My little baby girl turned six months yesterday. Brace yourself for the cliche…but where has time gone?!?

It’s strange how it can feel like the past six months have gone by in the blink of an eye and yet it also feels like an eternity ago that we were just two people living together without this sweet little soul to brighten up our every day. I can barely remember what life was like before Ayla was born, and that’s ok. I don’t need to remember!

So, six months! I will be the typical first-time mom and make a big deal about this, ok? I mean, it’s a HALF BIRTHDAY. It deserves to be celebrated in style with a little cake and extra kisses and such. We love this little girl so much and she’s changed our world in the best kind of way. It’s not alway easy, being a parent…but it is so fulfilling and full of purpose. Although disclaimer…I do have those days where it’s like please-stop-fussing-already or man-i-really-want-to-just-go-sit-at-a-coffee-shop-by-myself-for-an-afternoon or dear-child-WHAT-do-you-want. But I think that’s just normal parent life, right? Some days are tougher than others, but I think it’s amazing how one of those sweet little smiles or funny little giggles can take away the frustrated feelings away so fast and make my heart melt with love for her all over again in an instant.

Here’s what she’s been up to lately::

– learning to sit! She’s just in the past week gotten the hang of sitting up on her own, although we still have to be close by to watch so she doesn’t topple over when she’s on the floor. She’ll make the funniest little pleased-with-herself expression when she’s sitting on her own. So far, she hasn’t shown much interest in attempting to crawl or move around and she doesn’t like tummy time at all (as seen in the tummy photo above).

– eating a few solids! We’ve started slowly introducing solids to her in the past week…only avocado and banana so far. She’ll take a few tiny spoonfuls of each before wrinkling up her nose and refusing to take any more, hehe. Apparently she’s not totally sold on it yet! I’m not in a hurry to get her on solids, but wanted to start introducing new foods once she was around six months.

– developing big personality! It’s exciting to watch her personality emerge more and more, and she really is a generally happy, full-of-life little girl. She won’t easily give a smile to a stranger, but when she’s in her normal surroundings, she will smile and grin and giggle all day long. In contrast, she can also project quite a wail when she’s unhappy as well. I’m fairly certain the lady in the bathroom stall next to the one I was using to change Ayla’s diaper when we were out for lunch on Saturday would have thought that I was doing something super terrible to this little baby who was s.c.r.e.a.m.i.n.g her head off, hehe.

– sleeping for solid nights! She’s been doing really good at nights for the past few months, but would still wake to feed between 4 and 5. It was still a good night’s sleep by new mom’s standards so I definitely wasn’t complaining! But just in the past week, she’s starting sleeping right through until 7 30 or 8. Sometimes she’ll wake a little earlier than that, but will put herself back to sleep after a few minutes.

What about you: what milestones are you celebrating in your children these days?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

My baby girl is growing up so fast!

And I truly do love it. Sure, sometimes I look back on the photos from the newborn stage and feel nostalgic for those days…but honestly, it is so endlessly rewarding, exciting, and FUN to watch that itty bitty baby grow and develop and discover new things.  We’re at the stage now where anything within reach of her little hands is fair game for grabbing, so it makes meal times interesting. She’s a quick little thing, and there have been a lot of close calls where a plate of food almost ends up on the floor when she gets ahold of the placemat underneath it.

She has moved to a four-hour routine, and it’s been so handy to have a longer stretch between feedings. It took a week or two to move from the three-hour to four-hour, but now that we are there, she is napping much better. It was a little rough for about a week while she was trying to transition, but I think we’re past the hump now!

My favorite things that she does these days is::

…her laughs and giggles! She is still a little conservative with her out-loud laughs, but we try our best to coax them out of her every day. They just melt me! She loves when you take a blanket and float it down on top of her and then pull it off and say “boo,” and most times, that will get her giggling at least a little.

…she will start to get all excited and take these short little breaths when we go to get her unstrapped from her car seat. Her eyes start to light up and her hands start moving around in eagerness to get out. She does really well in the car seat and travels well, but she’s always happy to get out once we’re out of the car too.

…when I go in to get her up from a nap, the minute she sees me, she gets a big smile on her face and starts wiggling in excitement. I love to just let her lay there for a few minutes and talk at her and those after-sleep happy smiles are the sweetest. She’ll even give a big grin in the middle of the night when she wakes up and I go in to get her back to sleep, although I don’t let it coax me into chatting with her at that hour!

…how she loves her daddy. She often gets a little shy when Ben comes home from work and kisses her and talks to her…kinda looking away shyly and then looking back at his face for a few minutes before she breaks into her smiles. Then he’ll take her and she will just lay still on his chest…it’s the dearest sight! We stopped in at Ben’s work the other day, and were talking with some of the ladies who work there for a while, and she just looked around at everyone with her serious eyes…but the minute we stepped into Ben’s office and she saw him, she broke into a big smile.

…she’s starting to love her bath time more and will kick her legs and make big splashes. The bath is also a handy tool when she’s upset and we can’t seem to calm her down. She’ll lay in the tub and forget all about whatever she was upset about, hehe.

What about you: what is a current favorite thing about your child/children?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!