6 Months Old

The boys babble, roll, smile, laugh and are generally making a real good faith effort to become people. And they continue to grow at an alarming rate, which has definitely outpaced my back's recovery.

Posing with Mom, Jack in maroon, Henry in multi-color:

(Look how long Henry's legs are! It's crazy.)

(PJ's that I absolutely love courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Loveridge.)

Henry

The boys have both been eating a little bit of baby food in the evenings... carrots, apples, bananas, and such. Henry's favorite by far has been sweet potatoes.

Inspecting...

... tasting...

... o happy day! Where has this been all my life!?

Is there more?

Henry on the floor with Dad:

Henry, in his stylin' pink long johns, is fed up with our nonsense:

Henry has become quite the wiggler and, though this picture doesn't fully demonstrate such, he can put his feet in his mouth:

A good look at the little guy's features:

Yay, smiles!

The morning we discovered that we could no longer leave Henry unsupervised on the couch, even for just a second to grab more cereal:

Fortunately Henry landed gently on the ground, propped up by a nearby ottoman. We didn't even realize anything had happened until Steve returned with his cereal and noticed that the boy was now sitting quietly on the floor. Jack, meanwhile, is preparing for a lifetime of "Don't look at me, Henry did it."

Henry rolls around quite effectively (particularly when he's supposed to be sleeping). Here he's making a break for it while I walked away for a minute to try to get Jack to go down for a nap:

Henry is also very good at flattening his feet and locking his legs to stand (with balance assistance):

All that mobility is exhausting:

Fortunately, we have a nap for that.

Many, many naps.

Jack

Jack has inherited my cheery countenance:

That's not really fair, we have been known to smile (occasionally).

Jack hanging out on the interlocking play mat Uncle Jim and Aunt Brooke gave the boys for Christmas (he also very much enjoys chewing on the foamy pieces):

Jack remains an incredibly expressive little boy. I thoroughly enjoy the new faces he comes up with.

Though not yet able to propel himself forward, Jack is quite good at scooting backward and rotating:

A good look at Jack and his beefy arms:

Yay, stomach time! (He loves it, has always been easy for him)

Jack's facial expressions crack me up. In these following two pictures, I swear he's throwing a pity smile at an attempt to make him laugh...

... listening...

... yeah, sure that was funny. Well, I mean, you tried, isn't that what matters?

Brother Time

The boys have been interacting a great deal more with each other. They will smile and reach for each other, and laugh at things the other does.

Henry with a little smile, Jack giving his best Colbert eyebrow:

The following pictures really show the boys' different shapes. Henry (on left) is still a bit of a string bean, though he has my chubby cheeks. Jack (on right) is a seriously solid little boy, at least 1 1/2 lbs heavier than his little brother and a completely different shape (and wears a full size larger in diapers).

"So, then I said, orange you glad I didn't say banana?" 

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

 "Dude, get a grip, it's not that funny."

"I dunno, I thought it was pear-y a-peel-ing."

"Ha!"

(Okay, I may be losing it, trying to come up with things to talk about with pre-verbal people all afternoon. Those pictures are presented in order over a short period of time, though, so they really were having some kind of discussion.)

Ready...

... fly!

(Jack left, Henry right)

Henry takes his role as puppet-master very seriously, Jack less so:

When will we ever learn not to attempt posed pictures? Henry left, Jack right, bitterly annoyed at us making them pose in adorable overalls and plaid shirts from my dad's cousin George and wife Karen:

Changed out of overalls into pants without buckles for playing on the floor, Jack looks around while Henry focuses in on the duck affixed to a corner of the play mat:

Jack looks on as Henry strives to catch the elusive waterfowl:

Dad playing with Henry and Jack:

Silly, happy Henry:

Henry with his toy coil, Jack with his favorite toy, a Sunchips bag (sigh):  

Dad letting the boys chew on him (Henry on floor, Jack sitting with Steve):

Just hanging out (Jack on left, Henry on right):

Political Activism
We live in strange times, that's for certain.

Jack and I watch the Santa Cruz Women's March (10,000 strong according to SCPD) pass our house over an hour and a half:

Jack seems stunned at some recent developments in United States immigration policy:

Henry takes his turn with the sign:

They thought the sign was delicious.

Seriously, though, I'm not interested in forcing these boys to agree with every aspect of my personal ideology, I will be a happy momma if they think for themselves, but if I do not succeed in raising them to value people who are different from themselves and have compassion for those less fortunate, I will definitely consider myself a failure as a parent. But, hey, I'll have many opportunities to fail as a parent, so we'll just add those to the list.