And suddenly Carsten is 6 months old!

I know everyone says time flies, but I really don't know where the last month has gone. Carsten and I spend most of our days at home, which means that I get a lot of baby time, but somehow, I still don't feel like it's enough. He's just so cute and is constantly doing different things, which means our baby is growing up.

Here's a quick recap of this month in terms of things he's been doing:

-rolling like CRAZY in his crib and on the floor. He's always in a new position from when we set him down now, and this week he's been rolling more continuously (i.e., back to front immediately back to his back). So instead of always setting him in his playmat, I now have a blanket on our area rug where he can roll more freely. He also spends the majority of his time on his tummy as laying on his back is not the preferred position anymore.

-related to rolling, there's been a loss of sleep, and this has been happening both at night and during the day. He can now sleep successfully on his tummy, but if he gets into a bad position in his crib then he wakes up. He now wakes up 2-3 times a night instead of 1-2, and this is making a negative impact on our sleep. He still takes frequent short naps (3-4 per day), but we have had the occasional hour nap, so here's hoping for longer naps as a 6th month old!

-he now spits! When we lay him on his back now, he waves both arms and legs and holds his head up to spit pretty much continuously. It's actually a bit funny, but make sure you're out of the splash zone...

-he eats solid foods! We started him out on rice cereal two weeks ago, and this weekend we started him out on carrots! And he actually seems to like it. Unlike the sippy cup. We'll keep trying the sippy though.

-he likes to practice standing and sitting, although he really isn't able to do either by himself for more than a few seconds.

-he likes to skype! In the afternoons and evenings when he's getting a bit squirrelly, we sometimes will skype family and friends, which almost always results in a calm baby who sits with us to talk.

-he still likes the baby bjorn and is a champ when we go out of the house, especially for long excursions.
He loves to people watch and is constantly looking around and smiling at people, which often causes them to comment on our adorable baby, in German of course :).

-At church this Sunday, he was described as 'lively' and 'bright-eyed' by a Swiss grandmother who was taking care of her 5 month old grandson. And we agreed. The 5 month old was very happy to suck on his pacifier and lay on the floor on his back for quite some time during the church service; this would never be ok with Carsten. Our lively son loves to be with people and to participate in the action, which we both think is great. :)

Ok, things to look forward to this month:

-NEW foods! We'll be starting other veggies and fruits this week, so he'll soon be mastering many different types of foods.

-FRANCE! We're planning a trip in two weeks to Paris where we'll see Jess, my brother's girlfriend who's studying abroad there. Yay for people we know and yay for a French-speaking tour guide!

-Sitting up? We were betting that he would have mastered this skill by 6 months, but he's close so I think he'll get it this month.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I'll leave you all with a few pictures because honestly, I can't help myself :)

Carsten and I having fun :).

I took the next few pictures yesterday, and I think he looks pretty darling in his outfit.

'What's over there, Mom?'

Baby dance time! This was right before bathtime and he was a bit warm, so we took off his pants and unbuttoned his shirt. He enjoyed dancing quite a bit :).

He loves hanging out on his tummy. :)