Evan: caught eating foot -- Evan has taken to pulling his foot up to his mouth and gnawing on his toes. Tasty!
Still growing -- We had to graduate him to a "conversion" car seat, which goes up to 40 pounds/age 4. No more baby car seat. He's already 20 pounds, so we could no longer carry him in the infant seat. On a similar note, I threw my back out last week.
Evan has started showing symptoms of separation anxiety. He's been very clingy with me lately. He'll be playing happily with Jerry and I'll walk past and suddenly he's all upset that I've entered his line of vision without picking him up. Poor baby. During the day, he wants me near him almost all the time, even if he's busy playing. If I need to clean, I just make sure I'm in his line of vision to keep him happy.
Crawling update -- He's still crawling, but isn't to the point where he can race across the room to grab, say, the cat. He's still tentative about crawling, often taking 3 or 4 steps at a time. His favorite thing is to prop himself up on one arm or elbow while leaning on his hip. It looks like he's posing for a magazine, except that the thumb in the mouth sort of takes away from the otherwise dignified appearance.
He's so musical! We bought him a new CD of toddler singalong songs. The first time we played it in the car, we could hear him in the backseat chuckling and cackling and doing his signature cough-cackle (which sounds like a genuine cough, but he does it when he is tickled). He loves music! The CD has songs such as "Monkeys jumping on the bed" and "The wheels on the bus" and "Where is thumbkin" and his all-time favorite, "Frere Jacques."

We've got ourselves a crawler!
6 1/2 months
Evan crawled for the first time tonight! I was in class (as luck would have it) and Jerry was at home with Evan, and Jerry could tell he was about to crawl, so he took out the camcorder, put Evan at one end of the hallway, and himself with some enticing toys at the other end, and Evan slowly made his way toward the toys. He would only take like two crawl-steps in a row, then fall on his tummy and suck his thumb for a minute. Then he'd get back up on all fours and take another step or two. He raises his arms up very high for each step and hasn't quite coordinated his arms and legs yet. It's so cute.

I've got to stop bragging
After mentioning that he'd become a better sleeper, we had a bad night. He woke up about every 2 hours last night. After he woke up 3 times in one hour and I was sick of trecking down the hallway, I took him to bed with us, thinking I would get more sleep that way. But I think it made it worse. We don't sleep well next to each other anymore. The boy needs to be in his own crib.
But how to stop these frequent night wakings? He's definitely teething, as he is sticking everything into his mouth and tries to bite things, such as keys and my hand, right in half.

Evan's quirks
Evan's started doing this new cough-laugh, where when something tickles him, he fake coughs. I've never heard anything quite like it.

When he nurses, he pulls on my hair. Sometimes he'll wrap strands of hair around his fist and thumb, then stop nursing to put the hair-wrapped thumb in his mouth. It's like a hair lollipop.

He seems to have given up on the crawling attempts. Around Christmas we thought he'd be crawling soon because he would rock back and forth while on all fours, then lunge forward with his arm out, then fall flat on his tummy. However, he discovered somewhere along the line that he could roll from the position on all fours to a side position where he's propped on his elbow as if posing for a magazine. He will roll on his tummy from side to side, each time pausing to prop himself up on this elbow. It's cute, but it's not getting him crawling!


sleeping
After a few weeks of frequent night-wakings, things seem to be getting better. I'm feeding him around 1:00 and 5:00 (he goes down at 8:00). Best of all, he is easier to put down. After rocking him for a minute or two, he'll go down with no tears. It definitely seems like giving him consistent naps is the key.

six month doctor appointment
Today Evan saw Dr. Bloom for a checkup and shots. He's healthy. For the record: he's 26 3/4 inches, 19 lbs, 10 oz, and has a head circumference of almost 18 inches! (Is that big? I really have no idea.) He's in the 90th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height. They still don't have a percentile for chin circumference.

I held him while he got his shots. There were two seconds of bright-red, the world is ending crying, then he was fine. I was glad to see he got over it quickly.

Happy half-birthday to Evan!
six months
Today Evan turned six months old and he actually seemed older. He's smiling more often, and unprovoked. We used to have to make funny faces, stick out our tongues, and practically put on a red clown nose just to make him smile, but now he initiates smiles. He smiles just to tell us hello.

