Half of Year with Wendell Roc!

As of April 5th, Roc is six months old! It is hard to believe we are halfway around the sun with this little man. Time really flies.

This was one of our most exciting months in terms of his development. He started rolling over from back-to-front. He had been mostly there for a long time and he finally made it over. Now we really have to watch it. We can't leave him on the middle of the bed any more because he will just roll himself off and that is no fun. He enjoys rolling over and he just rolls himself away. It's quite cute how he is relishing in his new accomplishment.

This month we moved into our new home which means he finally has his own room where he can keep his clothes and toys, where we can change his diaper and where he can... sleep. We bought him an over-sized crib that can convert into a toddler bed when he is older and started using it right away. No more sleeping in mommy's and daddy's room, in our bed. When we moved him, we decided to sleep train him at the same time. It made sense. We decided to first to train him to sleep through the night. Once he had that accomplished, we would train him to fall asleep on his own. I will post in more detail about what we did so I will leave it brief here. In any case, we did achieve this goal and I'm feeling so much more rested now (however, our travels to Israel did change this status - more on that later).

Happy to be in his new crib.

Since he started sitting on his own, we decided it was time to start with solids. We gave him a couple of things to try the last two weeks of the month, to get him used to new tastes but he wasn't that in to it. He didn't like banana or apple but was okay with pear and kiwi. We will just have to keep at it. I know I will have to get more systematic as we go on. It's very cool to watch him react to the food, the textures and tastes and learn what to do with it. Babies really have to learn so much and they handle it so well.

Spending time with family

We celebrated his six month by visiting the Mansion of Bahjí and the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh. What a blessing! It is very special to visit the Bahá'í holy places with Roc.

Visiting the Bahá'í gardens with his dad.

Happy six months, my love!

February with our little Roc: Month 5

So finally...an update!

It has been unusually busy. We spent the month of February house-hunting and then furniture-hunting. Roc was such a good sport about it too. He had to spend an extraordinary amount of time out of the house, in the car, doing errands, going to IKEA, etc. and he handled it so well, better than can be expected.

Because we were out and about so much, I think his development also slowed down a bit. He didn't have as much tummy time, play time, etc. In any case, he did start laughing much more during his fifth month which is a whole lot of fun for us. We love his cute little laugh and his big smile which lights up the room. We almost treat it as if it is a little God that we worship, constantly seeking out new ways to make him laugh and keep him smiling. I guess that's what parents do though - they just love seeing their babies happy and full of joy.

Roc is so tired from all of the errands.

Some time in late February, he also started sitting up on his own. Yay! What a milestone for him. He was a bit wobbly for the couple months. Now he is much better at keeping himself from falling over He also rolled over from front-to-back (much less interesting, I know). We kept waiting and hoping for him to roll from back-to-front. He was so close for so long and he finally achieved it in March.

Captured on camera: sitting up for the first time, unassisted. Yay!

During February, we discovered how much he loved playing the piano, hitting his whole hands against the keys, hearing the sounds. He L-O-V-E-S it! I can't even tell you how mesmerizing and calming it is for him, so much so that I bought him an activity mat with a faux-piano that he can kick with his feet or play when he is sitting up. He gets really excited with it. How did I not realize that a "musical" toy is not conducive to a peaceful houseful? They say "silence is golden" for a reason. Thankfully, it hasn't gotten on my nerves yet.

He is so excited about playing the piano.

Right around the time he turned five months, we were finally able to start his vaccine schedule. Originally we wanted to begin in February (at four months) but we were unable to make it to the doctor due to our hectic house-hunting adventures. He did pretty well during the shots, better than I was expecting, but he had a rough couple of days afterwards. I am not looking forward to the next round, which is due at the beginning of May.