Half Birthday

To my Biggest Little One,

It's been six whole months since you joined us.  Thank you, by the way, for deciding on the 17th to come out.  You were getting pretty big and it was hot.  In some ways, I'm in denial that my baby boy is already half a year old.  In other ways, I feel like you've been here forever.  You've definitely changed my perspective on raising an infant in your baby career so far.  I had the misunderstanding that I was genetically predisposed to give birth to angel children that slept on command and stayed in quiet-alert mode during their waking hours.  You don't do either and have all but ensured you will likely never be a middle child.

Sleep is getting more appealing to you.  You're only waking up two times a night, on average, and don't fight too hard when it's nap time.  This after months of sleepless nights, pacing the floor and bouncing gently for hours on end.  And by hours, I don't mean 30 minutes that felt like hours.  I mean from 1:30 to 6 am, every.single.night.  Your dad and I were even taking shifts until very recently.  I'd get the first half of the night, and he'd soothe you until the sun came up and longer.  You're welcome.  Luckily, you have the best smile in the world and when you flash it, I forget how tired I am and smile back.  You're all gums and cheeks and even your eyes smile when you're happy.  It's delicious.

 Your favorite toy is whatever I'm holding.  It's important to you that I'm within your reach at all times which I secretly love, even if I act put-out by it sometimes.  I think it's important for you to bond with your other family members so I share you with them often, but I can feel your stare, even when I'm not looking right at you.  I am your security blanket and am totally cool with this.  And prepared to be your roommate in college because the attachment is mutual.  I love my little Becky.  Oh, and by the way, I apologize for such an unfortunate nickname.  We didn't think this one through when we named you.

At six months, Ben is your hero.  You watch him like a hawk all day and lose your mind with excitement if he decides to play with you.  You smile, giggle, and kick your legs with glee.  Ben adores this and imitates you, which turns into its own little game.  He loves taking care of you.  He helps me give you medicine in the morning and burps you after a meal.  He insists on helping you take a bath and rubs lotion into your skin afterward.  If you're playing quietly by yourself and he notices you, he approaches you and says "Hi baby!" and always kisses you, complete with a "muah!" sound.  This makes you squeal with delight and makes me happier than you'll ever know.  You two already share such a special bond, just like I envisioned when he would pet you in my belly and you'd kick back.

You are rolling over, starting to sit on your own, and trying so, so hard to crawl.  I said you'd do it by the end of your 5th month, but I'm quite sure it'll happen by the end of the 6th.  And that could be my bad because I've slacked off on tummy time recently.  You are grabbing anything in your reach and love to type on my keyboard.  In fact, you have an uncanny ability to pull up my html editor and change my toolbar settings.  Already a computer nerd, you fit in quite well here.

The last six months have been exciting, educational, challenging and a total love fest, all at once.  Every day gets less hard and more fun and makes me look forward to what's next.  I love you to the moon and back, Pookie.  Happy six months!

Love, Mama