Evan loves music! The best way to get a big smile from him is to sing to him. He also loves his nursery rhymes CD which we play in the car. Sometimes he gets bored in his car seat and starts fussing. We'll turn on the CD and he immediately gets quiet, sucks his thumb, and looks out the window (ahhh, the good life). Right as we're about to get sick of "hey diddle diddle" or "fuzzy wuzzy was a bear," we'll turn down the music and put on something more palatable like Nirvana, and he immediately starts to cry again. He loves his nursery rhymes.

How does he know it's for him?

Happy Baby
Evan is doing great. He's such a happy baby. We've been putting him in a walker which Robin and Allen loaned us, and he loves it. He doesn't actually walk in it, but it allows him to stand, with his butt supported by a little seat, and he seems to really like the independence of standing on his own. I'll put him in the walker (or, let's just call it a "stander") right outside the kitchen while I do the dishes or cook. He'll play with the squeaky toys that are attached to it, and whenever I talk to him, he gets a big smile on his face.

He also loves his jumper, which attaches to the doorway. All we have to do is say, "bouncy bouncy bouncy boy!" and he breaks out into a huge smile.

His favorite thing is not knowing where he'll be kissed. Jerry and I do this thing where we say, "IIIIII'm gonna kiss you!", then move our heads all around his body like we haven't picked a location yet, then kiss his neck making these funny noises, and he cackles. Pretending to eat his hands or feet also brings pure delight.

Update: walking, eating, pooping, sleeping
almost 6 months
Evan and I are trying to walk every day now. I push him in his stroller at 10 am because that's his first nap of the day. I walked almost 4 miles today. This is the first time I've been motivated to exercise since the birth. It's going well. I feel so much better. My goal is to lose 8-10 pounds to get to my pre-I'm ready to have babies now weight (strangely, I started gaining weight just talking about having kids). I've also started exercising to a Pilates video. The exercise routine seems like a combination of ballet, yoga, and jazzercize. I know I must be getting a workout because I feel like I've been punched in the abs. Now, if only I could break my addiction to Chips Ahoy and Oreos.

He's still eating solid foods just before bedtime. Sometimes he shows little interest, and Jerry has to persuade him to eat his rice cereal and squash (or carrots or whatever). Last night Evan really got into the eating thing. They got a routine going: Jerry fed him a spoonful of cereal, and Evan immediately sucked his thumb for three sucks, then pulled it out (with the delightful "pop" sound) just in time for Jerry to give him a new spoonful. After each bite, he sucked his thumb, then stopped in time for the next spoonful. It's a strange thing for a baby to do, but cute. He definitely prefers his left thumb.

I tried not to be mad at Jerry when he told me Evan really likes prunes. I said the next time he gives him prunes, he has to take the next day off work to change all the diapers.

As part of the bedtime routine, Jerry takes Evan around to each room in the house and turns off all the lights, talking to him about making the house dark for sleep. Last night, when all the other lights had been turned out, Jerry took him into the nursery, and Evan leaned forward to turn off the light switch. Jerry yelled for me to come quick, and I got there just as Evan flipped the switch on his own.

Today when I put him down for his second nap, I put him in his crib awake and turned on the lullaby (the music box sits inside his crib). He did a baby half-situp, which he does when he is trying to sit up on his own, so I helped him to a sitting position. Then he tried to push the buttons on the music box. But instead of pushing the buttons, he was doing a scratching motion with his hand over the buttons. He doesn't have the pushing idea down yet. I held his little hand and helped him push all the buttons, and he was very interested. He still didn't get it, but he definitely knows the music has something to do with those multi-colored buttons.

And last night he slept for the longest sleep stretch ever: 6 1/2 hours! Yahoo! He slept from 8:15 - 2:45. We were thrilled. He is also now a successful crib sleeper! We have our bed back. The night waking is the thing we need to conquer now. Every night is different. Just a few nights ago he was waking every 2-3 hours, but he was teething. In the big picture, we are seeing progress. He's maturing.