baybeasts

(lack of posts can be explained by sickness in the house - nothing too serious, but makes everything a bit harder. we’ll get back on board soon.)

* For those of our readers who do not know us in real life, this is funny because sleeping is not, shall we say, Arlo’s best skill.

(Mind you, his daytime sleeps are fine - right this very moment he has been asleep for over two and half hours. We’re a bit sad though that he is insistent on having a one sleep day - it was halcyon days when Huey went to two sleeps and Arlo was still on two as well. He’s young for a one sleep day, and we have done our darndest to keep him on two sleeps, but he just will not go down until 10 or 11am now, and is sleeping for over two hours, so won’t go down for an afternoon nap either. Now we’re never going to be able to do anything as a family because at any given time during the day one of them will be sleeping. What a pain.)

Our wee Huey is six months old! We’ve always thought he was laid back, but the older he gets, the more we are surprised by our shmall shoft Hute. Things we think we know:

• Underneath his mild exterior he has a will of iron. It scares us a little.

• When he’s cranky about something, he blows raspberries. It’s hard to take him seriously, but it is a true expression of annoyance and so we try not to laugh.

• His head is still smaller than our breasts, and he has movie star hair - thick, blonde, and luxuriously wavy.

• He is mostly delighted, occasionally alarmed by Arlo’s attempts at sociability. Actually - they adore each other. There are big smiles and happy flaps on both sides when they see each other, and the other day Arlo gave Huey a big sloppy kiss and a cuddle (we were little puddles of love on the floor afterwards). The alarm only creeps in when Huey has been crawled over or had his toy taken away one too many times that day.

• He and Arlo also chat to each other, by mimicking each other’s sounds. Usually we get a symphony of squealing, but one memorable night recently they had a 3am conversation in muffled grunts as they fed back to sleep.

• Sitting is still fraught with danger, as he throws himself backwards as soon as he is happy/excited/alarmed. He has skipped rolling and having barely managed crawling, is now trying to pull himself to standing (with limited success at this stage), but if propped up he can stand quite well (for long enough to take a good photo).

• He still gets the joke, every time. (Note careful placement of foot to catch the perilous backwards swing.)

• His lips feel better when sucked in.

• He still loves a good double arm flap, although the frantic thigh slapping days seem to be numbered.

• Eating is becoming an obsession, but he still gets very cranky with food if it does not behave. He is especially unimpressed with pureed food. The high chair is barely coping with the enthusiastic horse-riding that accompanies the approach of food or spoon.

• He loves books (and still finds them tasty).

• He can play by himself for ages, just pottering around the living room checking stuff out. He is particularly in love with the indoor clothes rack that is living permanently in the living room now that cooler weather is upon us - he crawls over the struts and helpfully pulls down the clothes.

• He loves singing in the garden (just like his brother did at six months).

• He has no teeth, nor any signs of teething. It seems he is a late teether too - which just means more time for us to appreciate his gummy smiles!

• He may soon be the only member of the family able to wolf whistle.

• He is utterly gorgeous.

Taking photos while my son plays with matches*:

Taking photos of my son dressed up like an extra from FAME!:**

* At least we didn’t give him the matches. He wandered off by himself, went ominously quiet, and was found engrossed in match play. I am, however, responsible for leaving them too close to the edge of the desk.

** The headband is because Huey’s hair is now so long it gets in his eyes, but I can’t bear to cut it. The stripy leggings are to keep his legs warm while allowing him maximum mobility to practice his new, wobbly, all fours crawling. The skivvy is to keep his top warm. There is a reason for everything, but the total outfit went way beyond the sum of the parts.