Hello! At six months old Mercury & Phoenix really feel like they’re on the cusp of “the next big thing.” They’re just about to crawl, they’re just about to get teeth, they’re just about to eat food, etc. etc. etc.

Like any minute really.

Yesterday Merk Master got himself from one side of the living room to the other through a combination of rolling, crawling, inching and everything in between. It was incredible to watch but also very foreboding, because what the hell am I going to do when they can move around?

Merk Master you say?

I REALLY shouldn’t publicize nicknames in use, but I’m going to. For my own personal pleasure / record and for your entertainment. Probably much to the chagrin of Tiffany.

NICKNAMES IN USE:

Mercury – Merky, Merk Master, Merk Master 3000 (MM3K)

Phoenix – THE Phoenix, Order of The Phoenix, My Little Chicken, My Little Nugget, Nugget, Inspector Cheekies, Miss Cheekies, Cheekies

MERCURY

LIKES: Rolling, Being on his Stomach, Rolling Around, Affection, Company, Being Picked Up, Sleeping with his face completely down into the mattress, Holding The Book, His Feet

DISLIKES: Toys, Bedtime, Not holding the book, Naptime, Being Alone

Mercury is SUCH A BIG BOY. He’s a soft, chubby little baby who loves to cuddle. Mercury’s kind of what I think of when I think of like “a regular baby.” As opposed to Phoenix, who’s just like….well Phoenix. We’ll get to her next!

Mercury’s doing a lot of grown up baby things. He babbles quite a bit and really likes “Dig Dig Dig!!!” He can move around. I’d go as far as to say he can crawl, but Tiff doesn’t agree. But also hasn’t seen it as much as I have. He certainly can roll around and loves to roll onto his tummy. He’s rarely on his back these days.

Early on when he learned this trick, bedtime and naptime was just a nightmare because all of a sudden he could flip onto his tummy and sleep with his face down. Scary! We kept flipping him over and in the middle of the night if I noticed I’d flip him over. But he always just rolls right back.

I’ve given up on it now and I guess just trust he knows what he’s doing. It’s an impossible battle. He’s always on his tummy.

Mercury gets bored pretty quickly and he gets fussy when he gets bored. So naturally you give him a toy. But boy does he hate toys. After like 2 minutes with a toy he gets frustrated with it (because he can’t fit the whole thing in his mouth? Who knows) and starts screaming at it or just moaning over and over again.

Not the best at playtime. Not the best at parties either! Took him to Matt & Sara’s Wedding open house and boy did he hate that! Otherwise he’s generally fine if we take him places.

We’ve been taking them out a lot actually. But we don’t really take many pictures.

Merk’s been doing some of the baby sign language I do back to me, though it’s tough to say if he gets it yet. Again…right on the cusp of doing that / waving.

When he is on his back it’s because he loves to play with his feet. He likes to clap them together and put them in his mouth.

Oooh one neat thing about Mercury is he has heterochromia in his right eye. His left eye is blue. His right eye is half blue half brown. I love it.

Mercury hates bedtime. And now that we have a routine, he really knows it’s coming. With the story portion of bedtime he has to HOLD the book. If he can HOLD the book he’ll listen to the story, but the minute you take the book away he starts crying. So when I read them both a story and take the book from crib to crib the crying is intermittent. I think it’s kind of funny.

Mercury was a sleeping champ. For like 3 months straight (2 months? who knows) he slept through the night. Now he gets up as much as Phoenix does.

Let’s talk about Phoenix.

But first, here’s a couple more Merky pics.

PHOENIX

LIKES: Putting everything in her mouth, her long tongue, scratching, when Mommy or Daddy rile her up, trying to escape her bonds of captivity, when people smile at her, going in her carseat, when her hands are free

DISLIKES: When we put her little mittens on……that’s all I can think of. Phoenix is actually a pretty cheerful little baby. Don’t let the meltdowns and A+ scowling fool you.

Phoenix is a goof. It’s not like any one thing, it’s a lot of things that come together to make her wacky and interesting.

She’s a little peanut right. She’s like teeny tiny. But she has such big personality. I find myself relating to Phoenix a lot because her emotions are such highs and lows. As mentioned many times before, when she’s mad…she’s really mad. And she lets you know. Phoenix tantrums are extremely challenging and intense. But they’re less frequent than they used to be and they’re a bit more understandable. now. By the same token she can get SO HAPPY. Over like….absolutely nothing. I was putting her in the carseat the other day and she was just looking at me with the biggest smile and the brightest eyes. She’s super fun to rile up and will get the giggles and this crazy smile and look in her eyes like she’s going to blow up because she’s so happy.

Phoenix stomps her feet all night when she sleeps. She’ll do like a 15 minute period of stomping once or twice an hour followed by a short period of quiet. Followed by more stomping. She definitely doesn’t sleep through the night.

Tough to say how much of that is personality and how much of that is eczema. Phoenix has notable eczema. It causes her to scratch herself bloody so we have to keep her in mittens most of the time. She can take them right off though. She takes the first one off with her mouth and then uses the free hand to take the other one off. But if she has a sleeper with cuffs AND mittens that can buy us some time. For bedtime I have some shirts where I’ve sewn the sleeves shut. It’s the only way she can sleep without us all waking up to a horrific bloody mess.

We’ve tried a lot of dietary stuff and various salves and medications. It feels like we’ve tried everything, but we did just see a dermatologist and they gave us a strict regimen to get her back into shape. Fingers crossed.

In spite of her eczema she’s pretty happy and fun. And smart. It’s hard to explain exactly how or why, but she seems to know more about what’s going on than MM3K. For example when she’s in her baby bjorn all she does is fiddle around with the release. Ditto her carseat. Could just be because the release seems like an interesting toy….but it really looks like she’s trying to get out.

She’s much more aware of Mercury than he is of her and she seems to enjoy his company. Phoenix is good on her own too and is easy going in new environments and with other people. She goes through fun little phases. For one solid week she made fart sounds with her mouth constantly. Then it went away just as quickly as it showed up.

She’s a great baby.

As much as there are a lot of pics of me and Phoenix and as much as I relate to her, I get a lot of one on one time with Mercury too. There’s definitely a bond over being boys and we wind up having a lot of one on one time when he’s feeling sad or Tiff’s busy with Phoenix. They’re both so dear to me.

More to say, but I’ve actually got to get going to pick those kids up! Who knows…maybe we’ll see you before the 7 month update. Here’s a few more for the road.