6 months

Well you're now 1/2 a year old. Why does this time go so much faster than all the months I had to carry you around in my tummy?


This past month has been pretty good for you. Although your eczema has not gone away, your skin has improved greatly with the steroid treatment. I just hope we won't have to keep using it too much longer. It's so nice to see your cute little face again and to be able to cuddle cheek to cheek. We have to be very vigilant about treating each little spot and constantly apply lotion and petroleum jelly on them. Despite the aesthetic improvements, you continue scratching and gauging yourself all over especially your head and when you don’t have clothes on, your tummy and thighs. Maybe as you get older you are more aware of the discomfort and the itching. We’ve tried some calming creams but the thing you like the most after scratching yourself violently is having me massage your head with lotion. I can tell it brings instant relief.

Your hair is starting to come in more now and you don’t look as bald. You still have a few really long strands at the top of your head I usually use to the comb over. I’ve considered chopping it off, but you look so cute even if it is with the comb over hair do. You seem to be following the same growth pattern to Sofia, OK maybe not quite the same; she was probably a lot chunkier than you. But you have the same short, chubby, midget thighs she had at this age that are totally unproportional to the rest of your body. You really have to look at them for a while to try to make sense of how small and wide they are. You also have tiny little feet.


You’ve started the taste testing phase, sampling everything you get in your hands with your mouth. I think you have pretty good dexterity with your hands for your age. After all, you manage to scratch yourself anywhere you want on your big head. You scoop things up, turn them side to side to examine them carefully and put them in your mouth. You can even pass things from one hand to the other. You also like to bounce up and down on your feet when I hold you under the arms.


In the last few days, you’ve started babbling more, saying “a-da-da” over and over. Daddy is very pleased. You’re also more vocal about expressing displeasure with a combination of squealing, screaming, grunting, and crying.


We tried to get you started on baby foods although you haven’t shown too much indication that you want to eat. At least nothing obvious like Sofia. I think at this point Sofia pretty much snatched a chicken thigh away from me and started eating it. You didn’t seem to mind the rice cereal, but you didn’t really have much of a reaction to it at all. I think you swallowed some of it but it was almost accidental. We tried it a couple more times but it was just hard getting you to pay attention to the fact that I was putting a spoon in your mouth while Sofia was clowning around you and making noise. You were far more interested in her than the rice cereal. Why would you rather eat my hair than rice cereal? I don’t know, maybe we’ll hold off a bit longer.

We got you down to five feeding a day now that you are waking up later for your first feeding around 6am. You still wake up once a night any time between 2 and 5am but Daddy just put’s you back to sleep. This moderate improvement has enabled us to put you in your own room for overnight sleeping and you seem to be doing pretty well in there. You like to sleep with your head touching something. You'll often wiggle yourself backward until you make contact. I miss you.

Last Saturday, you got to be in the St Patrick’s Day parade. When you finally woke up and we uncovered you, you were so interested in everything there was to look at around you. You even forgot it was time to eat.



As I write this, you are sitting in your rocking chair. We moved the back up so you can sit more upright. You’ve been kicking the hanging toys, grabbing at them and struggling to get them off the velcro. You grab your foot and stick in your mouth. But after a while, you get bored and prefer me holding you. We’re home from school/work today because you came down with a fever last night. After taking you in to the pediatrician this morning (you weighed 15lbs 3oz), they confirmed you have an ear infection. I noticed you’ve been a little more fussy at times the last couple of days. You took your antibiotic like it was some kind of treat but then had a big diarrhea a little while later so I don’t know if any stayed in your system. Hopefully you start feeling better soon. You’re such a happy little guy but you don’t hold back when you don’t feel good. Unlike Sofia who seemed not to notice when she was sick, it’s clear when you don’t feel good.

St Patricks Day

One of very few shots with your Mami.
Taking it all in. You hadn't eaten for a while, but you weren't complaining because you were so interested in everything around you.

5 months

5 months! that might as well be 6 months ... which is like half a year. You're almost half a year old?! What happened. Weren't you just born.

