SIX months

Leah,

I'm rather ashamed that I haven't blogged a THING since your last monthly letter. I mean, sure. We had Christmas and stuff, but still. I should at least be getting pictures up here! But, wait. There's a good excuse for that. For one, we've had a new fancy camera for about a month. But I just got the lesson on it from your father this past weekend. I mean, I could take a decent picture, but now I know how to get pictures from the camera onto the computer and everything. So all of our Christmas pictures are just waiting to be seen. Of course, I could post some pictures from our old camera, except that I can't. All of those pictures are on the other computer, which decided to just stop working last week. It won't turn on. It won't even pretend. I'm doing really well and not freaking out. Except that I AM freaking out! There are 4 years' worth of pictures on that computer! But the wonderful people at the Geek Squad are going to help us out, God willing.

Anyway, on to the task at hand. You are officially halfway to your first birthday. Six whole months! It's insane to think that six months ago, I was sitting in a hospital bed holding my brand new baby girl. You were still kind of icky (or as Mimi would say, you still had "placenta head"). But you were so precious. And big. And beautiful. Sometimes those first days feel like just last week. But sometimes I realize all we've gone through to make it six months, and it feels much longer. Like years. Well, maybe not years. But close.

At six months, you have mastered sitting up and are moving toward crawling. And when you're propped up, you can stand for a little while. But the other day you were standing and fell flat on your butt. You looked at me like, "That wasn't very fun." But you've got ample padding in that area, so you were just fine. :) You've still just got the two bottom teeth, although I know you're working on more down there. I can see white! I just can't feel anything yet. And gosh, you love biting anything in site. Everything goes straight in your mouth! Which is fine when it's your toy or burp cloth. Not so much when it's mom's shirt in the middle of church or Jack's crayon when he needs it.

So, now that you're six months, you'll be eating real food! We'll probably give you something really exciting this week--like rice cereal. Yum! I think you're going to like this eating thing. I mean, you've liked eating since you were born, but this is going to involve sitting in a high chair and taking it from a spoon.

I'm a little afraid to talk about sleep. You see, you've actually begun (GASP!) sleeping better. Last night, you did get up around 1:00am, but the two nights before that, you slept 10 hours straight. It was glorious. Of course I didn't sleep 10 hours straight because you go to bed at 6:00pm, but it was still just lovely. I am very excited about this new "normal." (fingers crossed....).

I'm really excited that you're six months old, but I'm also kind of sad! It means that you're getting farther and farther away from all those "baby" things. And I'm so looking forward to everything ahead, but sometimes I miss little things. Like the first time you looked at me and smiled--not because you were gassy or dreaming, but because you recognized me and it made you happy. Or how your tiny (well, it's all relative) body fit into newborn clothes. You know, for the whole first week or so of your life. Yeah, I never really had a tiny baby. ;)

Love you, dear girl! Happy half birthday. Here's to the second half of this momentous first year!

Love,
Mama