Late night for The Boy tonight. Went to the Detroit Jazz Festival to see Mavis Staples. Jacob seemed to love the music -- he was on his best behavior all night. We saw Mavis before and after the show. She and Jacob were totally smitten with each other. She kept grabbing him out of my arms, and he certainly didn't mind. He was quite fascinated with her hair and face. He also loved her sister Yvonne and had a long baby talk conversation with her.

Jacob's 6 month appointment was one week ago. He is just shy of 20 pounds, and 29 inches. The doctor says that puts him about 3 months ahead in terms of physical development. Yay Jacob!

He has figured out how to get into sitting position on his own. He first tried it in his crib at around midnight on Tuesday night. We have since lowered the crib mattress. Crawling should be coming very soon.

In the bad news department...Daddy went to the emergency room today so the doctors could look at the hand he hurt playing softball last week. They told him he has a spiral fracture in his hand and they put him in a cast. They told Daddy it has to stay on for a month, but we're hoping it can come off sooner.

Six months and one week old.
Back from a weekend of family fun. We were in Toronto to celebrate his (great-) Opa's 80th birthday. The Boy finally got to meet Uncle Andrew and Auntie Michele, and Uncle John and Samantha. All involved seemed suitably impressed, though 8 1/2 year-old Samantha was most interested in bringing her friends in during a diaper change to see The Boy's "private parts."
Our home PC has crashed, so no photo updates to the website for awhile. Sigh.

New accomplishment -- Jacob is a PRO at sitting up. He first started the last weekend in August, and has really gotten more stable in the past week. Still no crawling, but he does get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. It's just a matter of time...

New sounds -- last week it was all r's. When he's really focused on something, it sounds like he's revving his engines. The last couple of days we have caught him trying out "s" sounds. It's really fascinating.

Took Jacob to the doctor today -- his head cold seemed to have moved into his chest. False alarm. But we did learn that he is now 20 lbs. Grow, Jacob, grow!

2 weeks ago we took Jacob to his first major league baseball game -- he saw the Tigers lose to the Anaheim Angels. We went with Chip and Mary Rose - both of whom also seemed suitably impressed by The Boy. We think they'd make excellent parents and hope that they will soon produce someone for Jacob to play baseball with.

On vacation. We've been hanging out with The Boy's grandparents all week. It's been a week of new experiences for young Jacob. We drove through two new states to get here. Almost ran out of gas (didn't want to stop as long as he was asleep). Swam for the first time -- The Boy loves to swim. It takes a couple of minutes of slowly dipping him into the water before he gets comfortable, but I think that's more of a temperature thing than a fear thing. At first he would just cling to me with his head pressed against my chest. Very cozy. He actually fell asleep that way -- in the pool -- yesterday.
As he got more comfortable, he would let me hold him at arm's length and motor him around the pool. He's happy doing that until he gets cold again, or until my arms give out, or until I start to worry that some harmful rays will penetrate all that sunblock.
Tonight we swam under the stars. A bit chilly, but very exciting. Ellie the Dog was worried that scary things were going to sneak up on us, so she kept a very vigilant watch out for us at the top of the stairs to the pool area.

We haven't quite reached 6 months, but since Jacob seems convinced that he needs to eat every hour or so, we're thinking of introducing solids. I bought the rice cereal yesterday, but haven't been able to bring myself to try it. It will be exciting, but in some ways it will mark the end of a phase of his life, and I'm reluctant to give it up.

One more full day here in NY, then a quick stop in Lockport to see (great-) Grandma and (great-) Uncle Jeff and his boys before we head home and jump back into the routines. I hope Jacob remembers that he used to like taking longer naps!!