6 months old

Grace turned six months old on Sunday. It feels so trite to keep remarking how fast time is going, but it's true and I guess expressing shock at the passage of time just part of being a parent.

Our little Gracie Mae is growing and changing before our eyes. I've heard that everything starts to happen after six months and that things start clicking around six months, and I believe it. She is so happy 90% (80%?) of the time and when she's unhappy, she is sooo unhappy. The latest twist is separation anxiety. She can play by herself for a while and has done this since she was pretty young, but lately she'll get extremely upset if we put her down and will just sit on her play mat, bed, wherever with her arms over her head and sob hysterically. Almost as soon as we pick her up, she's fine again. But when she's happy, she's giddy - full of laughs and giggles. Sometimes, especially in the evenings, she'll get a little delirious and start giggling at almost everything, sometimes toppling over if she's sitting because she's laughing so hard. And oh she's ticklish, too.

She's started joining us at the table for dinner. She still refuses solids (ugh and another whole post in itself), but she's very happy sitting in her highchair, babbling away and gradually dropping all her toys on the floor.

Grace has also become affectionate. She has always been pretty cuddly, but now she'll wrap her little arms around your neck when you pick her up or hang onto your shoulders. We also think she might be trying to give kisses because sometimes she'll put her mouth to your cheek or chin and slobber. It's marvelous.

Mobility... she knows how to roll over, but isn't interested. We practice all the time and try to show her how it could lead to her being able to get to her toys. Sometimes she'll roll on her own, but mostly she'll just find something else to do if she can't reach what she wants or if she's on her tummy, she'll scream. She went through a brief phase of rolling around in her crib and getting stuck. Sometimes now we do find her curled on her side when she's sleeping. She's also gotten so wiggly! Always reaching and grabbing - I have to pay attention when holding her to prevent wild dives.

Anyway, I got it into my head that because she won't roll, she won't learn to crawl and she won't be self-sufficient in terms of getting to her toys, and she'll become over-demanding and spoiled. She has always liked to stand and has been pretty strong at it for quite a while. She also will happily pull to a standing position if you pull her arms. So, against my better judgment I tried showing her how to stand on her own. I just put her up to her toy chest and her crib rails, and she caught right on. Now, however, she has gotten the idea of pulling herself up since I encouraged her. If she's sitting on the floor she'll reach for our hands and then pull her feet closer to her bottom so she can stand right up with our help for balance but not actually guiding her up. She figured this out just over the weekend and it's fascinating to watch her work to figure it out and try to find a way to stand up when she can't reach our hands. On the other hand, I'm more than slightly terrified at what I've started. However, since she refuses to roll to anything that she could use to pull up and can't get into a sitting position on her own, I think we're safe for a while.




Grace is magic and joy and blessings and wonder. She makes us laugh and has changed everything in the most spectacular way. My favorite part of the day? Bringing her to bed for her morning feeding and cuddling up together. And picking her up after naps. And picking her up from daycare on work days, when she sees me across the room and then going over to scoop her up. And getting soaked as she chases her duck around the tub. And reading together before bed. And giving her a million kisses. And hearing her babble and squeal when she wakes up in the morning. And seeing her smile, hearing her giggle. And seeing how happy is when she gets to see her dad.

A few more pictures here.