parts while Mark urged Marcus to "walk" or move towards him. He showed him how certain actions caused different reactions...physics, you know. Just kidding. :) Anyhow, Mark showed him how to pull the life saver on the boat to make the paddle twirl and how pushing the keys on the keyboard makes different sounds. It was such a sweet little moment with our 6 month old.
     I realize not all babies are created equally but we're quite happy with the one we were given. He's doing some things ahead of schedule, some things right on track, and he's probably behind in a few as well. In an effort to condense this blog, here is the latest information on our sweet little blessing:

He just started this recently, but when we're holding him face to face, Marcus likes to grab our faces with his sweet little hands and suck on our chins or cheeks. It's the wettest, gooiest, funniest feeling while he's gumming us to death. If we try to talk to him while he's doing it, he laughs as he chews.
He takes five 6oz bottles a day and usually eats solids once in between his last two feedings. We mix rice cereal with different types of baby food. So far he's tried sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, and carrots. I tried smashing up a banana the other day and feeding it to him but he wanted no part of it. We'll keep trying different foods, though.
He's currently wearing 6-12 month or 9-12 month clothes, depending on the brand. It's nice now that it's warming up because he can wear more shorts, t-shirts, and go without socks. He absolutely LOVES his own feet! He loves touching, kicking, and stretching them to his mouth. He can absolutely eat his toes and that's just the cutest thing ever.
As soon as we put Marcus down on his back, he usually rolls to his left, onto his belly with no problems. He moves his arms and legs like he's trying to swim and he's gotten pretty fast about it! He moves like the hands on a clock, where his butt stays in the same spot but his head points in different directions. He's quite the active little wiggle worm!
Finally, Marcus has been a great sleeper up until recently, and even then, he's better than other babies I've heard of. We sing to and rock him around 7:45-8pm and put him into his crib awake. On a good night, like tonight, he'll fall asleep without a peep and wake up between 6-7am. For the past two nights, however, he's woken up between 4-5am, crying inconsolably, and the only thing that has helped was actually feeding him. Rocking him, the pacifier, or the combination of the two just didn't cut it. We think his cold could have something to do with it and I always like to blame "bad" behavior on teething, but who knows if it's really that or not. It's gotta be coming soon...right?

Marcus thought it would be a good idea to flip over in the tub, even though I was standing right beside him. I drained the water and got my camera to snap a picture of that cute little tush. He'll kill me later for this.