During the past month, your hair has continued to fall off fuzz up into dingle berry shaped little rat's nests and fall off. It's OK, mine has too. I think it's all related through nursing. All you had left was a little row of hair at the back of your neck and a narrow little line of hair about 3 inches long at the top of your head like a mowhawk. I have to say, I received a lot of pressure to cut it all off but I just couldn't do that to your little baby hair. Just as I started noticing a decrease in my regular two-pound-hair-ball-loss from shampooing down to say maybe only a half pound hair ball and far less clumping into a big rat's nest, I noticed you are finally growing tiny little new hair of your own. It's coming in pretty much how it was before, maybe a bit lighter. So it was a dark brown, almost black but not black when you were born and now it's coming in a medium brown. We've turned the corner on the hair loss issue. I can't wait until you have hair again.

We've also made progress with the battle against eczema. I don't think we're winning but at least we're holding it at bay for now. The eczema has gotten worse. More oozing, cracking, bleeding, crusting, scaling, drying, scratching, did I say oozing. Yeah, it was pretty bad on your face, elbows, and even on your chest. A couple of weeks ago, we took you to a pediatric dermatologist at Primary Children's Hospital. They quickly prescribed some steroid ointment after looking quite shocked that you could manage to crack a smile despite the way you looked. It's definitely working, but now we just can't stop using it or the inflamed areas just come right back with a vengeance. I have also gone full circle in my search of more effective lotions and potions. I'm sticking with the Vanicream cream, Cetaphyl lotion, and regular no name petroleum jelly. The plane petroleum jelly seems to really work well on your head which has improved greatly just in the last week. I can keep applying it without making your hair into a sticky fly trap. You have no more dry scales on your head, no cradle cap, and much less itching. You're also scheduled to see an allergist next month as your pediatrician recommended. For now, I'm so happy to see your cute little face again and even more to be able to snuggle up close to you and give you kisses without getting goop on me.

Lately, you have been very vocal. I don't know if it has something to do with the improvement of your eczema, but it seems like you like to squeal joyously quite a bit lately. You've been to a couple of parties and you want to be an active participant.
You've also discovered your toes. I guess you hadn't had much of chance to look at them before, because your feet are always covered up. You are getting much better at grabbing things with your hands. You can now grab the dangling toys in you swing at will and make the lights and music turn on. We clip your binky (which you seldom use) to your infant car seat and you love to use it as a bunching ball. Just last week, you managed to grab it and put it in your mouth even though the ribbon barely allows it to reach to your face. I was so excited for you.

You continue to be a very happy baby although you still won't let us get a full night's sleep. We have a prescription for Atarax for your eczema and I may just have to start using it soon. My only other complaint is that you haven't been behaving very well when I nurse you. First it's too much for you and you choke and spill, then it's not enough and you've started pinching. Let me just say this to you now, if you want to continue having premium mommy milk, that's gonna have to stop immediately or you're going to go straight to formula mister.
You really enjoy it when your sister talks to you. I think you guys will have a lot of fun together when you get a little older. I know Sofia will be so happy to have a little companion to play with. She likes to sit next to you in your bouncy seat and explain things to you. When you cry, sometimes, she'll come over to you and say, "It's OK, Marcelo, I'm here". Sometimes, she hugs you so tight. I think she wants to make you hers, take you into her room and snuggle you in her bed like a stuffed animal. Don't worry; I stop her before she's able to drag you away by the neck.

baby mullet ... I'm sorry

"Hey look at this. I have more of these finger things down here. Why didn't anybody tell me about this."

3 & 4 months

I really intended to cover each month of your first year but already I've fallen behind and now your 3rd month has melded with your 4th month in my mind and I don't know what happened when. It's this type of post that causes your Dada to squirm when he sees the barrage of words on the screen. Although Dada's genes appear to be fairly dominant in just about everything so far, I have high hopes for you that you will not abhor literacy as he does.Look at those cute chubby fingers.
Let's see, so in your 3rd month (11/18 to 12/18) - we had Thanksgiving, of course, that goes without saying and doesn't really say much about you. OK what else. The main event was that you started daycare. I really wanted to stay home with you and not send you down the daycare path as Sofia has already gone before you, but alas, down the daycare path you've already gone. You've done very well at school because you are such a good baby, it's not a moral judgement, just your natural disposition, content and easy-going. Have I said this already? That's OK, it bears repeating. You were very popular your first week as everyone had anticipated your arrival for months. You made the rounds like a celebrity so everyone could meet you and say how cute you are. You will probably never be this popular again. Sorry but it's true.In talking to other moms, most would agree, every baby has their thing, an ailment, an issue that one, as a mom, just can't resolve, an annoyance, something. With Sofia, it was the vomiting. The vomiting that plagued me for months and months and caused me to test the limits of my washing machine. The delicate balance of milk intake and the rituals that had to be done to mitigate the vomiting. But, I comforted myself with the fact that it was not a serious ailment and it was something she would at some point outgrow, and she did. It took forever, but she did. With you the nemesis is eczema. What was at first just really dry skin and cradle cap has developed into quite the annoying case of fairly severe eczema. I've tried every lotion on the planet conducting comparison tests on each one and it just keeps getting worse unfortunately.

