Nate, you’re six months old today. For the first time a new month seems to be really significant. I’m the mother of a six month old! I can hardly believe that you’re this big already.

You are trying so hard to crawl, spending as much time as you can every day practicing. Sometimes you are even practicing when you should be sleeping. Speaking of sleeping, over the last week you seem to have turned a corner. I don’t know if it’s because you are so active during the day, or because you’ve started having three servings of solids a day, or because your last bottle of the night around eleven o’clock is an eight ouncer, but you suddenly don’t need that three or four a.m. feeding anymore. I couldn’t be more thrilled or more proud that you’ve managed this without much crying or fuss.

You eat so well, and you eat whatever new foods I give to you. You have yet to turn away from anything.

We’ve been playing outside on nice days, and now that summer is coming I can’t wait to show you the swimming pool at your grampa’s house and the zoo and other fun stuff I know you will love.

You’re laughing almost every day. Your dad can really get you going, laughing really hard. We love hearing that sound!

You’ve pretty much outgrown the bouncy seat and swing, the two pieces of baby gear that enabled me to make it through these six months! You still love the exersaucer and the jolly jumper. Lately you’ve been doing most of your playing on the floor, rolling over, reaching for the toys, touching and feeling everything.

Your hair is growing in now, and this makes your face look more and more like a little boy than a baby. I don’t know what it is, exactly, about your hair, but I love it so much. When we rock together in the rocking chair, I love to stroke your head and your hair to make you relax, and remember how I would touch that soft, downy place behind your ear in the middle of the night when you were newly born and I was so brand new at this job of being your mom.

We are six months in and that means that there are only seven more months until I have to go back to work, until I have to split my time between being your full-time mommy and being a full-time editor. I’m not looking forward to that day. I wish I could just stay home with you all the time, at least until you go to school.

But there I go, looking too far ahead into the future again. I need to keep practicing, too. Practicing just enjoying today, living with you and loving who you are in this very moment. The tomorrows will come soon enough.

I took Nate with me to my friend Erica’s baby shower on Saturday, and he is a total party animal. The minute I walked into Erica’s sister’s house, she whipped him out of his car seat (which, by the way is getting entirely too heavy with him in it these days) and up into her arms where he smiled and laughed and flirted and was just so damn charming. I was really proud of him. He wore his party shirt, of course, and I brought him into the living room where all the ladies were sitting and he immediately popped onto his tummy, looking around at everyone and smiling his fool little head off.

I’m so happy that he’s a social baby. He has yet to make strange at anyone, and is such a pleasure to take out to special occasions. I wore him in the Snugglie for awhile at the shower, and although I couldn’t see his face, everyone kept saying how happy and smiley he was.

For Erica’s gift I tried to pick out the things that I wished I had known about when I registered for our shower. I was so nervous to drive the car alone with Nate when he was newborn and in the back seat where I couldn’t see him, so I got her a mirror for the back seat of her car so she can see the baby in her rearview mirror. She and I went to see Coldplay together a couple of summers ago, and that night out together sealed our friendship. I got her the Rock-a-Bye Baby Lullabye Renditions of Coldplay so she could still listen to them while she nurses and rocks the baby. I got her some cotton days of the week bibs, because the plain, soft, jersey cotton bibs are my favourites, and a pacifier clip because, well, let’s just say if I had a dollar for everytime Nate’s pacifier fell on the floor, I’d be halfway toward paying for his post-secondary education by now.

The last few times we’ve gone grocery shopping I’ve started thinking about how nice it will be when Nate can sit up front in the cart instead of having to lug the car seat into the store. The little dude is getting heavy. I won’t try it until he can sit up on his own, of course.

Since becoming a mom, I’ve become much more aware of “germs”, an outdated term for what the cleaning industry now refers to as bacteria. I wash Nate’s bottles in a plastic basin instead of the kitchen sink. I wipe down surfaces with a green multi-purpose cleanser. I’m eyeballing my floors and dreading the amount of vacuuming and cleaning that is sure to come my way once he becomes mobile. And those shopping cart handles. They’ve got to be pretty gross, right?

Somebody came up with an invention in the time since I was a kid…shopping cart covers. I managed to survive beyond toddlerhood in spite of being placed in a shopping cart without some sort of protective barrier between my skin and the cart. What was my mother thinking?!

I kind of think this kind of thing really isn’t necessary. It’s another piece of baby gear that the baby gear industry wants us to believe we can’t live without. I am all for cleaning hands and wiping things down with an antibacterial wipe, and that’s as far as I plan to go.

