6 Months Old

As I'm writing this I feel a little bit of shock. I always knew that the months and eventually years with my daughter would fly by. But knowing it and experiencing it are two very different things. I thought life moved quickly without her- I had no idea. This little lady has turned my life upside down and completely changed my heart. She's given me more love and patience and happiness than I ever knew was possible. There are no words to describe her perfection. Everything she does makes me smile. Even her little baby cries make me smile. They're so precious. I am so grateful to her for teaching me the true meaning of unconditional love.

I had a moment last week where I told Aaron I'm not ready to be a mom to a six month old. He laughed and said too bad. That's all the sympathy he has for me! I think it's different for dads. He adores her (honestly more than any father/daughter I've ever seen) but he also leaves her each day to go to work. He sleeps through her nighttime feedings. He knows the joy of taking a shower by himself and not worrying that there's a crying baby in the other room. He doesn't spend every waking and sleeping moment caring for her, worrying for her, nurturing her.

Our lady has grown in so many ways it would be impossible to list them all but perhaps I'll try just a few.

• Everly still breastfeeds almost exclusively. We're doing baby led weaning and we love it. But she doesn't actually get much in her tummy when she's feeding herself and it's not mush. So yay for yummy mommy milk to keep her growing healthy and strong.
• She goes to sleep between 7 and 8 and wakes up between 6 and 8 each day. In that sense she does sleep through the night because she's finally stopped waking up at 3am to play. She still nurses 2-3 times a night but I think it's more of a comfort thing than an actually being hungry thing. Hopefully she'll start to move out of that stage, but if not we've both perfected the art of nursing while asleep. And that is not a joke.
• She still babbles all the time and her favorite is still dadada. She has yet to say mamama or anything like it. It's okay though, I know how much a little girl loves her daddy. After all, I'm 27 and still a daddy's girl.
• Ever has the crawling stance down but hasn't started moving around in it yet. She also grabs things and pulls herself up to stand. However, she still uses rolling and scooting as her preferred methods of transportation. Or yelling for mom. That one works great for her. 

And apparently 6 months is too old to hold still for a picture. I followed her around all day with the camera but she was more interested in playing!

xo Sue