beck: 6 months

Beckett is a big 6 month old today, but by his premie standard he is 4 months, and either way how?! Too fast! Way too fast! As Jake says, it's hard to imagine life before Beck (B.B.) 

The other day I cleaned out his dresser and moved his 0-3 month clothes to the closet and I found the premie onesie he came home from the hospital in. Usually I'm not one to mourn the baby stage passing, but I am this time. Maybe it's because we're in the throws of toddler and little boyhood, I don't want this sweet snuggle, easy to please, smiles whenever he sees you, stage to pass too quickly.  

So here's what I want to remember about Beck here and now. 

+ Beck is all about go go gadget moving and flailing about and smiling always. Boy loves to cheese. 

+ His fists or at least one finger are always in his mouth. Always. Which means he is also covered in drool. Always.

+ He's a big fan of being worn and he might be our best car baby which is SO VERY APPRECIATED. Thank you, sweet baby Beck.

+ He knows exactly when all the other kids have gone down to bed and is up and ready to party with his parental units. And we love it.

+ He's still on a sort of "sleep when I want" not-schedule during the day and the old Julia-mom of Miller babies past would be going crazy with the lack of regimentation in our day but suddenly the energy required of watching a baby seems so easy breezy compared to the energy and vigilance required to watch the older boys so I don't mind at all.

+ He wakes up once or twice at night (I like to think it's because he misses us and likes to pop in and say a quick hello) and it's not horrible because he goes back to sleep right away...but my dark circles are approaching maximum raccoon status. 

+ He is the chillest baby I've ever had the privileged experience of raising. Even though he river dances all the live long day, he's content to just be. Content to just sit on his perch (Bumbo) and watch his brothers. 

+ And Beck and his brothers. Rhett and Beck are peas in a pod. The kid loves Beck. Loves him. Rhett carries Beck whenever we can closely supervise. He climbs into the crib to unswaddle Beckett, sings to him and chats with him about everything on his mind. 6 months in and Rad is warming up to sibling who dethroned him. Truthfully, I fully expected Rad to throw more temper tantrums because the child has needs and expectations. But, so far...so wrong. He's been a little indifferent to Beck until lately and truthfully that was probably the best as far as safety goeth. Currently Rad will bestow all manner of toys on Beck's lap and will sing/count all the numbers in his repertoire (not necessarily in numerical order...) when Beck is upset. He also refers to his little brother as "my Beck" which is about the sweetest thing. 

+ He's not one to mince words and for the most part skips the coos and hmms and goes straight for screeching pterodactyl banshee. We think he's happy when he's screeching because he's grinning ear to ear. 

+ And he also grins big and hard when you swaddle him. He gets excited about food and sleep just like his momma. 

+ In general Beck is just sweet. He rarely gets upset and if he does he clams right down as soon as you hold him or talk to him. His kissable baby-ness makes me talk in baby talk and high pitched nonsense anytime I see him/think about him/talk about him/write blog posts about him.

+ He is also very smart and dictated this complicated post to me, word for word.

And now, because siblinghood is a competitive sport, let's take a look back at the others at the six month mark.

I think Beck looks MOST like present-day Rhett (from the forehead down) but after looking through these I think he looks NOTHING like baby Rhett and most like baby Rad...let's take a gander, shall we?

Or maybe they all look exactly the same. Minus Beck's clear lack of hair...baldy Beck. 

Happy 6 months Beck-a-roo! We love you like crazy.