It turns out you have all kinds of opinions on the matter!

I hopped onto Twitter and asked: “Are shopping cart covers really necessary? I can’t help but think we are overprotecting our kids from germs…what do you think?”

You answered:

@jugglananda: O, a shopping cart cover. I prefer to drive through the store window with my suv..for max germ protection!

@nicolby: I’m not using anything, maybe a wipe down or something, but really, babies need to be exposed to some germs.

@jugglananda: I use a douvet to cover myself while shopping. Nice colours, warm….better than a robe.

@kittenpie: that’s the joy of parenting – so many different opinions, so you have to go with what feel right to you.

@ErinEPeters: depends on the kid, too. I’m blessed w/very healthy kids, so didn’t take as many precautions. Some need more protection.

@jennscrzy: only time i ever used a cover is when my youngest was too big for an infant carrier but couldn’t sit up- it acted as support

@jennscrzy: i think the covers are pointless- not like our parents had them for us.

@sthrnfairytale: I never used any kind of cover and occasionally used wipes or a spray

@nicolby: we don’t have a shopping cart cover and don’t plan on getting one.

@kittenpie: yeah, I’m with you. Some exposure helps breed strong kids.

@themaggers: now, that’s not saying they aren’t dirty. What kept us from getting sick all the time back then

@thecaffeinatrix: Hundreds of ppl a week touch those handles, which are never cleaned by stores, plus leaky diapers, leaky meats etc in the seats

@phdinparenting: We never used one. I wore my babies when they were little and after that didn’t worry about it.

@themaggers: we never had that kind of stuff when I was little. No car covers no hand sanitizer no table covers. I was rarely sick

@jenlemen: I agree with u. Overkill. I attribute my travelers stomach of steel to a come what may attitude to germs.

@rotormommy: we don’t use them. I think people are being overly paranoid about germs. plus I just wear Elliot when we are out like that anyway

@beautifulwreck2: Fecal matter has been found on the seats and handles of grocery carts.

@ErinEPeters: I found the covers waaaay too much trouble to put on. Just use an antibacterial wipe on the cart handle and you’re good to go.

@solemom: I think absolutely NOT necessary. Exposure to germs is a good thing – bodies need practice to learn how to fight things off!

@MariaMelee: We used them with S because of the possibility of food more than germs. But those shopping carts are pretty nasty.

@beautifulwreck2: Absolutely we need them. Have you ever seen a show where they tested what was on the grocery cart? Gross.

Honestly, I still don’t plan to use one. I’ll pick up some antibacterial wipes to keep in the car and wipe the cart down before Nate goes in. I can’t protect him from every little germ out there…I really do think that when kids are overprotected they end up getting sick a lot more often.

Mommy! You let me put another kid’s Eeyore in my MOUTH! How COULD you!?

So what do you think?

Yesterday I put Nate down on the foam mats in the living room so he could have some tummy time while I fixed his bottle. I put him down on his back, knowing that he’d flip himself over when he felt like it. Evidently, all this tummy time is paying off because he has learned to push himself backwards using his arms.

When I came back into the living room, oh, three seconds later, there he was, on the hardwood, pivoting himself around and trying to pull himself forward. I grabbed the camera, of course.

Yesterday afternoon I scanned the room…I’ve got some baby-proofing to do!

(My latest post is up at Aiming Low today, where I’m discussing my daily beauty “regimen”. Laugh if you want to.)

Nate is five months old, and five months old is proving to be an awkward age. Nate tries so hard to be mobile. When we put him on his tummy, he reaches forward, trying desperately to get ahead. He’s a pro when it comes to rolling, both front to back and back to front and really loves moving around. He just can’t get around the way he wants to quite yet.

This makes things awkward. The toys and activities that have been keeping him busy up until now are quickly becoming useless.

He’s not crazy about the Bumbo.

He’d rather not sit in the bouncy seat, unless I’m feeding him.

He’s not wild about playing in the play pen with his toys.

Even the swing seems to have lost its lustre.

The exersaucer is still a good option. The jolly jumper is also a bit hit. But these things are to be used in moderation, from what I understand, and aren’t a great choice if he’s just eaten. Then again, tummy time is a bit tricky to fit in if he’s just eaten, too.

We were at my friend Shannon’s house yesterday and Nate seemed to enjoy playing with Shannon’s son Xander’s toys. Maybe we just need some new and different toys?

I will probably eat these words, but I will be glad when Nate can crawl. I think he’ll be happier. There will be fewer screams of frustration (his and mine). I just don’t know what to do with this kid!