Jack's been physically and vocally very active.

Aside from standing with support and pulling himself up, he's started crawling. Not the shuffle-butt type but the actual crawl.

He said Mama for three days or maybe five, then began saying Baba. His Dad is very pleased. :)

Children Need Touching and Attention, Harvard Researchers Say

Stress in Infancy

My instincts are sound with science.

These mornings Jack wakes before me and pats my face with a smile. Other times he'll bawl but smile when he sees me loom above him. He's not happy when I leave to wash up and feed the cats so I carry him with me. He's most entertained by the odd human habit of toothbrushing.

He's more wary of strangers now but will still smile at any cooing female (human, that is). He won't let anyone but his Grandma and I put him to bed but will allow Dad or Grandpa to carry him for a nap.

He giggles when he sees his Humpty doll, with him since he was born, and gives it a pat of acknowledgement and a smile when I put it next to him.

He can sit on his own very well now and easily pulls himself up to standing. There is always a chuckle of delight when I put him in his cot as he swiftly grabs the bars and pulls himself up. He beams while he stands and cries in annoyance when his legs fail him 5 minutes later.

He loves his football and once sat for almost an hour patting and swatting coloured balls in his cousin's Ball Pen. He's regarding his small football most intently as I type this. :)

Last night I felt the tips of two little teeth emerging from Jack's lower gums. Although there had been a lot of noise about him teething since his 4th month (and progressively less sleep - he wakes every 2 hours now), this is the first time I've actually seen and felt any unequivocal proof of his teething. :) He's started solids as well, faring well on rice cereal, mashed banana, and apples. So quickly they grow up...

Jack turned 6 months just a week ago and since then, he's been sitting up without support and has a soft spot for a small rubber football. :) He can say Mama in between his cries and always beams when he sees his Grandma and Grandpa.

Yes I think I qualify.

Since he turned 4 months, Jack's sleep had regressed from 5-6 hours (first sleep) to 3 hours and last night, 1-2 hours.

He even rejected the pacifier I attempted to give him to coax him to sleep. In the end, only the boob would do. I relented.

Fortunately, thanks to the supportive hub and my wonderful parents, I can still work by day with a clear mind.

It's just that from around 9.30pm I turn into a zombie all through the next morning.

The quest for solutions begin. I plan to hit Borders later to check out more parenting books.

He is delightfully happy today playing with Grandpa, giggling and laughing as I type this. He was quite happy to play by himself, under our watchful eyes.

He's started on bananas this week and seems to really love it. I let him eat on his own and despite the mess, he's pretty skilled with feeding himself. :)

At the end of the day, despite the zombie-inducing sleep deprivation, it's still an unparallelled joy waking up next to his curious face peering at me and then a smile.

Last night I put Jack to bed at midnight. He'd had 2 hour-long naps in the day, one in the evening. I was so engrossed in finishing The Game by Neil Strauss that I didn't sleep till almost 2am. He woke at 2.45am, 7.20am, and then once more (I was too buggered to check when).

I had the ioniser on at Medium and then a/c on at Low. May have been my constant moving around that disturbed his sleep.

Let's try again tonight.

Jack had sleep regressed around 4 months (I think, memory no longer 100% reliable) from 5 hours to 4 hours, sometimes 2 hours but finally stabilised at 3 hours. At Borders' latest book sale, I picked up Dr Harvey Karp's Baby Bliss (also known as Happiest Baby on the Block).

Scouring through the book, I decided to try white noise (with our ioniser) set to low. Another realisation that hit was that around the time he sleep regressed, I'd started to set the air conditioner to Auto. Last night I turned it to Low.

Jack slept for 6 hours!

Was it the white noise, the constant temperature, or both? I'll bet on the temperature but will keep the white noise (from the a/c too anyhoo) on too.

We'll try the same config again tonight and we'll see if we get the same results. :D

The combination was irresistable.

Kino vouchers from the girls, Ange calling me for a shop-out (she has the Kino card), and that shop-out is a day after my birthday!

I bought:

The Game by Neil Strauss
The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker
Jenny and the Cat Club by Esther Averill
The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten by Julian Baggini

Earlier that month I'd picked up Einstein Never Used Flash Cards by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, and Diane Eyer, three PhDs writing on evidence-based parenting. Their premise is that, as I understand it, children learn on their own from play (with encouragement from their parents) and structured learning is unneccessary and even harmful to their (particularly, creative) development. That is what I have always felt instinctively, as one brought up on play. Childhood needs to be returned to children.