Forgive me for not getting this out in a more timely fashion, but we did take the pictures, and better late than never.

It seems like everything is happening all at once for Alex. He really seems like he is starting to really understand things. He (sometimes) gives high fives. He looks at the window if you say train, he looks at the ceiling fan if you say “where is the fan?”, and he looks at the bookshelf if you say book.

Speaking of books, that boy *loves* books. He gets so excited. Some of his favorites are Baby Shoes, Goodnight Moon, The Big Red Barn, and So Big!

He’s crawling pretty well now and pulling himself up to stand. If you hold his hands he will take steps like he’s walking.

He got his 2 top incisors now, for a total of 4 teeth, and he’s putting them to good use. He mostly likes everything we offer him, but some of his current favorites are sweet potato, a mixture of quinoa and lentils, and peach slices.

He sobs a lot when it’s time for bed, and starts getting anxious as soon as he comes out of the bath. I kind of thought this would only last a few days, but here we are a month later and it hasn’t changed.

Despite that, he’s actually sleeping pretty well in his crib at night, which has gone a long way towards getting our life back to normal!

(I know this is supposed to be a post about Alex, but OMG that picture of little butterball Ollie!!)

The best news, of course, is that for the past 3 weeks or so, Alex has been doing about an 8 hour stretch at night in his crib. He still cries bitterly for a few minutes when I put him down for bed, and won’t let me hold him after 6 pm or so for fear that I might put him to bed, but hey! Being the villain is worth it for a decent night’s sleep.

He *loves* eating solids, but wants nothing to do with purees. He does really like baby cereal now, so it’s kind of funny how he started with real food and worked backwards to that.

Still not crawling yet, but he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks, before getting frustrated. I mean, it really looks like any second here (although he still gets around just fine by pivoting and or rolling). He can also pull himself up from a sit to a stand if something at just the right level to grab onto.

I can not believe that he has crossed the half-way point to being a one year old!!

Half a year already! Sorry, the paper didn’t last long enough to get one of Alex and a non-crumpled sign.