Half way to 1 year!

What what? Callum was 6 months old on Tuesday, the 10th. I should become one of those crazy moms that celebrates 1/2 birthdays and how advanced he is. But then I'd also have to become the mom that tries all the Pinterest projects, and thinks her kid is the best on the soccer team, and brags about all his straight A's, and talks about the piano recital he's playing at Carnegie Hall. It's a slippery slope that I don't have the energy to go down.

6 months old, with Uncle Markie

I noticed last Monday, the 9th, that his 1st tooth has broken through! I am so used to feeling those little gums and feeling nothing. I stuck my finger in his mouth and there was the hard top edge of a tooth. I felt my heart swell with a mother's pride. Then on Father's day I suddenly noticed he had a 2nd tooth right next to it. My mom said I never got just 1 tooth, so apparently, Callum is going to follow suit. I get a little sad though thinking that he'll never had a toothless smile again. Well, maybe he will again when he's like 90 lol, but not while I'm alive!
He hasn't taken a pacifer in months but we discovered yesterday that it works great for his teething pain. It was way easier for him to keep in his mouth than trying to hold a teething ring.

3 things he's doing - pursing his lips, sucking on his toes, and sticking his tongue out. I think that's to feel the new teeth in his mouth. I think one of his biggest changes is just the way he interacts with the world around him. He's constantly reaching for objects. And Sophie; he's suddenly interested in the dog. And trying to stick everything in his mouth. I mean everything. He smiles at you and tries to "talk" (if he's in the mood.) He's just taking it all in at all times.

He will never learn to crawl because he hates, I mean hates, lying on his belly. He's like a horizontal weeble wobble. If you put him on his belly, he automatically rolls back over to his back. It's actually pretty funny. Sometimes we'll prevent him from rolling and he still tries and then gets mad... But anyway, I can see him being one those kids that just goes straight to walking. He already "stands" all the time now. Obviously he cannot stand, but we are always holding him up so that he can bear the weight to stand. It's that darn balance problem. I posted that video of him "walking" on facebook too. He's not sitting on his own yet, he's still a "supported sitter." He mostly has the muscle strength, but just not the balance to do it. The past couple days he has been tolerating his belly a little bit more if we place something interesting in front of him but he still get annoyed and will flip back over.

The rash is still there, and actually was looking pretty terrible for a week because we had to stop giving him allergy medicine in preparation for the allergy testing he had done on Friday. My poor baby. I feel so bad for him. He's so itchy and uncomfortable. His allergy test was negative for milk, soy and egg but they're going to send us for a blood test now too. The hypoallergenic formula (Neocate) did not help, so I figured he didn't have a milk protein allergy. I picked up a can of regular formula a few days ago and have started mixing the 2 formulas, to transition him back to the regular kind. The Neocate is awful because he has been wanting to eat every 2 hours again, like when he was a newborn and he wakes 48942 times a night. I can't wait to just go back to regular formula and have him going longer between feedings and not waking so much.

The Rash lookg *ok*

Next stop is to see a dermatologist. That's who we were referred to now. Because no one can figure this out. I do not know how people with a lot of kids do it. Either you are rich or mom doesn't work outside the home. Because I don't understand how you can afford all these copays and also the time off work. I'm spending $100/month in copays and then all these random useless prescriptions. And all the times I've had to skip out on work here and there for appts. Which makes me feel bad because I want to be a good employee. And of course dr offices never seem to have appts at convenient times for working parents. Heck, I'm out of work at 3 and it's still hard to get appt times right after that. And all that money and schedule finagling is just for ONE kid.

We also have him taking some homeopathic medicine and talked with the homeopathic dr yesterday. He gave us a new routine to try. Today he looks better. It might be from starting the new pills. Or the new cream (CereVe AND Eucerin) or giving him some steroid ointment yesterdat for the first time in like 2 weeks because of how atorocious his skin looked. Maybe it was a combo of all 3. Who knows, but I just really wish this would go away. His 6 month dr appt is next week and once again we're going to have vaccine drama because he's supposed to get shots and the homeopath suggested we wait 2-3 months and then continue because he believes this is a hyper immune system reaction. I tend to agree and want to wait. I mean it's only a few months to wait! But you know how most drs insist that vaccines wouldn't hurt anything. Well even if they were not the cause (i'm just saying, this started a few days after he got all his 4 month shots), this rash is clearly some immune system freakout, so adding he vaccines to the mix at this moment in time won't help matters. We are totally going to get kicked out of the practice ya'll.

