I've been kinda busy lately, so I decided to combine Prahlad's 5- and 6-month updates into one blog entry.

I didn't really write much for his 4-month entry because it seemed that not much had changed between months three and four. But it's incredible how much has happened with him since my last posting.

We fed him pureed carrots -- his first food other than breast milk -- on Sept. 15, and it was interesting to say the least. He made some pretty funny faces and made quite the mess, as you can see from the photos. I don't think he liked it too much at first, as he spit most of it out. He did better the next day, though, and progressively better each day since. We think he's beginning to like it. We plan on feeding him a new vegetable or fruit next week. We won't give him any grains until he cuts his first tooth.

He drank from a bottle, which I fed to him, for the first time Aug. 9. He did not even hesitate to drink from it. He knew exactly what to do, and he fell asleep in my arms afterward. Melinda got a new housecleaning job on Sunday mornings, so I take care of Prahlad by myself then. It's nice; it gives me a chance to become more experienced at watching him by myself, and not just handing him to Melinda when he starts to cry. Sunday mornings have actually been fairly smooth - he usually takes a long nap and wakes up shortly before Melinda gets home. However, Sunday, Sept. 9, was a different story. He was screaming his head off when he got hungry and I had a hard time getting the milk to be the right temperature. We got through it OK, though.

Another big milestone is that Prahlad can sit up now, all by himself. He started sitting up with help Aug. 1, but he sat up on his own for the first time Sept. 3. I had just changed his diaper, so I laid him on the floor, on his back, while I went to go wash my hands. When I came back, he was sitting up! Melinda and I both missed him in action. He now sits up on his own all the time -- he prefers it to laying on his back or tummy.

On Sept. 9, while we were at my sister and brother-in-law's house, he crawled for the first time -- but just a tiny bit. Based on his behavior when we set him down, we've been anticipating that he'd start crawling for the past three weeks or so, and he gave us a little taste that day. He hasn't done it again since. He does this thing where he rocks back and forth while he is on his hands and knees, and sometimes he sort of leaps forward. His first time getting up on his hands and knees was Aug. 7.

As he is getting more and more mobile, he also hits his head on things more often. It's inevitable. He hit his head real good on the wall the other day, and it sounded really loud. I sort of freaked out, and he cried for a while. But I guess babies are tough.

We took him for a hike at Devil's Head in Douglas County on Sept. 1. This was his first trip to the mountains. You can read about the adventure here.

As always, he is becoming more vocal every day. He likes to wake us up every morning -- usually between 4 and 5 a.m. -- with ooh! and ahh! noises. He also likes to mimic facial expressions and noises. He likes to pucker up his mouth and say ooh! a lot, and I say it back to him. He gets very excited. He can make da-da and ma-ma sounds, but he doesn't yet know what they mean. It will be great when he starts talking, but I don't want him to grow up too fast.

Last but not least, his smile is getting bigger and brighter. It just makes my day to come home after work and see him smile at me.