6 months today

Dear Naomi,
Today you turned 6 months old. When I left for work this morning, you were fast asleep and barely flinched when I cam in to say goodbye. I can’t believe how much you’ve grown this past month. It’s simply amazing to see how much you learn everyday, but to be honest it’s a little bittersweet to think about how quickly you’re changing. You’re no longer my squishy marshmallow. You don’t turn bright red anymore when you get angry. You don’t like to fall asleep on my chest anymore. But I love how you’re strong enough to grab your own toes. How you’re fascinated by your hands and could just stare at them for minutes, which in baby time is like an eternity! You’ve finally accepted the bottle and started drinking over 6oz at a time, a huge amount considering when I first started work we’d be lucky if you drank 2oz. You’ve learned how to roll over in both directions, so I can’t call you my little Zoolander anymore, but you still scream on the occasion that you get stuck mid roll. I love how when I come home after work, you stare at me for a minute, giving me a once over, then you realize who I am and give me that huge, gummy smile of yours. The past couple of days, you’ve started crying after I came home and went to the bathroom instead of coming to get you from grandma right away….probably not a good sign of things to come, but I’m glad you know it’s me even though I hardly see you during the day. You started eating rice cereal this month; so far it hasn’t been a huge success. You’re only eating about 1 tablespoon a day, and most of it comes back out. Every time you eat, you make a face as if to say, “YUCK I’d rather have fried chicken”, then you try and gag yourself so you’ll throw it up, luckily so far you’ve been unsuccessful.

You’ve also found your voice this month, you’ve always been somewhat of a quiet baby. Sometimes your dad and I say how we often forget there’s a baby in the house! But last night when we were getting ready for bed, you just chatted away. Blah blah blah blah you said. It was cute. Not only do you “talk” a lot, you’ve started screaming. Screaming sometimes because you’re angry that you’re cold, but often times because you’re happy!!!?. In fact, at first I was worried that you were upset or uncomfortable, but then I looked at you, you were SMILING while you were screaming. We tried to take you into the city to go to the Union Square Holiday market and Rockefeller to view the Christmas Tree. While we were at Union Square, you just kept screaming and screaming. We thought maybe you were cold, so we headed to Rockefeller. But in the subway, you were still screaming. Screaming mind you, not crying. Everyone was staring at us, looking at you screaming, and then laughing. To be fair, you were quite a sight, strapped to your dad’s chest wearing the puffiest snowsuit with your arms sticking straight out, screaming so loudly with a big smile on your face. Needless to say, your dad and I weren’t brave enough to trek up to midtown with a screaming baby, so we decide to go home. I’m happy you found your voice, but maybe you can learn to happily coo instead of happily scream.
You’re sleeping through the night for the most part, although, now that you’re rolling, you’ve been waking up in the middle of the nights, crying because your legs, arms, and on occasion your face, have been caught against your crib rails. It’s a little annoying to have to wake up and move you, especially since sometimes you roll right back and get stuck again and yell just as I’ve gotten back into bed. But I don’t mind, sleep is for the weak anyway.
I started work full time this month. I think I spend a majority of my days thinking about you. A friend of mine told me you’d appreciate it and think I was cool for being a working mom once you grew up. I hope he’s right. Why’d you have to be born in the worst recession since the great depression!?? Ok that’s not your fault really…
Anyway – happy 6 months. Can’t wait to get home today. We’re going to try feeding you a banana. You’ll probably like it better than rice cereal cause I’m guessing you take after me and have a huge sweet tooth (actually I already know you do cause I let you lick my chocolate popsicle and you loved it, shh don’t tell dad.)

Love, me