The Big 6 Months

Grace was born 6 months ago from today. This is an exciting day because it feels like both of us have grown so much. Three months was kind of anti-climactic because I expected things to be so much different, but she was still just a little baby. I was still feeling a bit uncomfortable in my role as a mom. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it -- it's just that I didn't feel that confident in what I was doing. I was constantly feeling like an idiot and questioning my decisions, when in fact, looking back, I was doing quite well.

The early days:

I now have a very happy and healthy six month old girl who is surprising me every day with what she can do. NOW things are happening! The developments are very visible now. I also feel a lot more confident about how I'm raising this baby. I realize that how I do things may be different from how another mom does things, but that's okay. I know Grace and what she needs and I'll do whatever I have to do to meet those needs.

Here's what my chunky girl does:

-She smiles whenever she sees me.

-She rolls intentionally. Before it was random and seemed kind of accidental. Now I can almost see the wheels turning when she's about to roll: I see. I want. I roll there.

-She notices EVERYTHING. She loves my cell phone. When she sees it she holds out her hands and whines. When I eat something different than she eats, she reaches out. Nothing gets by her anymore.

-She eats well. She doesn't seem to be a picky eater. Tonight for dinner she had sweet potato and some rice mixed with pureed peas and carrots. Ate it all. Even when she doesn't seem to enjoy something, she opens her mouth for more.

-She notices other babies. She looks curiously at other children and what they're doing. Today we were in the nursing room at Homeplus when another mom and her daughter came in. There was no more eating, as Grace could not keep her eyes off the other girl.

-She's figuring things out. I have a small bucket of rattles. She can pass a rattle from one hand to the other. One of the rattles also spins. The other day I caught her holding the rattle in one hand and using the other to spin it slowly. I didn't know she could do that.

-She's learning to sit up. She loves trying, but she's still really wobbly.

-She laughs whenever I take my hair down from a ponytail. She thinks it's hilarious that I can sometimes have long crazy hair.

-She can "swim" to the top of her crib. A few times I've gone to pick her up and she's been crunched up at the top of her crib on her side, looking at her bumpers.

There's a lot of other things she can do, but these come to mind right now. This is definitely a fun age.

We still have our sleep challenges, but I take it one day at a time. I have a feeling she's working on something in the sleep department, so we'll see. Sleep is definitely something she doesn't like doing, but she's getting enough and that's the main thing. Now if only I would focus as much on my sleep...

Anyway, happy six months, Grace!