6 months!!

My baby is 6 months old today! Time surely goes by so fast and I am just trying to soak in every minute of this precious time with her. I am just enjoying every single moment! I feel like each phase of a child's life brings new excitement and feelings of anticipation and joy. But there just has to be something extra special about this stage. Each time I cradle her in my arms, and we look in each others eyes, I know a bond is forming that will never be broken. Whether its playtime or feeding time or bedtime, there is a special love and affection between us that only a mother and daughter can share.

Isn't it crazy how you can be so deeply in love with someone you've only known for 6 months!? Its a feeling beyond comparison and exceeds even my greatest expectations! I truly love being a mother. 

 So what is my 6 month old doing new these days?? Well, she is just so full of excitement. We love watching her make new discoveries and its so much fun seeing her learn and do new things. Each of her new little sounds or facial expressions or movements just makes us light up. Parenthood is so much fun!!  Kelsie is sitting up completely on her own now and is getting better keeping her balance and catching herself from falling. She is becoming more mobile, but moves backwards instead of forwards when she is trying to crawl. She reaches for everything, and with 2 hands. When she drops something, like her paci for instance, she will reach down, pick it up and put it back in her mouth. When she is tired, she kicks her leg repeatedly. haha.  Its like a little baby restless leg - so cute though! She is also starting to have a little separation anxiety and will cry when I leave her sight. Last Sunday we recognized this for the 1st time as Nathan was holding her. The 2 of us were playing with her and then I walked into the kitchen. She immediately started crying but when I came back in sight, she smiled. I then walked away and again she cried, came back, and she smiled. We repeated this several times just to see what she would do and every time was the same. Its also fun to see her get really excited and smile when I talk to her or walk over to her when she is playing by herself as to display her pleasure that I'm coming to play with her. Going for car rides is a new way of getting her to sleep when she gets fussy... and I have used way too much gas recently doing just that! She is wanting to go to bed earlier at night (around 6:30-7) but still wakes up around 3-4am regardless of what time she goes down.  She used to sleep through the night - like 8p-7a - I sure miss those days! Not sure what changed, but she hasn't done that in a while now. And that along with exclusively breastfeeding makes for one tired momma! We have given her rice cereal about 3-4 times now and gave her green peas for the first time tonight. She didn't seem to like the taste very much, and would make a "that's nasty" kind of face, yet she still kept opening her mouth and grabbing for more. She is growing up, oh so fast! And even more fun to come...