The eczema has left raging red circles on your cheeks that are dry and weepy. (That means they ooze). Your arms have raised red bumps that dry and crack creating scabs that dry and crack and sometimes bleed. Your head oozes. I gotta say, it's kind of gross. Sometimes I try to kiss you or snuggle you and get ooze on my face because I forget. You're just so adorable, I can't help it.The dry itchy skin started causing you to wake up much more often at night then you had been. You had been waking up only around 5:00am to eat and we couldn't figure out why you were waking up so much now. You also started scratching your face and head causing little cuts on your skin. At first, I thought it was accidental. You're getting bigger now and can manage to get your arms out of the straight jacket swaddle blanket we put you in to sleep at night. Finally, I put all the evidence together after seeing you arch your back and wiggle side to side in your moses basket and scratch your face and head on deliberate areas that were already irritated. You were waking up from discomfort. Sometimes nursing you would calm you, but you weren't really hungry. So we are now just helping you go back to sleep by re-swaddling you and only feeding you when you wake around 4:30am.

At school, you get rubbed down with lotion 2-4 times and I lotion you up at least 2-3 more times at home. I've only recently found something that helps your scalp. It's called Softee Hair Food which I got for my horrible dry hair. I rub it all over your head at night and wash it off in the morning. And your head is conditioned and new until the cycle starts again which is usually within a day or two. At your 4 month Well Baby Checkup, Dr. Arnold recommended you go see an allergist and prescribed what I think is an antibacterial cream and also suggested trying Vanicream. I'll report on that next month.

Did I mention you have bad hair too. A couple of weeks ago, we woke up to this lovely site.

You cried heartily upon receiving your immunizations this month which means all your circuitry is functioning properly. Sofia's non-reaction to shots was a cause of concern, as I theorized for several months that although she had the use of her legs, she may not be able to feel them. You also took the rotavirus oral vaccine with pleasure and all systems were "go" during the checkup. You measured and weighed in around 40-50 percentile on all accounts. I think you are following a similar but less chubby growth pattern to Sofia. You have the same short and stubby legs at this point that she did.This past month, you have really enjoyed Sofia's company. You love it when she talks to you or just makes noise in general. You even enjoy it when she's loud and obnoxious energetic and you empathized with her when she cried. Your lower lip started sticking out and quivering just ever so slightly and the look on your face was pure sadness which of course caused me pure sadness too. Even without proper opportunity, you learned how to roll over in your bouncy seat because we don't put you on the floor. The carpet is just too unsanitary as a result of Lolo and Dudi's continued protest over Sofia's birth and renewed protest over your birth. With Sofia, they were just trying to make a point of their displeasure, but with you, wow, they really mean it. They (since I don't know which one did it, they share equal blame) peed on your infant car seat and the pram and the rocking chair in your room. You are also all about your hands right now. You love looking at them and now sucking on them and slobbering, making a big slobbery mess on your clothes. Oh, and you are quite smitten with yourself in the mirror. Apparently you find yourself more interesting than just about anybody else. It gives you great pleasure to see yourself smiling back.

We have rollover

Your first full rollover was on the bouncy seat. I guess we better start strapping you in.

Merry Christmas

First day of school

Today was my first day of school. I was pretty tired because I had to get up at the crack of dawn. I wore my best little boy outfit cuz I'm kind of the smallest kid in class right now and I wouldn't want anyone to think I was a baby or something.


Before starting school, I did my homework and practiced drinking from a bottle. Well, only a couple of times but I did it. Shortly upon arriving in class, I perfumed the room with my farties just to let everyone know who was the boss.

It was a pretty big day for me. After school, I got to participate in the Christmas program. Since I don't know how to sing or play any instruments yet, again, I just used my farties to perfume the stage for when the big kids came out so it would smell good.