Rye, 6 months

Rye has been communicating with sign language, and sometimes waves hello. His pincer grasp is getting even more developed.

Rye loves to play on his belly with his wooden toys with moving parts. He also loves grabbing cloth, like his blanket and his lovey. Or Mommy's hair. Firmly. He is scooting around in an eventual circle, and sometimes gradually works backwards. He knows he needs to move all four limbs to crawl, but he hasn't clued in on getting his belly off the deck to do it. So he sort of swims in place. Rye is mostly sitting up on his own, sort of. He still is perfecting the technique.

He's a big kicker, in the bath and in bed. And his feet are ticklish!

He is chewing on everything, and has a much more physical relationship with Sophie the giraffe now, much to her chagrin. He also likes to chew and suck on cloth.

He loves to look at things upside-down, and to look down on things when he's up high. He loves watching out the car window, and GOing places.

Rye is a strong problem-solver. He can figure out how to get the bell toy out from under a clear bowl, and he has figured out how to haul up a dangling toy by pulling on the strap that holds it. (This was a toughie since the strap was in a loop, and pulling on one side didn't always pull the toy up—sometimes it just moved the toy along the strap). He is very keen on the phone and its buttons, and always is surprised to hear sounds coming out of it—although he's not allowed to play with it, much to his disappointment.

He likes riding on Mommy's or Daddy's hip in the sling, or on Mommy's front or back in the Ergo carrier.

Rye has been enjoying a mommy-n-me music class that we go to every week. We sing, move, and tap to the beat. Rye really likes touching and tapping the big floor drum, and sitting on it to feel the beat. He likes shaking the maracas and the tambourine. Rye sings at home and in the car, which is totally cute. He also is talking in a yammer that approximates words and English sounds. He loves it when we talk nonsense to him. He's also expressing opinions: while nursing the other evening I tried to massage his arms to relax him, and he shrugged me off abruptly, frowned and grunted something that definitely meant, "No." An instant time-travel step into the teen years, I'm sure.

We read just about every morning. He still likes his doggy book, as well as The Going to Bed Book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Curious George and the Bunny. The first time we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, when I turned to the last page and said, "...and he was a beautiful butterfly!" Rye's eyes got really big, and he said, "Oooooo!" We are learning the signs for bird and bunny, and giraffe.

The big owl still comes to talk to Rye late at night.

Rye tried a jumper for the first time today at Jack's house; it was a big hit! More video here and here.