Happy 6 month Birthday, Gabriel!

Gabriel has grown so much this past month, especially in regards to how he plays.  I think this is because for the past few weeks he has been able to sit up without support.  It's really opened up a whole new world for him.  He'll sit down in the living room floor and look at his toys with a 'hmmm, what do I want to play with' expression.  Right now, he favorite toys are blocks.  We have a bunch of different kinds:  tiny square ones with the alphebet on them, small blocks of different colors and shapes that go with a shape sorter cube, and soft plastic blocks.  For a while, the soft plastic blocks were his favorite teething toys.  They are too big to hold with one hand, so he picks them up with both hands.  He also loves it when we stack them and he can knock them down.  Lately, however, he has been favoring the small alphabet blocks.  They are small enough to pick up with one hand.  He is getting better at picking them up with a thumb-finger grasp in stead of a whole-handed pawing motion.  Sometimes he'll simply sit back and enjoy chewing on them.  Other times he tries to pick up two at a time.  He also likes these small rolling balls and has just recently (in the past few days) figured out how to pick these up with one hand.  It's fascinating to watch him figure this stuff out!  He would pick up the small ball, get it halfway to his mouth and then recognize it was tipping out of his hand.  He would actually move his hand and body to try to balance it and not drop it!  It was just a few months ago that we were amazed at how he could grasp onto a rattle - and now he's balancing slippery little balls.

As I mentioned in a previous post, he is also starting to push up into a crawl position when we put him on his belly.  He can also roll over now, but for some reason he *only* does this in his co-sleeper when he is mad and wants out.  At night, when he wakes up and is hungry, I roll him over (he sleeps on his stomach) and out of the co-sleeper.  It's easy to do this as there is only an inch or so height difference from our bed and the co-sleeper.  He has picked up on this and will now 'roll over' himself when he wants out and I haven't responded fast enough.  He can't quite make it out of the co-sleeper, though, so he just gets madder.

Socially, he is really lighting up.  He now knows many of the games and songs we play with him. I'll say 'I'm gong to kiss you'  or 'tickle tickle' and he'll squeal and wiggle in anticipation.  He gets our attention by saying 'ooo' or flapping his arms.  Lately he's discovered how to 'cough' and has been trying out the sound as a new form of communication.  Ty's being the good/fun parent and coughs right back at him.  I can't bring myself to play along with the cough language, so I've just been 'talking' back.  :-) 

Finally, he is still fascinated with his image in the mirror (even more so than at 5 months.)  We've caught in doing little experiments with it.  He'll flap his arm, and then stop, and then flap the other one - all while staring intently at the mirror.