Brady: Six Months Old!

Brady is six months old--that's HALF A YEAR OLD, people!! How is that possible?! In so many ways, I feel like we JUST brought him home from the hospital. But in other ways, it feels like he was born a lifetime ago. Because I was just plain exhausted from moving and unpacking at ten months pregnant + crazy hormonal, my memories of Brady's first weeks are so fuzzy in my memory making it feel like it happened a million years ago as opposed to just six short months ago. The passing of time is so funny that way. Regardless, we have a six month old in our house! Brady is a baby on the move and just as sweet as can be. He is without a doubt the most content baby of our three kiddos and he is just so, so loved by all four of us. The girls usually go to bed around 6:45-7 every night, but Brady doesn't go to bed until 7:30-8ish--so Derek and I get some special Brady time every night, and I love every minute of it. Derek & I can talk uninterrupted for a few minutes about our day while we dote on Brady. We usually let him crawl around our bedroom, and we both gush about how unbelievably cute & sweet he is. There was a time we weren't sure if we were cut out for three kids, but good grief...we are so immensely thankful for this sweet boy. I can't imagine our family without him! Being his mama is such a blessing.

At six months old, we're deep into baby-led weaning. There's not a whole lot of eating going on just yet, but there's plenty of exploration of tastes & flavors! Whenever we're eating a meal or the girls are having a snack, Brady's in his chair "eating" whatever we're eating!

First strawberry

First taste of Daddy's French Toast

Brady's first taste of pancakes

Brady continues to be a great nurser and a good sleeper. He still usually gets up once a night to nurse, but he goes right back to sleep on his own after he eats. He still puts himself to sleep for bedtime/naps (!!!!) and takes three good naps a day--unless his big sisters' schedules get in the way of his sleep schedule. ;)  Sometimes we jokingly say it's a rough life being the third kid b/c Brady's schedule is dictated by his siblings, but in other ways it's so much better being the third! With Shelby, we worried and obsessed over every single detail of her little life b/c she was the guinea pig for us in this whole parenting gig. But with Brady, we're so much more laid back and we can enjoy him more b/c we're not worrying!

Brady's not full-on crawling yet, but he can get around pretty good!! He's also sitting up now for brief periods & can get from the crawling position to sitting up on his own. Because the girls hit their gross motor milestones so late, Brady's mobility never ceases to amaze us.

As you can see in some of these pictures, Brady has bandaids on his chubby little thighs. We had his six month check-up this past week, and he took his shots like a champ!! He weighed in at 18 pounds & 6 ounces (61st percentile--we've never been so low on the growth chart!) and measured 27.56 inches (81st percentile).

We love you more than we ever thought possible, Brady!!!