6 Months!

Funny ... I thought I posted this back on September 10th... Oh well. Here it is now!

Dearest Molly -

Last week you turned 6 whole months old. How did that happen so quickly? Next thing we know you'll be asking for help with your homework. Sheesh! I haven't even had a chance to write anything since you had your 1/2 birthday. As you can see from the pictures, we were in the eastern Sierra over the weekend visiting some friends of mine. They had a dog who was kind enough to let you explore his head.

This week we took you in for your 6 month check-up. You weigh 18lbs 11oz, and by all accounts you seem to be a very healthy baby. Oh, except for that crooked booty-crack. I'm sure that later this will be something that we all look back on and giggle at, but in the mean time they've scheduled an MRI to check your spine just to rule out the very slim possibility that your crooked crack is more than just a crooked crack. September 21st will surely not be fun for us, but it will be a relief to know everything is A-OK.

Every day, Zach and I fall more and more in love with you. You're impossibly cute, charming, funny, and rediculously wonderful. How did we get so lucky? You drool all over everything and recently you've taken to panting to show your excitement. It's actually quite funny and endearing. You and I are having a hard time nursing because of your increasing awareness of and excitement for the world - I realize that my boob is not nearly as exciting as, well, everything else. You find it particularly difficult to nurse when Zach or I am speaking, so I've taken to moving us to a quiet room for feedings.

As you can see in the pictures, we've also introduced some foods (other than my boob). It got to the point where you were soooo excited about what us "big people" were eating that it seemed like torture to keep the foods from you. So now you've tried strained pears, mashed up bananas, and soon we'll add other fun features. Pretty much, you love it. You pant, grab the spoon, dump some of the food out and use your other hand to shove some of it in the direction of your mouth. Occassionally some of the food gets into your mouth. More often it ends up in your lap, on your face, or on the floor. Sometimes you catch sight of the food on the plate in front of you and get so excited that you pant, drop the spoon, and plop your hands right in it. So much fun!

When we were up in the mountais we also decided it was officially time to introduce drinking to you since you were (understandably) not so interested in nursing in the heat. We started by trying "big people" drinking methods. The regular water bottle was okay (and lots of fun!!) but you didn't get much water. Mostly you stuck your tongue in it. We had a similar problem with the regular drinking cup - you try to stick your tongue in it and mostly end up drooling into the cup rather than drinking from the cup. But you really really like it! And it wasn't too bad since both methods ended up cooling you down if only by soaking you in cool water.

So, on to the "sippy" cup we went. We marched off to K-Mart and spent a few hours trying to make sense of the 5 million different cups they have available. I'm still not really sure what the difference was between all those cups - in the end, we chose the one with the least decorations. I figure there's plenty of time for you to get hooked on marketing. I'm not sure that you really get that much more water out of the sippy cup yet, but at least we don't all end up soaked, and you seem to enjoy it just as much, or more, than the first methods we tried.

And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the wonderful time you are spending with our neighbors & the shared nanny. Three days a week you get to hang out with Nate and Paz. Mostly I think you have fun, although as Nate gets more and more mobile he's sometimes a little rough for you. You'll have to learn to crawl quick so you can get out of his way!! ;)

Here's to our most amazing baby - and the 6 months of fun we've had with you!
love,
your Mom
(what? I'm a mom? how'd that happen???!)