Six months and one day ago, I was still a pregnant lady who could (in theory) sleep as late as I wanted, go to bed when I wanted, take a shower in complete privacy, watch every single episode of Arrested Development in one sitting on a whim, and get more done in one day than I can often get done in the space of one week these days. And do you know what? My life is about a bajillion times better now. This little girl has made me sing for my supper, but it turns out that when you have to work – really work – you feel pretty dang amazing at the end of the day. She has taught me to appreciate the tiniest little things in life as miracles. I can so see now why new parents constantly feel like their babies are geniuses. When you see a child grow from being a tiny sack of crying sugar in their first days to actually being able to move around on their bellies, you know that it’s a big freaking deal. She highlights every moment – even if she’s screaming – as the most special time I can imagine simply because she exists.
She’s pretty much the most adorable child in the history of the world.
Teeth have been happening. Last night, Miss C was gnawing on B’s finger when he let out an “ouch!” and followed it with a “no I mean really. OUCH.” I scurried over to pry open her mouth, and there I found a tiny white dot on her lower jaw. I squealed with delight at the prospect of my growing baby sprouting teeth and she was terrified at my squeal and promptly wept as if the news that Elmo had just been hit by a bus was trending. I have got to learn to keep the volume down.
Also, solid food is happening. FYI, “solid foods” is such a misnomer. There is nothing solid about cold pureed squash. So let’s just call it “human food.” She has been eating rice cereal for dinner for the past three weeks, and last week we started her on human food at lunch too. So far she has tried squash and avocado, both of which she likes. Not overwhelmingly so, but she has yet to reject the food, and I’ll take that.
She played, then she passed out. Extra points if you can spot the baby.
Her naps are becoming more consistent, although I know that now that I’ve said that she will likely go on strike and refuse to sleep for a week. It finally dawned on me that when she doesn’t nap well, it’s because she’s either 1, teething or 2, going through a growth spurt. I am so dense sometimes that it kills me. I console myself with the thought that I lit-rally have no idea what I’m doing as a parent and that I don’t have any family in town to help me. The learning curve is steep, but I’m not going to throw in the towel just yet on learning to be a parent whilst she learns to be a human.
She keeps a-rolling and a-rolling but hasn’t yet sat up completely unassisted yet. Interestingly, though, she has skipped ahead to what I like to call “pre-crawling.” On her stomach, she moves her legs and arms back and forth like she’s swimming and she gets super frustrated when she doesn’t go anywhere. It won’t be long, and she can take her sweet time as far as I’m concerned because I’m not ready to babyproof the apartment just yet. I’ve gotta finish making her Halloween costume. Priorities: I’ve got ’em.
On the move
The more she does, the harder it is for me to re-calibrate my own life. Luckily, I’m finding it easier and easier to just give up control for five minutes and hand her off to B on the weekends and ask him for help when I need it. We got in a rut for awhile when I felt bad asking him for help and he didn’t really offer it because he thought I had everything under control because I never asked for help. But I’m getting more comfortable requesting assistance and resisting the urge to tell him he’s doing something “wrong” when he bathes her or feeds her. Of course, they get along famously. He can make her laugh in ways that I simply can’t. And he’s much, much better at coming up with new and interesting ways to entertain her, likely because he’s not here with her 80% of the time so he sees her with fresh eyes. I don’t know what I’d do without him. Actually, I do know: I’d be a crappy mom.
I know I’m biased but dear lawd my baby is beautiful.
So the sixth month. Happy half birthday to my precious Miss C! The love I have for her is just more than I can describe in a blog post. My life now is admittedly a lot harder than the one I had six months and one day ago, but I wouldn’t change it for all the tea in China. Or England. Or India. Or wherever they have good tea. She’s about 43,827,543,956 times better, easily.
The Waiting 
Awwww -she is a beautiful baby – there’s no denying it – HAPPY 1/2 BIRTHDAY LITTLE LADY!!
Thanks, Denise! We will be celebrating with homemade chocolate biscotti (her dad and me, that is; she just gets some rice cereal, poor kid.)
Soon enough she’ll be gummin’ the biscotti…
Nothing can compare, can it? What a gorgeous little baby doll. :)
Thanks, Carrie! And to answer your question, nope, nothing compares :)
That is one pretty behbeh!!! And thank you so much for writing this and reminding me that my teenagers were once these darling little miracles. I’m getting all teary for you! Does she have an exersaucer? Those things were new when I had kids and now I think they actually fly.
Thanks! We don’t have an exersaucer because she has about 9,000 toys already and our apartment can only hold so many, but those things look so cool. They now for sure come with a place for your baby to hold their iPads.
What the heck, it’s your little bundle of joy’s 6 month, someone else I know kid’s 8 month, and someone’s dog’s 1 year. I must say this is very efficient getting things done on the first of the month by y’all.
Do you ever eat any of the baby food? Doesn’t it look delicious sometimes before you smell it?
Very good question. I have eaten a bit of her avocado because – well – it’s avocado and it’s delicious. But the rest of it is pretty gross. Even though I make all her baby food (except her rice cereal) myself, it just loses all of its appeal the moment it gets mashed up.
Let me tell you, Emily, bias or no bias, that child is gorgeous! Seriously beautiful.
You’re not alone in feeling dense – that will pretty much stay with you until she’s, let’s see, well, actually, it never goes away. No one will ever make you feel more dense than your own children. But it’s a happy kind of dense, yeah, that’s the ticket! haha!
Great post, Emily. I can never get enough Miss C.
xox
Thanks, Lisa! Yeah, I’m on like a four month delay on getting what’s going on with her. It takes awhile for me to notice patterns in her behavior, especially if they are really slow in coming. Thank goodness babies are extremely resilient.