We also got the green light to give him real food again. So I reintroduced sweet potatoes, and now bananas, "sweet potato & chicken dinner," and regular mashed potatoes which he LOVES.

On to sleep: he was a mess last week. Waking 2-3 times a night to eat, and when he does wake, he does not settle back down easily. He used to wake, eat, then pass back out. Now when you put him back in the crib after eating, he starts screaming and crying again. I have tried standing next to the crib and rubbing his back but it usually doesn't work. I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night. So I usually just ended up picking him up and bringing him into bed with me, where he would promptly pass out. So... he's learning how to manipulate a situation because he's clearly fine. He just wants to cuddle up with mama. I don't want to get him in this bed-sharing habit, but I need to sleep too, I'm beyond exhausted from severe sleep deprivation, and I get up ass crack early for work. So I cave in. I have 2 more weeks of work then I'm off for the summer so I plan to just deal with it all then. I do think a large part of this week's sleep mess though is a combo of the no allergy meds or steroid cream, so he's extra uncomfortable and unsettled, the stupid amino acid formula, and I think he's going through a developmental change - he just seems "different" lately, both mentally and physically. And... now that I think of it, it was also because of the teething. Because last night he slept from 10-6:45am. If only he would do that every day!

This child also doesn't nap. He has supersonic senses pertaining to being placed in his crib. As soon as he's laid down he wakes up. Sometimes he'll start crying but sometimes he'll just start babbling and playing. But the one thing he isn't doing is sleeping. If he takes a 15 minute nap, we consider it a success.

His baptism is booked. July 5th at the 4pm mass. I'm busy planning for that now, I am really not a party planner. I'm trying to decide where to have a little party afterwards. Did I mention that I really do not like party planning? But I am excited for him to be baptized!

We inherited a swingset last Thursday. It had originally been my brother's, then my dad gave it to my cousin, and now my cousin gave it to us. We set it up but aren't sure where to put it in the yard. I feel like it looks awkward everywhere. Good thing we have some time before Callum is going to actually use it.

Father's day was nice. Didn't do much but we went to the canal in Greece and walked around.

It's getting harder and harder to leave him for work. I thought it was supposed to get easier. I miss him so much!! Last night he was passed out and I actually wanted to grab him and bring him into bed with me but I refrained. All I do is think about him at work (when I'm not super busy) and wish I was with him! Least I get to come home to this face though:

Good thing I get much of the summer off!! Looking forward to it although not looking forward to the loss of income. I want to start running again to work of my baby gut. (Seriously, I have gained weight instead of lost. I was my lowest weight about 1 week post partum when I was 3 lbs away from pre-baby weight. That's when I was breastfeeding constantly though. I've gained sooo much back now, it's depressing!!) I kinda want a jogging stroller but they're expensive (even used ones... cuz i mean, it's a stroller. Strollers are never cheap cheap). But I don't want to waste the money if I don't go running enough. Maybe daddy will just have to watch him instead lol.

In preparation for less money, I've also been trying to cut down on our grocery bill/eat healthier. Which is extremely hard. Also, I've found all those "budget grocery" sites list meals that just won't cut it. They
really skimpy menus that seem okay for children, or skinny women who don't eat much. If I gave Eric some cucumbers with melted cheese and pepperoni on top he'd be like "oh appetizers tonight, huh? What's for dinner?" Lol there is no way some of these "meals" would cut it as real meals in our house. Maybe that's our part of our weight problem LOL. Also the people tend to have their own extensive gardens (which is a financial and time investment all of it's own) and also their own chickens to have eggs. But I a) have no desire to take care of an animal, let alone a chicken, which I have a slight (ok, very real) phobia of, and b) live in a town which does not allow farm animals. Which I fully support because you know what's annoying? Your next door neighbor who keeps chickens on the other side of the fence. So really, you can't spend $50/week or less on groceries unless you eat snack-type meals, and are a semi self-sustainable farmer.

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