Six months of Nico means it’s time to eat! After months of putting literally everything into his mouth, Nico finally got to try some food. We started with sweet potato purees and quickly graduated to everything else - steak, sticks and shoes- the whole lot. The only things Nico isn’t interested in are bland foods like mashed potatoes. He takes after his brother Mort in his eclectic tastes in food and partiality toward big flavors.
Speaking of Mort, there are a number of ways that Nico seems to take after his brother. He also loves Neil Young- his favorite song is Harvest Moon. We try to some time each night before bed listening to music and singing together, and Neil Young is a favorite, though sometimes it makes us sad thinking of Mort. We can always tell what songs Nico loves best because he pays such careful attention. For songs he knows well (yellow submarine, circle of life), he breaks out in smiles as soon as he hears the opening bars. When Derek whistles along, Nico gets so excited- he loves whistling. When he’s excited, he raises his arms, scrunches his shoulders and shakes with glee. We think he’s the cutest dancer, though we may be biased. He stands up, with help, and bounces and does a slight shoulder dip and twist. When it’s actually time to settle down and sleep, I put on Chopin- Raindrop Prelude (Derek’s pick). Nico knows exactly what that song means and really starts his newest sleep resistance tactics, ie twerking. He pushes up on his arms and bounces his butt. It’s great practice for crawling and may actually be counterintuitive to staying awake, because it takes a lot of energy.
Nico quickly gained confidence with eating - even before he had teeth, he chewed everything, even soup! He knows that Derek gets very nervous when he takes big bites. Sometimes, he turns away when he’s eating, because he knows Derek will take away food that’s too big. Other times, he locks his eyes with Derek while taking enormous bites. This sassy behavior with his dad is just the beginning - and a way he seems to take after me! We love watching him try new things - from his first Thai food (he loves chopsticks!) to learning to dance, everyday is a silly new adventure. Our goal for Nico to try 100 foods before his first birthday, including all the common allergens, led to him having pistachio ice cream when Gommy came to visit. He wasn’t wild about pistachio, but discovered a great love of purple ice cream. When Nico feels particularly well-sated, we scoots a foot up onto his high chair tray table - we call this the “foot of satisfaction.”
A beautiful, warm spring means that we get to spend a lot of time outside. As the days grew longer, Nico mastered sitting, then scooting and finally crawling. He began crawling in early March, but was more interested in walking, assisted by anything he could get his hands on.
Nico and I love spending time outside now that it’s warm - we spend our time visiting local parks, church gardens and wandering the streets of Brooklyn. In parks and gardens, Nico loves to pick up sticks and leaves, especially crunchy dead leaves. It’s a constant task to keep him from eating them, but I love watching him discover nature. Nico is more aware - and in awe - of the people in Brooklyn we see on our walks. People gush about how cute he is, and he smiles and fist bumps them in return. He really loves women - and will often arch his back and giggle when he meets a nice woman!
Nobody makes Nico laugh harder than Derek. I always knew Derek was funny. I told him I was the only person who got to see just how funny, but now Nico is in on the fun. Every day, Derek has a new silly voice (ex. Mrs. Kallie Mari the octopus lovey, who is obsessed with Lin Manuel Miranda and full of historical “facts”) or over-the-top physical comedy.
Nico is also very funny - he probably gets that from both of us. He loves to dance. He stands in the window, listening to music playing from the street and sways side to side. He mimics me when he eats - wiping my face. He recognizes games: I pretend the bedside lamp is a microphone and sing in a deep voice. He pulls it away and brings it back.
Night Times are our favorite times and our silliest times. After his bath, we oil him and begin the get-your-diaper on wrestling, and then he’s off. He loves to dance, holding himself up on the edge of his crib. He took his first tentative steps in bed, leaping from his crib to our arms. We get excited and clap when he takes a step, and we are pretty sure he thinks we’re clapping for him falling down so he stands and falls again and again. Derek has a special bedtime silly voice routine. He leaves the room, looking just down the hall for something that turns out to be Nico. Nico bounces with glee as Derek marches up and down the hall, looking back at me with delightful anticipation until Derek rushes in and tickles Nico.
When Nico gets really excited, he starts trilling. We call him our Chewbacca baby.
After we finish silly goosing, we wind down with bedtime songs. Nico holds our hands to stand up, swaying back and forth between us. He moves quickly, thrilling in the unsteady motion, like a little baby roller coaster. He holds his hands out for kisses like a little pope, back and forth, kiss, sway, kiss, sway. With passing time, this routine evolves- Nico learns that we can all put our heads together, which makes us all giggle. Before Derek leaves me and Nico to nurse to sleep, we have one more round of silliness. Derek has to get Nico’s belly, which is full of gooseberries, which can only be harvested with kisses. Finally, after all that joy, Nico has his milk milk and settles in for a long night of snuggles. We are so lucky and love him so much.