k r i s t i n a k a y e: Farrah's Six Month Update

Baby Girl, you are six months old!!! You are half a year old. In another six months, I will have a one-year-old. It was a bittersweet day. We all told you happy six month birthday, and it even choked me up. I can't even imagine the bigger milestones we will encounter. My heart can only take it little by little. But anyway, Happy Six Months, Baby! I really mean that.

The weekend you turned 5 months, you started playing "peekaboo." I had been playing peekaboo with you and they had been at daycare, too. That weekend, I would hear you laugh while sitting in your swing, and I would find that you put a blanket or toy in front of your face and you would laugh. I would ask "Where's Farrah?" and you would giggle while your face was covered. That weekend you also started using your hands more. You were helping me and Kylie hang Christmas lights in all our bedrooms and you started flapping your hands up and down on some garland I had across your lap. That evening while you were taking a bath, I would splash your hands in the water over and over, and finally you started doing it too! I was so excited and it was so adorable.

You don't like riding in the backseat by yourself. You are finding humor in things like me making faces, etc. I started using the ring sling for shopping trips and it has made a major difference. You are so patient and content while I shop.

Two days after you turned 5 months, we decided to try giving you rice cereal. I know, I know. I was totally against cereal. I had planned on solely doing BLW (baby led weaning) and that is still my plan from here on out. But we were desperate for an attempt to help you sleep better, plus you are so interested in foods. You love it. And you slept great that night, but not every night since then.

A week after starting cereal, your daddy fed you mashed up green beans and you loved them. You also tried applesauce but didn't seem as excited as the green beans. And you had a bite of mashed potatoes. You're going to be a good eater, I think. I think you would eat and eat as long as it's being offered to you. Your little lips remind me of a little birdie when you are waiting to nurse or take a bite of food.

We have since given you bananas and avocado. The first time you tried bananas, it would give you a chill each bite, which really cracked me up. But I tried again the next day and you loved it. You can't really grab onto the banana or avocados, though, due to them being slippery and messy. We finally got your high chair out and put together toward the end of your fifth month, when you started eating the real foods and I decided our couch/floor wouldn't be the ideal eating place any longer.

We've tried keeping you up later, but no matter what time you go to sleep, you wake up around 4:00am, then 5:00am. Toward the end of your fifth month, however, I finally decided to let you cry yourself back to sleep. Maybe that sounds too harsh. When you wake up crying at night, I go into your room, check on you, make sure the room temperature is comfortable, make sure you are not hurting, and I try giving you a pacifier and your lamb lovey, and then I quietly go back to bed. You, on the other hand, do not quietly go back to bed. You get very upset. But the times I have tried to hold you and rock you, you continue to cry, so I know I'm not doing you any good. Therefore, I am hoping you learn to self-soothe yourself back to sleep. After Christmas, you will have a star projecting night light and a lullaby lamb, so I am hoping with those sleeping aides, this task will be that much easier for you, and for me and your daddy, too. For the last couple weeks, I let you cry a little longer before checking on you, and two weeks later, you are only waking up seldom and usually you only let out a little whimper, and you resituate (I watch you on the video monitor) and quickly fall back asleep. It's kind of heavenly.

You are obsessed with our kitty. You breathe heavy and flap your arms when you see him. He makes you laugh and your eyes light up. He doesn't really want much to do with you, but sometimes he will come sniff you and walk off.

I love it when I'm holding you and you put your head on my shoulder or in the crook of my neck. It makes me excited for future hugs from you. I took a nap with you in our bed and I loved it so much. I loved waking up with you right next to me sleeping soundly.

You laugh and play by yourself sometimes and it cracks us up. You play with all of your toys, or anything near you, and you flap your arms when you're excited.

Some other things you do now is a raspberry spitting noise, a fake cough, burping on your own, laughing more, you are ticklish, you sleep with your butt in the air and your arms straight down by your sides or underneath you, and you breathe a little louder so it's easier to check on you when you're sleeping now.

I get the deepest feeling when I see ultrasound photos of you now. It takes me back to when I loved you so much but didn't yet know you. It's neat knowing now who that baby was in those black and white photos. The excited, new, proud mommy feeling returns, and I am reminded to relish each and every moment, each new stage, each new feeling and thought and experience.

Your daddy called you Boom Boom the other day and I thought it was so cute. Also, we were driving home from the Kwik Store the other day and we were listening to a comedy station on the radio and you were seriously laughing out loud each time the crowd laughed -- it was hilarious!

Your daycare teachers are Miss Amber and Miss Melody, and the director is Miss Nicky. Your current daycare friends are Sophia, Arry, Carson, and Darren. After Christmas, they are expecting three new babies, so soon you won't be the baby there anymore. This kind of makes your mommy sad. I like you being the baby! Miss Amber is great about sending me pictures of you!

I really wish I could pause time, but I also wouldn't want to miss anything ahead. I love every single day with you. I love it all. I wish I could figure out how to post videos of you on here, because the sound of your laugh is heartwarming. I love you, Farrah Brooks!