Nate, you’re six months old today. For the first time a new month seems to be really significant. I’m the mother of a six month old! I can hardly believe that you’re this big already.
You are trying so hard to crawl, spending as much time as you can every day practicing. Sometimes you are even practicing when you should be sleeping. Speaking of sleeping, over the last week you seem to have turned a corner. I don’t know if it’s because you are so active during the day, or because you’ve started having three servings of solids a day, or because your last bottle of the night around eleven o’clock is an eight ouncer, but you suddenly don’t need that three or four a.m. feeding anymore. I couldn’t be more thrilled or more proud that you’ve managed this without much crying or fuss.
You eat so well, and you eat whatever new foods I give to you. You have yet to turn away from anything.
We’ve been playing outside on nice days, and now that summer is coming I can’t wait to show you the swimming pool at your grampa’s house and the zoo and other fun stuff I know you will love.
You’re laughing almost every day. Your dad can really get you going, laughing really hard. We love hearing that sound!
You’ve pretty much outgrown the bouncy seat and swing, the two pieces of baby gear that enabled me to make it through these six months! You still love the exersaucer and the jolly jumper. Lately you’ve been doing most of your playing on the floor, rolling over, reaching for the toys, touching and feeling everything.
Your hair is growing in now, and this makes your face look more and more like a little boy than a baby. I don’t know what it is, exactly, about your hair, but I love it so much. When we rock together in the rocking chair, I love to stroke your head and your hair to make you relax, and remember how I would touch that soft, downy place behind your ear in the middle of the night when you were newly born and I was so brand new at this job of being your mom.
We are six months in and that means that there are only seven more months until I have to go back to work, until I have to split my time between being your full-time mommy and being a full-time editor. I’m not looking forward to that day. I wish I could just stay home with you all the time, at least until you go to school.
But there I go, looking too far ahead into the future again. I need to keep practicing, too. Practicing just enjoying today, living with you and loving who you are in this very moment. The tomorrows will come soon enough.