Six Months Old!

Dear Carolyn,

I can’t believe you’re already six months old. It feels like we just brought you home yesterday. Then again, it feels like you’ve been part of our lives forever.

You’ve learned how to roll your way around – you even do little baby rolling k-turns to get to things you want. Another new trick you’ve learned this month is how to get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth. You think this is the coolest thing ever and get a huge grin on your face every time you do it. You can also sit on your own for short periods of time, but then you’ll reach for something and topple over. Diaper changes are becoming quite the challenge, because every time we put you down on the changing pad you immediately flip over, grab the edge of the dresser, and hang on for dear life so we can’t roll you back. You are very strong.

We’ve started feeding you solid food just in the past two weeks. So far you’ve tried rice cereal, pears, and sweet potatoes. You really like to play with the spoon – especially when it’s full of food! Most mealtimes end with food everywhere. Thankfully, you don’t mind getting cleaned up after. And on the subject of cleaning, you’re really getting into baths lately. You sit up in your little tub and splash the water, and chew on your rubber ducky until I drag you out. I think you’d play in there for hours if I let you!

You’re still pretty fond of all the toys you loved so much last month, but there’s a clear new favorite: the clip end of your binky holder. That part ends up in your mouth more often than the binky itself. It must feel good to chomp on: you’re definitely teething – next month there might be a tooth or two to write about!

At this point, you’re mostly sleeping through the night. Sometimes you wake up once to nurse, but other times I wake up at 7 and you’re just starting to stir. You go to bed sometime between 7:30 and 8:30, so you’re generally sleeping about 11 hours straight! Now I should start going to bed at a reasonable time too…

You don’t “talk” as much as you used to. Before you used to say “ah-goo” and “ah-boo” a lot. (It was really cute – sad, but cute – when you were upset and you’d say “ah-boo, ah-boo, ah-boo” over and over.) Now you do a lot of vowel sounds and fake coughing, and lots of raspberries (especially while eating.) I keep asking you to say “mama”, but you just look at me with a mischievous little smile.

I think you’re going to be a total girly-girl. Not only do you like getting dressed up, especially in red, but you think that the phone is the best thing ever invented. I’ve been encouraging you to figure out how to crawl by putting the phone just out of reach – I think you’d do anything to get to it. Occasionally, when you manage to reach it, I’ll put it on speakerphone and call Daddy at work. We leave him funny messages with you doing your little fake cough. To be honest, you’re fascinated with anything electronic – the remotes, the phone, the laptops – I think it might be that particular shade of silver-grey. Or maybe it’s because we don’t let you put them in your mouth.

Sometimes I wonder how I got to be so lucky, to be your mama and watch you grow. I cherish every moment I spend cuddling you in the rocking chair – even the ones at 3 AM – because I know all too soon you’ll be too big to want to snuggle. I hope it doesn’t all go by so quickly as these first six months have!

Love, Mommy