Gus Update--6 Months!

My little baby is going to be six months old in a week’s time.  I cannot believe it—where has the time gone? To mark the occasion, and because I have not been doing the monthly updates like I had hoped, I am going to be doing a series of posts about what he has been up to in the past few weeks and months.  (This may only be interesting to my mom, but whatever.) We’ll start off today with movement.

If I had to choose one word to describe my little Gus, I think it would be squirmy. Man alive. This little guy wants to be on. the. move.  He rolled over, back to front, for the first time when he was 4 months and 1 day old (the day after my birthday!). Pretty much since then, he has not wanted to sit still. Lie him on his back, and he will be reaching for something out of his reach or rolling over to try and get it. And he still hasn’t really figured out how to roll from front to back yet, so then he is stuck.

not so happy on my tummy

Well, not completely stuck.  Gus has recently started scootching. He can only do it a little bit so far.  He goes round in a circle. He can go forward a little bit, but it takes a huge amount of effort.  The time that seems to be easiest for him is when we are lying in bed and he rolls away from me, then scootches back to get some more milk. Obviously a goal worth working for!

trying to get away

All this movement tires a mama (and Pa!) out, though, and we are not even in the thick of it yet.  But trying to hold an 18-pound baby while he bounces up and down, lunges forward, or tries to climb all over you is quite a workout.  Our typical playtime is me sitting on the floor, holding Gus up to stand. He lunges forward for a toy and sits down for a second, then twists round to me, and climbs up my lap to my shoulders until he is standing again. Unless he sees something interesting behind me, then he tries to climb over me to reach!

Everyone who has seen him recently is convinced that he will be crawling soon. He certainly looks like he wants to crawl, but I am fervently hoping that he doesn’t get to it too soon. Firstly because my house is not baby-proofed. But secondly, I do not fancy the idea of an 8+ hour flight with a newly crawling baby (we’re going to the US for a visit soon!). I keep telling myself that 6 months is much too early for a baby to start crawling anyway, so there is no worry. But do you think he will go another 2 months before he is off?

**I really wanted to come up with a catchy title for this series, something that combines the words Gus and update (as per the pregnancy Bumpdates at Navigating the Mothership). But the options just don't seem to have quite the right ring: Gupdate, Gusdate, Guspdate. I got nothin'. Just pretend that there is a really snazzy title up there. **