Maddox - 6 months old

On Feb. 6, Maddox turned 6 months old. A half a year has gone by and we don't know what we did before we had this sweet little guy. His personality is coming out more and more, and as you can see from the pictures, he is VERY smiley. He smiles at everyone. Even if he's tired or hungry he will usually try to smile. And that little smile melts my heart every time. In addition to all the smiling, he is starting to giggle and laugh a lot more now toward the end of the month.  He's enjoying playing now with rattles, links, in his activity center (baby gym) and a little ball that lights up and sings when he pushes or kicks it. He is now down to two naps - morning and afternoon - and his feedings are more in line with the rest of the family: breakfast, lunch, afternoon, dinner, bedtime. We've been trying lots of veggies and fruits in addition to cereal, and so far he's enjoyed them all. He is still an avid little nurser and takes a bottle of pumped milk once while I'm working. He drools a lot, so much in fact that we have to keep Aquaphor or Vaseline on his cheeks and chin all the time or else he gets red and chapped. He also sucks his left index finger relentlessly which contributes to the redness along with the drier winter air I'm sure. 

One of his favorite things to do is take a bath. He kicks so much that I can't put his baby tub up on the kitchen sink anymore because he gets everything soaking wet. So I stick it in the big bathtub and usually Lailey gets in there too (in the big tub, not the baby tub of course). Combining bathtime is fun and easier for everybody. Plus they love being in there together. Besides kicking in the tub he's becoming a little wiggler on the changing table. He kicks so much it's hard to change him. 

Applesauce! Of all the new foods we've been trying lately, this got the best reaction. What a face.

Those little cheeks are getting chubbier.

"Well, if you guys are just going to leave me in here, then I'll just go to sleep."

What a drooly little man!

A couple of weeks ago, both kids got very sick, and we found out Maddox had RSV. He was one miserable sick little guy. I don't ever want to see one of my kids that sick again. Lailey probably had it too but in older kids it is more like a really bad cold. It actually turned into an ear infection, her first ever. Thankfully, they are all better now with no lasting effects, and we are really praising God for it. They recovered more quickly than I thought they might, and we were able to travel last week with Davey. Maybe I'll get around sometime to posting pictures from Gatlinburg, TN.