Smith Family Weblog

Just a few days shy of six months old, and now sporting two bottom teeth!

My mom made Owen a little Christmas outfit, too. He’s quite dapper, don’t you think? If only he had a little mustache…

Owen’s developing a rather insatiable appetite lately, and so I finally gave in to Bryan’s repeated requests to start our nearly six-month-old on rice cereal. Owen’s tried feeding himself a few bites of squash and sweet potato, but this was the first time he’s ingested much of anything solid. He did pretty well!

I intended to post a bit about our cute little guy when I added his photo yesterday, but the day proved to pass by a bit too quickly.

Owen remains an incredibly happy baby, laughing and smiling at everyone and every opportunity. He’s pretty sure peek-a-boo is the funniest thing he’s seen so far, he adores his sisters, and if you sing to him, he’ll be yours forever.

He’s a good sleeper, though he’s doing less and less of that lately. Over the weekend, he napped only twice each day, and preferred to do so while snuggled up into our arms (or in his carseat while being shuttled around town). At night, he will still give us a good 10 hours a couple of times a week, but will wake once or twice otherwise.

He has two little teeth just beginning to peek out from his bottom gum; if they bother him, you’d never know it. He seems frantic to outgrow most of his clothing—even his little socks are starting to slide off his heel. We haven’t moved into solid foods yet, but I think we’re getting closer. Owen grabs at my water glass and watches us intently as we eat. This time around, my plan is to skip purees and move directly to self-feeding with small bits of softer foods; this requires waiting until just past six months I suppose. He’s rolling over and Diane says he’s close to sitting on his own.

Last week’s appointment with the dermatologist didn’t bring much of an explanation for Owen’s skin issues, but her plan to treat it as though it’s severe eczema seems to have made a huge difference. We’re on the last day of a weeklong course of therapy that includes twice-daily applications of three types of medication, covered by a thick shellac of Vaseline. Following his evening application, we dress him in a wet sleeper to help seal in the moisture. This “wet wrap” approach has indeed helped; now we just hope the rash remains at bay as we taper off his prescriptions. We’ll learn more about next steps at our appointment tomorrow.

In the meantime, there’s dance classes, birthday parties, homework projects, Statue of Liberty models, flu shots, hair cuts, new shoes, permission slips, holiday planning, holiday decorating, errands to run, menus to plan and prepare and 17 loads of laundry. We somehow managed to squeeze in full time jobs this week, though it felt like quite a feat most days. The pace seems hilarious then overwhelming if I think much about it, and so instead we just focus on one day at a time. So far, so good.

This coming week brings a quick trip to Nebraska for Thanksgiving and then a much longer trip to Florida to celebrate Olivia’s fifth birthday. While I’m hesitant to call this “vacation,” it will certainly be a good opportunity to take a break from the mundane and focus on what’s most important.