Russell's new tricks

Over the past couple weeks Russell has picked up lots of new tricks and habits.

He can scoot himself in an army crawl fashion.
He can sit on his own.
He can get onto his hands and knees and stay there for quite a while, but hasn't quite learned what to do to really crawl.
He is more consistent at rolling over from front to back.
He can roll himself from back to front, but that requires much more effort and he doesn't do it too often.
He can hold his own bottle most of the time and even get it in his mouth.
He loves peek-a-boo.
He loves to sit in his jumper and bounce and spin and look in the closet at all the fun things we have packed away in there.
He loves real food! Carrots are his favorite. Avocados are not.
He is always sticking out that little tongue.

This past week we babysat for a family in the ward while the parents were gone.  Russell loved scooting himself to the fireplace and pushing himself up on it to grab whatever we put there for him not to reach. We also didn't bother taking the pack and play or the swing since he doesn't consistently sleep in either when we are somewhere else. The first three nights he slept like a champ on the memory foam bed they had, but the next three he didn't. Once we got home we decided to let him tough it out in the crib thanks to the dad's advice (he's a family med doc). It hasn't been too terrible, and last night there was only minimal crying and no feeding or diaper change. It has been nice!

There is still just as much spitting up even though he's been on solids. Now it's whatever color of food he ate mostly orange) mixed with the spit up.  The problem: stained carpet. And Russell now wants to play in his spit up and rub it around with his hands. Great. It went from gross to just plain nasty. I'm sure if he were a girl that would never happen.

One day I was doing something in the kitchen and Russell was laying on the living room floor. When I checked on him to make sure things were okay, I found this.

He had been playing with his pacifier and got it stuck on his nose! He was sitting really still like that would help it fall off. I laughed and laughed before I could finally take it off. That's what he gets for shoving it in his mouth as forcefully and in whatever direction he can. He otherwise doesn't care for the thing and only uses it sometimes to help him go to sleep (sorry, Sas and Bri). It's just become another toy along with all the other pacifiers we tried in the beginning.

He had his six month appointment today, and I'm sad to report that he has fallen in the height and length percentiles, but his head circumference has risen some. The doctor had some advice for helping him sleep better at night, and all I could think in my head was, "Just you wait until you have your baby. Then you'll understand."