A controversial topic...

Benjamin wants a vegetarian baby... As meaningful as his intentions are they're just impractical. I'm not a full "meat eater" either, but Benjamin's a full on vegan which is fine. If we don't introduce meats into Charles-Winston's diet soon, his body won't be able to produce the enzymes able to break down meat and I want it to be Charles-Winston's choice what he decides to put into his body - I'm not willing to force him to be a vegetarian and then he won't be able to ever change. There are two sides to every argument though and Benjamin just wants the whole earth to be happy and alive and only eat plants, which is good! Great for him, but Charles-Winston might not (and probably won't) have the same views as his dad. 

     As well as risking Charles-Winston's decisions, we'd also be putting his health at risk, eating meat is good for a balanced diet - and there are replacements, I'm not refuting that, but so long as I'm the one finding, buying, mushing, blending and feeding Charles-Winston, he'll eat meat. If Benjamin wants to go through all the trouble of finding meat replacements for babies, so be it - he'll have to do that in his free time.

Charles-Winston Eating Turkey Jerky

Charles-Winston's six month "birthday"

What a memorable milestone! My baby turned six months old this past week and it was so much fun! It was over the 4th of July weekend. Firstly, he graduated from being a "supported sitter" to just a "sitter", so that was great, he's also graduated from pureed foods and is onto mashed, or blended foods.

     Funny story, how I found out that he was self supporting, I set him down by my feet so that I could brush my teeth and felt him lean off of me, so I looked down expecting to see him laying on his tummy, but he was actually sitting up on his own! So, of course, I just left him there and stayed silent and still. He eventually got bored of just sitting there and began to fuss after which I promptly held him and congratulated him etc.. 

  Although that transition would've been extraordinarily insignificant a year ago, I doubt I could be more thrilled now. 

     All these minute things that now compromise my life are comical when looking at them from a normal teenage perspective, and yet that somehow makes them sweeter. It's amazing how in the past six months, Charles-Winston has gone from living inside of me to happily living outside of me, he's squealing with laughter and "talking". When he was a newborn I recall hardly ever putting him down and even staring at the fridge longingly as my stomach growled because I was waiting for him to fall asleep, and now he's happy to have independent time, he giggles and plays with his toys and rolls all over the place with wonder and excitement. 

     All in all it's very interesting and sort of hard to comprehend how much he's accomplished over the past six months. What an amazing point in our lives. 

The dreaded regression

Charles-Winston is being such a butthead these past few days, usually he sleeps "through the night" but last night he woke up 5 times, just wanting to be held. Don't get me wrong, it's cute and all... The first time. The fourth and fifth time though... Not so much. Benjamin and I have a sleeping schedule where I get up with the baby in the night and then at about 5:30 (not for fun, because he wakes up and wants to be cuddled) we bring Charles-Winston in our bed until 8:00 and Benjamin will take him somewhere else and they'll play while I sleep in until about 9:30. It generally works really well. Last night on the other hand, nobody got a lot of sleep and all of us were grumpy. 

     He's also been SHRIEKING these past few days, everything will be calm we'll all just be chilling and then Charles-Winston unleashes the scream of the century, it's actually pretty hilarious. Sometimes I think he can understand us because his screams come at the perfect time, ie. Benjamin will say something absurd like "I like puppies more than my baby" and Charles-Winston starts wailing at the top of his lungs. Also sometimes he just does it for seemingly no reason at all. I've heard it's because children at his age scream because they're finding their voices, but this child is diabolical enough to do it only to raise alarm. 

Rolling maniac / Big personality

Lately Charles-Winston has been rolling all over the place, he's an unstoppable force of nature. Earlier this morning Benjamin left him in the middle of the couch while he ran to go get some wipes and Charles-Winston ended up 3 feet away and 90 degrees different than when Benjamin had left him a few seconds earlier. (Of course if I'd been around, he would've been on the floor not the couch, but men...)

     If we leave him in his car seat unbuckled, he'll roll all the way around until he's on his belly if we let him. Same with anything else, in his crib, in his bumbo, rocker, swing, everything. He rolls over no matter where he is or what form of seat he's in. 

     This kid is hilarious, I swear it's because he knows we don't want him to roll around, he gives this little diabolical grin every time he successfully gets into a position we have to pull him out of. Looks something like this:

In other news, he's extremely chatty. He's one of the most talkative people I've ever met and he can't even form words! All he does is make noise and more noise and then if he feels like we're ignoring him, he starts to yell at the top of his lungs and he gets frustrated and starts huffing and breathing heavily. Charles-Winston has more personality than most adults I know; he's so shy when you first meet him, he'll hide his face in my hair, but after a few minutes he's talking and smiling and laughing at you, he might even be yelling or screaming at you. 

     He's so hilarious and it's the little quirks like this that make me wonder how I could've ever lived without him. The small things like hearing him laugh, or seeing his "evil" grin when he thinks he's won make every sleepless night, and every outfit change and every week without showering, he makes it all worth it.