Alex is taking his third nap now, and I finally can sit down to quickly update today’s doctor appointment. Let‘s discover the result first.

1. Weight　（体重）: 19 lbs 7 oz ( I think the 4 oz milk I fed him right before the appointment contribute:)) in percentile 90%
2. Height（身高）: 27.5 inches, in percentile 90%
3. Head Circumference（头围）: 18 inches, in percentile 95%

Dr. Grayson is very pleased with the result and we are very happy to see Dr. Grayson again. She is such a warm and competent Pediatrician. Alex likes her a lot.
Alex had three shots and one oral medication for immunization. To my surprise, he was extremely easy to be taken care of so far. With Dr. Grayson’s advice of last waking memory, I decided not to rock him till he totally falls asleep in my arms. After rocking him a couple minutes when he looks sleepy, I put him in the crib and pat his butt, and he put himself to sleep in no time. I think another reason might be we put more clothes on him recently. The warmth makes easier for him to sleep.

Before 6-month-old, Alex knew already to use his tongue to test food. It is really fun to see him licking spoons, toys, cups… Speaking of cups, I have to tell people how much Alex is fascinated by clear glass cups. He always wants to drink water from a glass cup and seems very satisfied after sipping even just a little bit water. I used this trick to calm him down several time when he is cranky. It works 100% time. Alex also likes to wash hands and play running water. He smiles every time I wipe his hands afterwards.

易峰几个礼拜前就开始学用舌头了。你给他东西，他用舌头先试试，不像以前傻傻的就知道张嘴。看他添东西真是很好玩。

易峰特别喜欢喝透明的玻璃杯里的水。每次我抱着他，他看见、听见我在喝水，他就立马用全身的力气扑向杯子，嘴巴张的大大的，好像要把整个杯子也吞下去。明天传个录像给大家看看。

易峰也很喜欢洗手，擦手。每次用毛巾给他擦手他都会笑。

We all know Alex doesn’t like cereal, but I still want to give it a try to see if cereal can help Alex sleep longer at night. Today I mixed some oatmeal cereal with Berber apple sauce and gave them to Alex. Alex finished all. From his expression, I could tell that he knew today’s apple sauce tasted differently from before, but he didn’t reject it. I got excited and plan to give him more cereal tonight before he goes to bed.

我今天试着把米粉和在易峰喜欢的其他流食里面给他吃，他居然全盘接受了。易峰，你想不到妈妈这么聪明吧，哈哈！

Alex has so many things to play in his crib, and he usually has hard time to decide what he wants to play most. Look at how busy he is busy playing today. Does he look like he’s just had his six month checkup and immunizations? I don’t think so! Daddy looks like he’s been through more after his physicals.

We covered his crib briefly last time… here is some more detail.

Daddy has been teaching Alex what to do if he’s ever in a situation where he has to take matters into his own hands. Here Alex is practicing the human shield technique with his friend Humpty Dumpty.

易峰有很多很多的玩具（不禁又要感慨易峰的幸福生活，想当年我们哪有这样的条件，但我们很幸运有很爱我们的爸爸妈妈）他经常是玩会儿这个，玩玩那个。下面这张照片他在“吃”humpty dumpty. humpty dumpty是个以鸡蛋为原型的童话人物。这个humpty dumpty是当年dave的玩具，现在传到儿子手上了。

Alex really likes his pacifier. Traditionally he hasn’t been very good at handling it–he pulls it out of his mouth and then drops it or tries to stick it back in backwards. He’s getting better at manipulating things with his hands every day though… here he’s reaching out to grab it. He’ll still try to put it in his mouth sideways, but we’re all about incremental improvements in this house.

玩着玩着humpty dumpty, 易峰一扭脸看到奶嘴，就放下humpty dumpty,去够奶嘴了。

Alex enjoys his aquarium crib toy. It’s the older version of this model, and according to fairy godmother Beth it’s far better than what they’ve got available now. She got it for Alex special off craigslist. We’ve never seen the new one in person so we can’t tell you what the difference is, but we’ve never known Beth to be wrong before, so if you’re in the market, see if you can find the old-school model instead.

易峰的床上挂着个水族馆。易峰小一点的时候，根本对这个水族馆连个正眼都没有，这让我觉得这个玩具很失败。上个礼拜突然他有意识的看水族馆，今天我教他用手玩上面的按钮，他一下子就学会了。

Alex had his six month birthday on Friday! He’s been a busy boy the last few weeks. On July 14th, he started daycare. Here’s Alex in the car, headed down to the Scripps Exploring Academy on Monday. We got him a Britax Marathon carseat, but we haven’t swapped out his baby carseat yet. We’re getting close, though.

