Crawling and Sleeping and Talking, oh my!

I was just about to write that the boys are flourishing, when Jack just had a coughing/gagging fit, which reminded me that the first winter cold has hit our household. We're all surviving it with minimal hoopla, although Javier did have to take a day off last week because he felt so lousy. Poor Jack has had it the longest, but at least his nose has stopped running like a faucet.

Time seems to be moving more quickly... Declan turned 6 months last week. He's changing like crazy, although you'd never know if by looking at him, since he is still a baldy. But his latest and most exciting update - he's pretty much crawling! I say pretty much because it's more of an army crawl - he moves on his forearms and knees. It's fun to see him crawl after what he wants - it's that first insight into what he's thinking and interested in. Declan will often go after some of Jack's toys, and Jack looks wary, but then Jack will move on without making much of a fuss.

We've had some improvements on the sleep front, although last night was a relapse. On a positive note, Declan can fall asleep on his own, with minimal crying and fuss. Our general rule is two five-minute sessions of crying before we intervene with a rocking or feeding. For a long time, Declan was getting up two times a night, waking up after 4 hours of sleep and 3 hours of sleep. Then three nights ago he woke up at midnight (4 hours) but put himself down to sleep for another 3.5 hours - so he went 7 1/2 hours! YAY! This is big. So I did feed him at around 4 am, but I can live with that. The following night it was similar, but then last night Javier and I caved a bit with the crying. Big mistake. Tonight Declan will be putting himself back to sleep!

Declan also had his 6 month Dr. appt on Monday - he's 18 lbs, 12 oz (75th percentile) and is 26.75 inches long (60th percentile). He had his vaccinations which is always sad, but he recovered about two seconds after the shots were given. I feel good about him getting vaccinations - it makes me crazy when other people don't get their children vaccinated and put my children at risk.

As for the Jack-Attack... he's good. He runs circles around the downstairs and chats up a storm. His vocabulary is growing, but only when he's in the mood to talk and he likes the topic, which means if it's about Dora, The Backyardigans, or an animal, he's likely interested. His favorite word for awhile was zebra (zah-brah) but he also says giraffe (jeh-aff) and bear (beh-r) and a bunch of others. He can also do his colors and has mastered red (reh!) blue (boo!) green (gnnn!) and orange (or-ahge) - I use the exlamation points because he's usually screaming at the name of the color and then clapping like crazy for himself. No exclamation point after orange because he always says that one softly.