James: 6 months

Two things to brag about during this month's update: James started sitting up (he started to be able to sit on his own for longer periods at a time around 5.5 months and by 6 months he had it mastered)! and look at this amazingly beautiful chair!  

My mom is the absolute greatest.  Near the end of my pregnancy, I asked to borrow her 24-year-old glider, the one that she had used when we were babies.  (Yes, she still had it, though it was sitting in a bedroom at their lake house pretty much unused.)  I knew we weren't going to be staying where we were for very long so I didn't really want to invest in a nice, new glider yet, so I decided I could handle the totally 80's country blue upholstery on Mom's old glider for the short time I'd be using it.  Other than the outdated fabric, it was still a great chair. 

There it is peeking out behind my Dad's shoulders.  And look, I'm sitting up!  And look my Dad has a killer beard!

 However, my mom decided that good ol' blue fabric just wouldn't cut it for this new and trendy mama.  Totally in secret, she snooped on my pinterest boards and saw that I had pinned lots of grey and white chevron as nursery inspiration, and a tutorial on how to cover an old glider's cushions to update the look.  (I had contemplated sharing it with her and asking her to recover the cushions, but then decided against it thinking it was a lot to ask and not exactly necessary).  

But that sneaky lady did it anyway.  The day they delivered the chair somehow someone distracted me while they carried it up to James' future nursery and then my mom proudly asked me to come look at "a little surprise."  She was positively glowing and I was jumping up and down excited because it looked so awesome!  Best.Surprise.Ever.  (Except for maybe Justin's proposal.  That probably tops all surprises that will ever be in my lifetime.)  But seriously, it was the sweetest thing in the world, and made James' room look great!   

As far as 6 month baby news goes, sitting up was the big thing.  And teeth!  His bottom two teeth came in around the 6 month mark.  Not much fussing at all with teething, thankfully, just putting everything in his mouth all the time!  He figured out how to consistently roll over from back to tummy and how to really jump in his Johnny Jumper.  He became even more vocal, lots of happy squeals and giggles.  He loved being lifted/tossed high in the air and continued to love standing/dancing on his feet.

I also started to get a little antsy to have James start doing some of the work of feeding himself so I busted out this little feeder that I heard tons of moms rave about.  I thought it was a success, though a VERY messy success.  Justin thought it was the dumbest idea in the world.  I used it a couple times after, but only recently tried it again (around 8.5 months) and he did a little better.  Still pretty messy, though.

Food.Is.Everywhere.

We took some major road trips during his sixth month of life and he handled them like a champ. We drove to visit our grandparents in Minneapolis and all the way up in Bayfield (way northern) Wisconsin, to Crosslake, MN (where he swam in a lake for the very first time!), and he accompanied us on a little getaway to Lanesboro, MN to go biking/camping/B&B-ing to celebrate our 2nd anniversary.  Justin made sure to tell James he ought to feel privileged because he is likely (hopefully) the only one of our children who will ever go with mommy and daddy on an anniversary getaway. :)

Without further ado, here are the rest of the pictures of our 6 month old champion...

In case you missed his other updates, here they are:

James: 5 months
James: 4 months
James: 3 months old
Meet 2-month-old-James