易峰一晃就六个月大了，真不知道时间是怎么过的。遥想第一次把易峰放到汽车座椅里，我惊呼，这个座椅怎么怎么大呀，到如今同样的座椅已经显得愈来愈小了，易峰经常在座椅里很不耐烦。还好我们已经准备好了另外一个大座椅。

下面的照片是易峰第一天去托儿所照的。他很乖，爸爸把他交个阿姨，他也没哭。我倒是在回家的路上开始抹眼泪。不过小孩子总是要一步步长大的，我很高兴上礼拜五接易峰回家的时候，他的心情很好。

Here’s Alex’s crib at daycare. He’s been going to daycare about every other day over the last couple of weeks, spending the alternating days with grandma and grandpa at the compound.

这是易峰在托儿所的床。

Alex loves visiting grandma and grandpa! One of reasons is that grandpa has the world’s largest Swedish Fish and he’ll bust them out when Alex might be having some teething issues. Still no teeth yet, but grandma thinks she’s seeing a couple of spots where they’re about to break through.

爷爷给易峰“冻鱼”。美国有很多形形色色帮小孩子减少长牙痛苦的东东， “冻鱼”就是其一。奶奶说她看到易峰的下牙床上有两个白点了，但我还没看见。

Alex has two jumpers. Here’s his Rainforest Jumperoo, which he has at grandma and grandpa’s. He enjoys this one a lot. He’s also got a Deluxe Jumperoo at home.

易峰在爷爷奶奶家的jumper里蹦蹦跳跳。

He likes them both, and spends a lot of time bouncing in them lately, but if you’re in the market for one and don’t need the leg-folding portability aspect of the Deluxe, we recommend you get the Rainforest Jumperoo instead. He likes the rotating aspect of it and gets consistently better air in that model.

Alex has been congested for the past week or so. It makes it hard for him to sleep, which makes it hard for mommy and daddy to sleep too. Hopefully it clears up soon.

我很喜欢这条毯子的颜色和条纹。 我想拿来给我做衣服肯定不错，哈！

Alex is all moved in to his room! Here he is playing with his bear blanket in his crib. He’s also got the Aquarium deal that fairy godmother Beth got for him, his Humpty Dumpty doll that he got from dad, and a headcrab plush to watch his back.

易峰在玩他的玩具熊。

Mom’s really got the touch when it comes to playing with Alex.

She knows how to bounce him and rock him so that he calms down no matter how animated he gets.

和妈妈一起跳舞！

Here’s Alex in the armchair in his bedroom. He still can’t sit up by himself for long, but he could hang out in a corner like this for a long time.

Happy six month birthday, big boy!

This week, I still feel very tired all the time. Sometimes I don’t even want to talk. However, it is a very fruitful week to see Alex continue growing up, making progress, and hit milestones.

易峰已经有一阵会从前向后翻了，但一直不太会从背后向肚子翻。上礼拜妈妈还打电话在问。这礼拜一突然一下子他就会了。这两天就见他一会翻到肚皮上，一会翻 回来，两分钟没看他，他的姿势就变了。易峰估计是个右撇子，他右手明显比左手灵活，而且他特别喜欢用右手，右胳膊，所以他目前９０％都是向左边翻。我有意 识的在锻炼他的左手。

First, Alex all of sudden can roll over from belly to back! At his 4-month follow-up appointment, Alex first time turned over from his belly to back for Dr. Hitchcock. I trained him to pull over on the playmat several times and didn’t expect he learned so fast. At Monday night when I was cleaning up the kitchen, Dave said “look at him! He just rolled over by himself!” I thought Alex might cheat a little bit with Dad’s help. When I went to check, Alex turned over in no time effortlessly from belly to back ,and then roll back right in front of me. Oh, Alex, you must exercise it by yourself since you know mom was worried if you could master this activity by your 6-month-old. Are you surprised by yourself too? I think this progress is mainly thanks to the playmat Dave got for him a couple of weeks ago. With the playmat, I can tell Alex’s hand control is definitely improving. I guess Alex might be right handed because his right hand and arm are obviously skillful and powerful than his left hand. That also can explain that Alex rolls over most time to the left side.

易峰从上礼拜一开始睡在自己房间里了。我其实还挺想他，经常担心他一个人呆一个房间会不会害怕。好在易峰适应非常快，他现在自己一个人睡自己的床，睡自己房间，都没有问题了。想想两个礼拜前我们还为此发愁，真是天翻地覆的变化。

Another big announcement we need to make is that Alex sleeps in his own room from last Monday! To be honest, I quite miss him. I need to try hard to calm myself down sometime I drive myself nuts wondering what is going on with Alex at night when he is alone. The truth is Alex is doing pretty good! He was restless and cranky only on Thursday night crying and screaming four or five times. It might be because I didn’t give him a bath the night before.

今天晚上易峰心情巨好，我亲他脖子，脸蛋，肚子，他就咯咯地笑，到了九点半，喂了些奶，他很快就睡着了。我们现在只有在他睡觉的时候给他奶嘴，这一招非常好用，感觉现在带他容易很多，当然，他的越来越沉的屁股让我的胳膊也觉得渐渐吃不消。

The relationship seems rather one-side for so long is beginning to blossom into something truly interactive. When he is in the TV room, and I wave my hand or call “Alex” in the kitchen, he will raise his head to look at me and smile. Friday night Alex laughed so much when we played peekaboo and when I kissed his cheeks, neck, and belly. It is really gratifying to see him laughing or sleeping peacefully after many hard hours of baby care. Actually, I find it becomes easier to take care of Alex after we figured out when to use pacifier last week.

