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Jimmy Kimmel is one proud dad.
The 49-year-old talk show host, who has been open about his son’s battle with congenital heart disease, posted a sweet photo of baby William “Billy” John on Saturday in celebration of his 6-month birthday.
“Billy is 6 months old today,” the Jimmy Kimmel Live host wrote in the caption of the picture on Twitter and Instagram. “He is healthy and happy and we are all very grateful for your prayers, good wishes, thoughts and support of @ChildrensLA and children’s hospitals in your area.”
Kimmel’s son looked happy as can be in the shot, showing the camera his tooth-less smile as he laid back in a stroller. Wearing a colorful plaid shirt and blue corduroy pants, the tiny tot was adorned by two items that will be familiar to parents of infants: a white spit-up towel (this one embroidered with the words “Billy” on it) and the über-popular Vulli Sophie la Girafe rubber teether.
Kimmel spent the past week in Brooklyn, New York, where they ate their way through some of the borough’s best restaurants (and did five days worth of live shows for his hit ABC late night show).
On Thursday, he spoke to Today‘s Matt Lauer about the health care debate that he’s found himself in after going public with Billy’s story in an tearful late-night monologue in May.
“I just know he’s not really going to care, and also knowing he’s my son, he’s probably going to make fun of me for it,” Kimmel said of the moment. “I will say, that will make me feel better than anything.”
He added that he hoped his son would not know how he felt at that moment.
“My problems and my worries shouldn’t be his problems or his worries,” he said. “I think he’s going to have enough to worry about growing up with this questionable heart in his body, and I just want him to worry about hitting a home run in Little League.”
The comedian also explained that although he had a feeling that his tear-jerking speech would make the rounds on the internet, he had no idea that it would generate headlines about health care across the country.
“I had no idea it would become a matter of national debate,” he said, confessing he doesn’t understand a lot of the backlash he’s received for talking about health care and attacks that have come on his children and wife, Molly McNearney.
“It’s hard to deal with, especially hard for my wife,” he said. “You have to put it out of your head, and you have to understand that most people would not do that if they were having a one-on-one conversation with you, and that sometimes people are just trying to get a reaction out of you.”
Three days after Billy’s April birth, Kimmel and his wife learned their son needed to have open heart surgery.
In August, Kimmel confirmed to the The Hollywood Reporter his son will need two more procedures, but is still “doing great.”
“We would like to get [the surgeries] over with and not have to think about it all the time, but it could definitely be worse,” Kimmel said.
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE
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