Riley, you are perfect at 6 months old

My sweet boy, you are SIX months old already, and my problem with sitting down to write to you is that I feel like I will never be able to stop.
I know Mama's are supposed to rave about their boys, and that all boys are deemed to perfect, if you just ask their Mother, but goodness boy, YOU ARE!

You are six months old today, and this time with you is going by way, way, way too fast, and as much as I can not WAIT to see who you become, if time were to stand still that would mean that I would never have to go back, and these days at home with you and your sister could just go on and on and on.

Darling boy, we moved into our new house at the end of April, and you went into your own room and we cut it down to two feeds at night  It is now at the end of June, and that is where you remain. If there is anything I learned from your sister, it is to just LET IT GO. I am not going to attempt to control EVERYTHING (just most things), and these snuggles with you in the night time are precious. Maybe they are not needed, and maybe you are not ACTUALLY hungry, but are just used to waking up to eat, but I don't care. If you need to wake up to snuggle, I'm your gal. Always.

My sweet boy, my MOST favourite right now is when you are laying on your back, and we lean overtop of you, to play, to snuggle, or to kiss, and you put your hands on the sides of our faces and pull us closer. Darling, I melt. Your Daddy melts, your sister melts, your Gramma melts...we all melt.
You like to play shy, but have not actually begun to play shy for real yet. When you snuggle with me, you like to look at the people around you, bury your head into me, and then quickly look to see if they are still watching you. If they are, you repeat, repeat, repeat, and it does not EVER get old. Your sister did this too, and it was just as cute!

This love affair you have with your sister is the most beautiful thing that I have witnessed. Not long after we moved into our new house, in May, we began going for regular walks in the sit and stand. If you were left to look at me, and Ava was in the front, you HATED going for walks. You would cry and cry and cry, to no end. BUT, if we put you in the front, and your sister facing you, you could walk for days, with the smile never leaving your face. She can make you laugh in the car like no one else. She will scream, she will talk gibberish, she will sing, or she won't even have to make a sound, and you are happy if she is near.
Your Mommy does not take it personally, because I feel the same way about your sister. HOWEVER, you also need to be facing the world when you are in the snuggly and we are out for a walk. You are not happy if you are left to face me, which I understand. There is a great big world out there, and you'll be damned if you're going to miss out on it.

Sweet boy, there are a lot of new things going on in your world. Near the end of May, we started to have meals at the kitchen table again. We had a chaotic time when you were born, and then moving into our new home, in the basement, that our meals were all eaten in the living room, on the couch and coffee table. Once you started to be able to sit up a little better, you would sit on our laps, and now, you are sitting in your own chair at the table with us.

You have just started eating good in the last couple of weeks, (with your first bite, of banana, on June 11th) but you have not really taken to it yet. You don't love bananas, but you will eat a little bit of them. You don't like oat cereal or sweet potatoes. While you were sleeping this morning, your sister helped me steam some peaches, pears, and cut and freeze some avocado, and we are hoping that mealtime with get going for you! What you do love, and will not ever say no to, is homemade popsicles. You LOVE licking on popsicles with berries, bananas, and yogurt, so hopefully I can start getting creative and sneaking some more foods into them for you!

Sleeping has become interesting, now that you can roll.  (June 6th was your first belly to back roll.) You are a PRO at rolling from your belly to your back, and are just now figuring out how to roll from your back to your belly. If you reach for something juuuuust out of your reach, you get so stretched out that sometimes you roll. You love to lay on your back, holding onto your toes, and roll back and forth.
JUST as you started to near 6 months, you also found your genitals. Good lord, are you ever a male. You can not WAIT for me to take that diaper off, because when I do, you do not waste a single second before you are "yanking on your peanuts," as Ava so graciously put it today. But honestly, you are pulling and pinching to your little hearts desire, and I can not work face enough to wipe your poopy bum before you get your hands in there!  Ava is always pulling your hand away, and telling you to stop, because we think she has a genuine concern that you are going to actually pull off your penis.
I asked her a few weeks ago to tell you to take it easy on your ear because we didn't want you to pull it off. She said to you, "Riley, take it easy on your ear, because if you pull it off, we are going to have to get a new baby. We don't want a baby with no ears." So please listen to her, because we don't want to have to trade you in!

You are really not ever upset, unless you are tired or hungry, or unless your Daddy accidentally lets you fall onto your face. But what we have found to be EVEN MORE calming is if we sing "head and shoulders" to you. You can be flailing your limbs every which way, getting your little dance on, but the second we start singing that song to you, and doing the actions, your whole body stops moving. And the second I stop, your body is uncontrollable again.
You are the same way when we lay down beside you and kiss the side of your head, over and over. I am waiting for the day that this puts you to sleep, all the kisses on your cheeks, because that is how calm and quiet it makes you.

We have not used it often enough in the last month, but you love your jolly jumper and your jumperoo, and you favorite toys have become your superhero action figures, go figure! You have become attached to Ava's pink bunny/stuffy, and it has become  your nighttime snuggly.

Darling boy, we love you SO, SO much, and can just not wait to see what the next month has in store for you.

Loving you always and forever, Mommy (Ava and Daddy)