“打你这个大虫子！”

Alex had his first play date last weekend with Olivia. Here’s Alex putting the moves on her. Look at that hair!

Olivia和易峰是同一天生的，真是凑巧！我和Ｄａｖｅ和Ｏｌｉｖｉａ的爸爸妈妈去年在一起上产前培训班，一个月前在儿童玩具商店偶然又碰到，是不是两个出生在同一天的金猪宝宝都很可爱？易峰还在主动打招呼呢，“嗨，olivia,　你好！”

Michelle and Alex and I were in Babies’R'Us in June and we ran into Eric and Vivian, a couple we recognized from our birthing class at Sharp last October. We chatted for a while and it turned out their daughter Olivia was born on January 25, the same day as Alex! (For those of you paying attention, that also makes her a golden pig.)

Here’s Alex after Olivia tells him she’s wise to his tactics. She’s a very bright young lady.

易峰趴了一会就不耐烦了，Olivia还一个劲儿的鼓励他呢！“易峰，瞧我趴的多好！”

Eric and Vivian brought Olivia by last Saturday and Alex got his first real time with a kid around his age. Here Mom and Vivian deploy kids on the play quilt grandma made for Alex. As you can see from Alex’s expression he wasn’t in the best mood.

Olivia一点没受易峰的脾气影响，还是笑呵呵的问“易峰，你怎么了？” “我来帮你了！”

Despite that the kids seemed to have a good time and the adults sure did, so we’re going over to Eric and Vivian’s soon to do it again. I think they appreciated the lengths Michelle would go to entertain Olivia, which you can see in the following photo.

Dave觉着下面这张我逗olivia的挺有意思的，我觉得挺傻的，真不知道olivia是被我逗哭了还是逗笑了。好像olivia在我们家的一下午都心情颇好，总是笑眯眯的。

It was really good to talk to some other parents running into so much of the same stuff we’re encountering at the same time.

Here are Vivian and Alex.　（Vivian美女阿姨和易峰。）

Last Sunday, the family unit headed up to the compound to get Dad’s hair cut and see the grandparents. The pool was kind of cold, because the heater wasn’t working, but Alex still got his time in the water. Here he is with grandpa.

上周末去爷爷奶奶家，又去游泳了。水比较凉，易峰不怎么适应，不是特别放松。爸爸很得意给易峰买的新游泳裤和帽子。

Alex and Dad went shopping before we went to the compound, and we got him some cool new swimming trunks and a swim hat.

Ho hum, just another day at the pool.

This week, Alex stayed home with mom most days. He’s been a lot more active during the day, and we’ve been going for walks around the neighborhood in the evenings. We can really see the difference. He seems happier when he’s awake and he’s definitely sleeping better.

Grandma Du, Alex’s regular babysitter, has moved on to other things so we’re trying to figure out the best situation for Alex to be cared for during work days。

这礼拜易峰进步明显，睡觉不那么闹了，生活也比较有规律。他非常着迷大人吃的任何东西，有时候他看我嘴巴一嚼一嚼的，就张大嘴要吃我的嘴巴，非常有意思。他最喜欢吃新鲜的桃子，他会把手放在你拿桃的手后面，使劲向自己的嘴巴里送，吃得高兴了他会发出满意的嗯嗯的声音。但易峰不喜欢吃香蕉。

He’s also supercharged! Previously, he wasn’t all that active in his bouncer, but this is the only type of photo I can get of him in it lately.

Today was Alex’s first July 4th. We started at the Scripps Ranch Fourth of July Parade, which happens to go right by our house. Attendance doesn’t get much easier than that! Here’s Alex and grandma.

七月四号是美国国庆节，我们住的社区每年都有游行以示庆祝。游行的队伍离我们家非常近，所以我们占据得天独厚的地理优势，不需要象很多人那样，几天前就得用椅子或毯子在街上占位子。

Mom and Alex spent some quality time together at the parade.

We discovered that parades make Alex hungry.

Here’s one of my favourite pictures of Alex ever. He’s amazed by something in the parade, that’s for sure!

We had the Crenshaws, Jared and Yingbin and family, and Grandma and Grandpa over for a Fourth of July barbecue. Alex didn’t get any barbecue, but he did get a bottle from Judy.

We missed the fireworks again this year, but we closed out Alex’s first Fourth of July with some patriotic bicycles before bed. Do you recognize the bathrobe? He’s grown a little bit since the days in which it actually fit him.

易峰今天晚上咯咯的笑了大概十分钟，第一次我们听他笑出声这么长时间，我的肚皮都笑痛了。下面照片是爸爸在和易峰做自行车蹬腿运动，易峰是不是很开心？

Have a great long weekend!