6 Months Old

Dear Emily,

On Sunday morning I woke up around 7:15 and started my morning alone. At 8:15 I wondered how you could possibly be sleeping still, so I peaked into your room as quietly as I could. You were just lying there awake, hands clasped, and staring towards the window. As much as I wanted to pick you up, I figured you were probably enjoying the quiet morning and let you be. 10 minutes later I snuck back in to watch you slowly stretch, yawn, and start to talk a little. When I appeared into your view you gave me the biggest smile and excited squeal. We usually start your morning with a diaper change and lots of smiles in the mirror. I love it when you reach out to touch my face and give me a big smile or whisper your stories to me.

We have a folded blanket on our kitchen/living room floor that you SIT on all by yourself and play. You grab toys really well and you also see things that you want and try to get them. The latest technique for getting things far away is to swing your arm up and down (similar to waving) and lean forward, eventually hitting your target and rolling it close enough to pick up. This swinging your arm up and down action actually happens all day long; while you are eating, while we are holding you, when you are trying not to go to sleep, when you are playing. You also are starting to lunge forward onto your hands from a sitting position and when you are on your tummy you can scoot forward (although you are protesting because you are on your tummy) so we think crawling won’t be too far away. You can really get around though with a combination of rolling over and wiggling around. For about a week or two now you have also been squeezing everything with your hand, like we would a stress ball. It resembles a hand wave when you aren’t holding anything so I’ve started waving back to you and you find this rather humorous.

When you are sitting on your blanket you often look over to me and give me a glowing smile. That is my favorite. You also switch between grunting for long periods of time and talking (you do this when you aren’t sitting on your blanket too). The main activity of the day is sticking everything you can possibly get your hands on into you mouth. You are getting so fast with your hands Emily. Dad and I have both had our glasses swiped of our faces unexpectedly! You are also partial to my crocs (shoes), tags and zippers. I’m amazed at your ability to find them.

When we started giving you rice cereal more consistently in the evenings a few weeks ago, you went around with your tongue sticking out of your mouth for a few days. I think you just discovered it existed and needed to explore its abilities further. Today we thought an apple slice would be a good step in the right direction toward you eating solid foods as well as give you something to chew on. You loved it! When we tried to pull it out of your mouth a little bit to see if you were breaking off pieces you got really upset that we were taking it away – also a first for you.

Emily you are teaching me so much about being kind. When we go out you smile to all the people that look at you or talk with you, many of them complete strangers to both of us that we will probably never see again. Their faces always light up and they seem so much happier after encountering your friendly face. I’m trying to follow your example.

You also bring so much joy into our home. You are quick to laugh with us. We try all sorts of things to get you to laugh, of course, and there is almost nothing you don’t react to anymore. You are also intensely curious about the world around you and are happy to explore and discover things on your own. However, once an area has satisfied your curiosity, you make it clear that it is time to move on and look somewhere else for things to learn about. Because of this you have been spending a lot of time in my arms recently and watching me do dishes and helping me with laundry (chewing on the laundry basket and clean clothes as I fold them).

Your hair is now long enough and the weather is now humid enough that we have a positive confirmation on you having curly hair! The hair down the center top of your head is the longest and thickest and it tends to part toward your right side in a big curl across the front of your head.

Today when we put you on the skateboard you just sat right up and didn’t have any problem keeping your balance even with it rolling around a bit. We are very impressed with your physical development!

You were also really fascinated with the texture of the skateboard.

My favorite though were the smiles you kept showing your dad.

When I sat you down to take your pictures you stayed in this position for only a minute and then you quickly pulled yourself up to sit. But it shows how much bigger you are compared to previous months so I just had to include it.

A few more cute expressions that I’ve been trying to capture since they appeared about a week ago. This smile most closely represents the one you give me from across the room when you are playing by yourself (or at this moment chewing on an apple slice while I write this).