Little Sweets is six months old today. He shined at the doctor’s office, enjoying being measured, weighed, examined by the stethoscope, and cooed at. The shots weren’t so fun, needless to say, but he surprised Harry and I by calming really quickly. He stopped crying the second the band-aids were on. Easy-peasy.

Stats: 75%ile across the board…8.75kg (19+lbs), 27.5 inches tall.

First foods have been less than exciting so far. The only one he’s taken to has been carrots, but only with the first presentation. The next day, no thank you. Though he would really like to to gnaw on an entire carrot stick or whole banana, or please, please, please a finger.

His first true babbles have been adorable. He opens and closes his jaw, sometimes making noise, sometimes not. When he vocalizes we’re getting lots of “ma ma ma”s and goos and gaas. Raspberries have also been bountiful. He can bath himself in his spit after just a few minutes of these.

We love you to pieces, Miles!

Last night at bedtime, while talking about his expectations for his first day of preschool, Charlie informed me that he would hug me and kiss me goodbye and walk himself to school. I was glad to have that base covered and avoid him getting really upset in the morning when he discovered that I would be walking him to school after all. He’s read a few books about going to school that seem to have led him to believe he’d be traveling solo. We also had to clear up his confusion regarding taking a yellow school bus a few weeks ago.

So, after eating pancakes, packing his lunch, and getting dressed, we headed out the door to preschool. On foot. (How lovely is it that we get to walk a few blocks to school?!) Charlie proudly wore his backpack, stopping a few times to readjust it, but not wanting any assistance with getting it on or off. There wasn’t any rain, so I put Miles in the Ergo and Charlie and I strolled together, talking about things along the way as we normally do when we walk anywhere…flowers, airplanes, bugs, clouds. We left with plenty of time to take a leisurely stroll which made me thankful because the last thing I wanted to do was rush him on his first day. (Although until that point I was rather stressed because the pancakes took forever and we all woke up late. Murphy’s law. I should’ve packed his lunch and made the batter the night before . Lesson #1 learned about school mornings.)

Charlie got to visit his classroom last week and immediately attached himself to several toys. When I dropped him off this morning, after putting his backpack and jacket in his cubby and his lunch bag in the bin, he ran to those toys and started playing. I had to interrupt him to ask for a big hug and kiss, which he happily gave, but he dove right back into play. Easy as pie. I walked away a little teary but not as much as I thought I’d be. I felt really pleased that Charlie was about to experience so many fun activities and meet new friends.

Picking Charlie up will probably be one of my favorite memories of motherhood. He was grinning from ear and ear. He ran to me and threw himself onto my legs. I was initially concerned he was going to cry but instead he cheerfully launched into everything he experienced that morning. Since the tiny building was filled with parents picking up kids and all the ensuing noise, I probably only heard half of what he said, but boy was the kid happy. He was beaming. “We sang lots and lots of songs. We had a music party!” Later he told me they had a lunch party, too. I love that all gatherings are parties right now. “And they have a potty just my size. And a sink, too. And soap that looks like ducks and the ducks’ cousins. But they don’t make noise.” And on and on and on… There was no difficulty getting him to share about his day, that’s for sure.

His teachers confirmed that he had a great day and added that he was very sweet to everyone. He tried to share his lunch with all the other kids. Classic Charlie. He’s been doing that since he was a toddler and it hasn’t left him, despite the less than nice behaviors 3 1/2 has brought with it. He asked a few days ago, while we were discussing his preferred lunch, if I could pack honey pots for him to share with all his classmates. Honey pots?! What in the world? Well, sadly, I’ve run out of miniature honey pots to share so we couldn’t fulfill that wish. Maybe for his birthday party I’ll make something like that.

While walking home I told Charlie how happy I was that he had such a great day. He said, “Yeah, it makes you happy that I was happy, doesn’t it. If I was sad, you would’ve been sad, too. I had so much fun! It was great!” Indeed. It couldn’t have made me happier to see Charlie have such a successful first day of preschool. I think it’s going to be a fabulous year.