Happy Half Birthday

I'm having a really hard time believing that 6 very short months ago Ami was born. It has flown by so fast. He has grown up and changed so much. Looking back on his pictures he doesn't even look like the same baby. He now weighs a little over 13 lbs and is as tall as some of the one year olds at my work. He looks more and more like a toddler everyday. Just in the past week he has started to stand up and hold himself up for more than 15 seconds. He is trying to sit up but he leans to get a toy and falls over. He loves his exersaucer because he can jump and bounce in it. He loves to touch everything. Especially the cat. He talks and squeals really loud. He starts off squealing in a low tone and gradually gets higher until it's so high that no sound comes out. He definitely is babbling. He makes all kinds of different consonant and vowel sounds. He likes for you to repeat back the sounds he's making or to repeat back the sounds you make. It's almost like you can see him learning. Josh says it looks like he is a sponge and soaking it all in. To me It's like you can see the wheels turning. He figures things out pretty quickly and remembers things. He knows that at Nana and Papa's there is this thing that puts out this white stuff in the air and he looks for it. He can't figure out why he can't touch the white stuff though. (It's the humidifier) He stares at the clouds and trees when he's in the car. Super fun, he is starting to get separation anxiety. He doesn't get upset when we leave, but when we come back. He doesn't like for us to leave the room without taking him with us. One day Josh left for work and didn't hold him before he left. Ami cried for 10 minutes, you could tell it broke his little heart. Daddy isn't allowed to do that anymore. Over all though he is still a very happy baby. He's had a bit of a cold lately, and I think his teeth have been bothering his so he's been a little on the cranky side. Mostly though he's only crying when he's tired, hungry, or bored. We have taken him to a restaurant three times now and he has done great every time. I think he is starting to understand what eating is. He hasn't been eating his solid food very well lately because of his cold but it's getting better. He has now eaten all of the baby food veggies that they typically sell and is on to meats. Today he tried beef with beef gravy. It smelled like canned dog food and grossed me out but he seemed to like it. I feel bad giving him something that looks and smells so bad, but I know there is no way that I could make the meats like they do. I'm on the search for YoBaby yogurt but no store in the area seems to carry it any more. I guess if I can't find it regular yogurt will do. After the meat we will move on to fruits. So far the only food he doesn't like is the rice cereal. He really likes the barley so Josh says he's gonna be a beer drinker. Just a few more weeks and he will go back to the doctor and hopefully get the ok to come back to daycare. I'm really excited. I hired a new girl last week. She and I worked together at the in home daycare, and she is wonderful. She is very responsible and I know that I can trust her to be left at the center "in charge" so I can leave early and be able to spend time with my family. It just stinks that she can only work 3 days a weeks. Oh well it's better then what I am doing right now. I feel like I have missed out on so much. And in another very short 6 months my baby isn't going to be a baby any more. Time flies when you're having fun.