6 Month Newsletter

Dear My Little Love, Beatrix;
Today you are both 26 weeks old and 6 calander months old. It was so monumental to have both of these milestones on the same day, that we had to throw a party in your honour! You had a great time being held by all of your friends, but mostly I will use any reason to have a party in your honour. I think you're such a great little person that I have this desire to show you off whenever I can (and cooking for a big group of people is always amusing for me).
Your 6th month was a crazy one for you, full of pre-moving. (which is not a technical term at all, but works for us.) You are able to sit up supported, either leaning against a pillow or leaning forwards on your hands. I find that you are the happiest when you are sitting or standing and laying is no longer an option for you. You are still a champion stander and are getting more and more sturdy. Some days you are a little daredevil and you will just hang on to the ottoman or table with just one hand, opting to flail the other one around telling some outrageous story. (probably of how your daddy put a diaper on all haphazardly and you managed to get poo all over him.)
I think you are close to crawling (hense the pre- moving) you spin on your tummy when you are playing. It's like I've driven a stake through your back and out your belly button into the floor and you spin on it on the spot. It's really amusing to watch how you maneouver yourself. I can tell that you are getting fustrated and want so badly to be much more mobile, and for your own good I do my best to not always move a toy to you or you to the toy, just so you can practice being more mobile.
You've taken to your activity centre like a pro and can turn around in it really well. Your favourite toy on the activity centre is a noise maker which is a circle of 5 buttons. You've learned that if you pound on a button 4 times it will say the word in english, make the noise of the animal, say the word in spanish then sing the song. You love the songs, your face will light up when you finally make it sing. I've also been making your vibrating chair sing, just to see you glow with happiness from hearing the music. Often I will just make it sing and you will play somewhere else, not in the chair, but you do love the music. So far I've noticed that Twinkle Twinkle is your favourite song, followed closley by The Grand Ol' Duke of York. (complete with going up and down the hills.) If anyone were to sit outside of our house on any given day they would think I was crazy with how much singing I do to you, always really off key and often with crazy made up words to made up songs. Daddy has said in the past that I always have a strange soundtrack playing in my head and now having you has given me legitamate reason to unleash the soundtrack into the universe. Hopefully I haven't and won't have harmed you with my crazy songs, but rather will inspire you to love laungage like I do.
Just before your 6 month birthday I broke down and introduced solids to you. Your first food was frozen wild blueberries and they were a big hit. I gave them to you in a little mesh bag and you devoured them once you figured out how to work the bag. Your second food was avacado, and I just gave you a quarter of a whole avacado and let you "bite" off pieces yourself. It was really interesting to watch you bite a piece, move it around in your mouth and then spit it out. I know that some people wouldn't agree with me skipping all of the purreed and strained foods and letting you go straight to chunks, but it makes sense to me. And you haven't choked at all. If a piece of food is too big for you to deal with, you spit it out, then I will break it up and give you the smaller pieces. I am doing this based on some research I've done on self feeding and it's so facinating to me to see how you naturally know what to do with food and know instinctivly not to choke. The article said that you would naturally move the food forwards in your mouth, not back, and you do. So at this time, you are experimenting with food, playing with it, tasting it and mostly spitting it out. If you swallow some, great, if not, I am okay with it. Mostly I want you to have a healthy relationship with food. I want you to eat when you are hungry and know what your body is saying, so to that end I won't push you. I'll follow what you want and I will never give you the same serving over and over until you eat it. More than anything I want you to love fruits and vegetables, and your Daddy promises to help me to cultivate that love into you, even though he hates veggies himself.
Trixie I am so excited to see what the next month brings, but I mourn as well, for my little baby who is growing up so fast and becoming so independant. I long for the days when I would just hold you all day and stare at your beautiful face, whereas now you aren't as cuddly and would much rather be on the go. I still stare at your beautiful face, trying to make out what you will look like when you are older, and noticing how much it has changed already.