Today you are officially six months old! And, like every month since you were born, your daddy and I can hardly believe you’re that big already! You are now officially 24 inches long and 18.5 pounds. WOAH. You are getting so big that it’s becoming more and more difficult to carry you around with one arm. But in addition to getting so big, you are also getting even more adorable, if that’s even possible. At least, your daddy and I sure think you get more and more cute every day (but of course, we’re incredibly biased). I mean, who could resist this kid:
This last month, you traveled to Albuquerque with me to spend some time with your grandpa, who was in the hospital. You also got to spend a lot of time with your aunts and uncles and cousins, which you absolutely loved. Of course, you were spoiled rotten while you were there, especially by your Nina, who wanted to hold you and cuddle with you all day long. It was such an emotional trip for me, but every day, you brought a smile to my face. This is such a gift to me…all you have to do is give me one of your silly faces or laugh out loud, and it immediately reminds me of all the good that there is in the world. And you didn’t just lighten MY mood, but you also provided a lot of comic relief to your aunt Cathy and aunt Marie, who were (like your mama), a little stressed out from all that needed to be done while we were there:
It’s pretty amazing… in the above videos, which were taken just a few short weeks ago, you were barely learning how to sit up on your own. Now, as I write this, sitting up by yourself is a task that you have already mastered! We expect you’ll start tackling crawling next, or maybe even walking! You have definitely been doing a lot of standing with assistance lately, and making walking movements, and there’s no question that you LOVE your jumparoo. Sometimes after you’ve been jumping around for a half hour, we will take you out of it, and you’ll keep kicking your legs for the rest of the night as if to say, “Hey! Put me back in that thing! I was having fun! Sheesh!” Let me just tell you, that after getting kicked in the thigh, in the stomach, in the face, and in the shoulder from all the squirmy-wormy moving around you do when I try to hold you, I think you are DEFINITELY going to be a first class soccer player.
In addition to sitting up by yourself, you’ve mastered another developmental milestone this month: TEETHING. You now have both of your little teeth popping out from your gums, and you just LOVE chewing on mommy and daddy’s fingers (but truth be told, it is really starting to hurt!). What this means, of course, is that you are also in pain sometimes, and therefore aren’t sleeping as well through the night. Thank goodness this is temporary! Also, as a result of your teething, you have become a serious drool monster. I’m not kidding. I’ve never seen a human being drool so much in my life! It’s everywhere! On your clothes, on your bibs, on the couch, on your blankies, on my cashmere sweaters… and the good news is, you have 24 more teeth to grow! And then they’ll fall out and we’ll start over again! YAY! (~ note the sarcasm~)
Unfortunately, you won’t SHOW anyone your teeth, so we have to be sneaky about trying to get a glimpse of them:
This month, you’ve also been eating solid foods like champ! You’ve moved from rice cereal and baby oatmeal to pureed sweet potatoes, carrots, sweet peas, bananas, and avocados. We also tried apples and pears, but those gave you a really bad diaper rash, so we’re going to wait to reintroduce those until later when your body gets more used to trying different foods. I’ve been making all of your foods for you, because your daddy and I feel it’s important to give you organically grown fruits and vegetables as your first foods. It’s remarkably easy, and surprisingly, you seem to like almost everything we give you (except for peas, which you are still trying to decide if you like or not).
All these new foods that you’re trying are fun, but there’s one major drawback. And that is, of course, the fact that your poop right now has gotten SUPER STINKY. I mean, WOAH, kiddo. It’s BAD. The funny thing, though, is that your little poops come out whatever color you’ve eaten earlier that day. So we’ve seen lots of orange and green poop. Even better…after you eat bananas, you poop out little banana seeds.
I know, someday you are going to read this and be completely mortified that I’m talking about your poop on the internet.
Let’s see, what else have you been doing this month? Oh! How could I forget? You are REALLY starting to babble a lot lately, and your daddy and I will often find you in your bassinet just talking to yourself and playing around with different sounds, seeing how loud you can make them. So far, you’ve been saying “bababababababababababababababa” and “dadadadadadadadadadadadadadadada” and “mffffmmmmmmfpphhhhbbbttttttt”. Which I think loosely translates to “I have the weirdest parents ever.”
One of the neatest things for me to watch is how you are starting to make associations between yourself and objects in your world. I can almost see the wheels turning in your cute little head. For example, when you play with your toys, you are really paying attention to how they sound, how they work, and what they do. You will spend hours turning pages in your books or playing with your blocks if I let you. And you are now developing a sense of object permanence, so when I hide one of your toys under a blanket, you look for it and wonder where it went. This also means that you are learning the high chair game, where you throw your spoon or your pacifier over the side, and then lean over to look at it and then look at me as if to say, “um, aren’t you going to get that?”. Of course, when I do, you repeat the whole process over again.
I think, though, that of all the things you are learning to do these days, my favorite thing is your developing sense of humor. You used to smile and laugh only in imitation of other peoples smiling or laughing. But now, you are laughing at all kinds of things: when someone makes a silly face, or makes a silly sound, you just burst out with the most adorable laugh on the planet.
The sound of your laugh is the best sound in the whole wide world to me, and I intend to make sure that you will always have something in your life to laugh at. Like your daddy when he is doing his silly dance.
I know I’ve said this a million times before, but I am so in love with you, baby girl, and I feel so fortunate and grateful every single day that I have you. Happy 6 months!
Love,
Mama
.JPG)