Happy half-Birthday, Miss C!!
V is on a birthday kick, so we will celebrate yours today (and Chihuahua’s, again).
Ha! Kinda cool that even little girls in Canada are celebrating along with us!
They made a toothpaste-green cake!
Happy half birthday! She is beautiful!
Thank you! I made some chocolate biscotti to celebrate.
Wow! You are right, she is one heck of a cute baby!! :-)
Thanks! That’s really nice of you to say.
Ok, I’m totally against that Toddlers and Tiaras crap, but Little Miss C would beat the tiara off of any of those snots. She’s so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttte!!
I like to think that if I ever put her in one of those pageants, she would totally Surely Funke it up.
You and B & BeBe C make my heart skip a beat ! And she is the most beautiful in all the world….
She loves you so much!
Ahhh, she is so cute! I know I say that all the time, but it’s true. And worth repeating incessantly!
Thanks, Besfrinn! And I know I say this all the time, but I can’t wait for you to finally meet her!
Oh my goodness she is super duper adorable! A tooth? That is really exciting! Unless she bites while you nurse. And “solid” food is very entertaining. I love to watch my little ones face when we introduce a new food. They are just too much fun.
Ha! I am kind of throwing in the towel with nursing proper. She nurses for about 10 minutes for her first feed in the morning but soon gets exasperated with the slowness of it, so I just pump throughout the day. Kind of a hassle, but it beats getting chomped on.
Yes, I would pump any day over getting bitten but I just cannot seem to find time to do it! This kiddo demands way too much attention for me to have time to pump. I am impressed that you are able to pump once a day let alone multiple times!
She really is beautiful. You’re not biased, it’s just the truth.
Aw, thanks :D I’m glad I’m not completely delusional.
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Cee!
So cute. I almost want you to post a pic of some spit-up (or worse) sos I’m not lulled into thinking parenting is all long eyelashes and cheeky grins.
Almost.
Trust me, we have about a thousand of those too. Thank God she’s kind of growing out of the spittup age, but that only means that she’s eating solids, which means that her diapers are now truly frightening.
yummy.
So cute. I’m thinking of filing an injunction because her face is almost too cute to handle. It just gets better and better. My son constantly asks me “Momma, sing _____” and he comes up with some subject–traffic barrels, cookie, police car. And I sing it to the tune of “Car Wash” while he dances. It’s freakin’ awesome.
I really can’t wait until she can talk! Then I can ask her why she is so terrified when I put a new trash bag in the trash can. There’s gotta be a valid explanation.
Boom, giant baby face! Love it!
What is she going to be for halloween??
I will email you…keeping it a secret on the blog until closer to the big day.
Such a sweet post. And she is beautiful. Happy half birthday to her! When I see babies now I get all weepy. I miss those days. Guess I’ll have to wait to be a grandma…
I am already nostalgic for when she was a newborn! It’s amazing how quickly you forget those sleepless months and raging hormones.
Congratulations on 6 months! She’s totally adorable!
Thanks! Y’all are gonna be here in about a blink.
She is uber beautiful.. thanks for sharing her!
It is my pleasure! She insists that I plaster her all over the Internet. And by “insists” I mean she blows spit bubbles. Same thing, right?
She is adorable! YAY 6 months!
Thanks! Y’all are getting close to that one year mark. So crazy!
Oh no. Who let this baby get to be six months old??? Words. They’re not far off. Many kisses for your darling sweetheart. You and B. also.
I know! I have to admit that I’m pretty impressed that we’ve been able to keep her alive for this long. I can’t wait until she can talk!
It shouldn’t be long!
She is pretty darn cute – and look at those eyelashes! Oh, the eyelashes.
Thanks! She gets those from her dad. He has uber long lashes. I’m kind of jealous of both of them.
I would be too! My mom has always noticed eyelashes, and now I do the same.
Even a non-breeder like me can tell that Miss C is one adorable little bundle and in only another 204 months, she’ll be in college.
Thanks! The idea of her going to college is great and terrifying at the same time. I think of some of the truly insane things I did in my college days and I can’t fathom that someday she’ll be in the same situation.
By the time Miss C’s in college I’m sure the ante will have been upped and what was considered truly insane in your day might seem quaint in hers. My best friend from college, who I did a number of 70s-era insane antics with, reached the crushing realization that her kids (now aged 20 and 23) cannot believe she was ever cool. When she revealed some of the idiotic things we did together, they don’t believe her. Ironically, they think I probably did those things myself because I’m gay (worth about a million cool points) and I live in NYC (tack on a billion more cool points). It kills her that her kids think I’m hip and she’s not.
She is absolutely gorgeous! You’re getting into the really fun part of the first year. You’re going to be amazed by all of the things she learns and does in the next few months. It’s like suddenly they just zoom forward and make all of these huge developments. So exciting!
The food thing has been a huge adjustment in and of itself. Like, six weeks ago she was just drinking bottles and boob and now she has a little palate. And by “little” I mean ginormous. She gets her mom’s appetite.
Oh my gosh! She is sooooo super cute! Can you believe it has been six months!? I feel like just yesterday I was reading your blog for the first time and totally identifying with all the pregnancy woes! Happy half birthday, Miss C!!!
I totally can’t believe it. Those days blogging about my pregnancy seem like a lifetime ago. It’s so weird and wonderful to be on the other side, wouldn’t you say?
weird and wonderful indeed! Having an actual baby is WAY more fun than being pregnant. Holy cow…
Happy half birthday, Wee C! Those eyes! Those cheeks!