We're really great!: My daughter is 6 months old.

Oh. My. God. I'm quite sure it's getting annoying to read about how I am in utter disbelief that another month has gone by in my child's life. But she's growing up so damn fast! I see newborns and it feels like she's sooo far away from that, yet how can it be? I can still remember how her kicks felt when she was inside me, and now she's a little person?!

I always marvel how she's becoming more and more... human. Babies are interesting creatures. I never thought I would be the kind of mother that thought the simplest little things showed genius, but now I'm that crazy lady that thinks, "aha, she grabbed the remote control and pushed a button, my child is the epitome of brilliance!" To watch a little being go from so totally helpless to showing more and more independence every day IS remarkable. When she's presented with her bottle, she snatches it and feeds herself. When people talk to her, she genuinely seems engaged and smiles socially and hams it up. She reaches for me. She sits all on her own and can entertain herself. I can cuddle her and we can take naps together now. (And she does grab the remote control and push buttons. And whines when I take it away. Seriously! I may need to find a fakey for her to play with.) I have moments where I miss her teenyness as a newborn, but I am so loving this "age" where she is just so playful. She really is such a happy baby (much unlike her first couple months where she was so unpredictable!).

We have finally started veggies. We did rice cereal for the first 3 weeks or so, then moved on to oatmeal (which she liked way better). Our pedi wanted us to hold off on introducing any other solids until 6 months, so we stuck with his advice (OK I lied, we started 3 days before 6 months :-P). Saturday evening we broke out the shiny new Beaba Babycook that had been sitting in its box since my baby shower (OK I lied again, it was likely in its box way before my shower). We steamed up some sweet potato, then pureed, and G had her first taste.

Initial reaction? WTH is this?! Didn't really love it, and she actually gagged at one point, so we decided she'd had enough after a couple little tastes. I've read that it can take a bunch of "tries" for a baby to take to a particular food, so we served her some more sweet potato in the morning, and she loved it the second time! We went with carrots next, and she really liked those as well. The world of solids is so much fun - though I do feel like a hypocrite serving my daughter all these organic vegetables, as if I eat that way. I really need to change my eating habits, because I can't foresee justifying me scarfing down pizza to a 3 year old when I put broccoli in front of her. I'm loving making my own baby food - I had skeptics that thought I wouldn't do it, but I find it both fun and rewarding. Plus we're going to save so much money in the long run (not to mention how good it is for her to have fresh organic veggies and fruits!).

Sleep at night has gotten so much better. She wakes up once, scarfs her bottle down in 5 minutes and is right back out. No biggie. She still takes a few naps during the day - two that are about two hours long and one or two extras for around an hour or so. Lots of napping! I love coming home from work and getting into bed with her for a nice long nap together. I feel really lucky that she goes down to sleep so easily - no need for Ferberizing here (watch, I totally just jinxed myself). I was sort of ~~convinced~~ petrified that we'd have to hold her to sleep until she went off to college.

We seriously are so head over heels for this girl. She has been the biggest blessing and is such a joy for our family. I'm so excited for all the memories we will be making this holiday season and for the years to come. Santa sure went a little crazy this year, but G has been such a good girl that ~~mama~~ he couldn't help himself. ;-)

I'm really excited about our plans for New Year - we're going to be going up to our friends' cabin in the mountains for a long weekend. It will be G's first time in the snow! I know I'm going to have to bundle her up from head to toe... I can't wait to see how she's going to react. I'm a little afraid of how she's going to do with sleeping out for a few nights. She's never had to sleep longer than a nap in her pack and play, but hopefully it will work. A moment of horror just struck me as I realized just how much crap we're going to have to pack for 3 nights away from home!

Her next dr. appointment is on the 27th so we'll have the latest weigh-in then. I'm sure my lil chunkster is growing just fine! I can't think of any more updates at the top of my head, so I'll present you with ~~some goodies~~ a barrage of pictures from the half year(!!) photo shoot.