6 months old

Things were so busy last month with the holidays and all, that I forgot to do my little monthly post for our dear Hazey. I realized over the weekend that she'll be SEVEN months old this coming week...so on Saturday I tossed her on our bed and took a handful of photos. I wanted to take her outside but it's been a bit chilly...so maybe next month she'll finally get some with a different background :) Wherever she is, though, she's pretty darn cute! Most importantly, she's as sweet as can be. Love this girl - and I can't believe she's already half way to her birthday! (I've already started brainstorming for her party!) Here she is with her green holiday headband and the surprise Santa left for her - a cute little fox. It was slightly challenging to get her to hold still for one second for a picture since she wanted to just crawl right over to me...or off the bed! But we did get a few...six months!

Hazel, at SIX months...

-You're just so squishy and chub-a-licious! "Now that is a breast-fed baby!" I've heard people say. I LOVE it! You smell so yummy and feel so...perfect. You are just how you should be!

-You had your first cold. It was sad to see you sick, but you were a great sport about it! You didn't seem to mind your runny nose and you slept right through most of your coughs. Well, I take that back...one night you DID mind. You had a night with scary croup and, though I've experienced it before both as a nanny and as a parent, this time it really scared me! And YOU! You couldn't breathe well and you started crying because you were scared, and it just broke my heart. Luckily, it went away after that first night - and I hope we never see it again!

-You had a WONDERFUL time celebrating your first Christmas! It was so fun to see the wonder and curiosity in your eyes (and hands)as you explored all you could and took in all of the lights and activities we did for our advent. You started crawling last month, but this month, baby, you were going FULL SPEED AHEAD! 

-You also learned how to sit up independently this month, so between sitting and crawling you were having all sorts of fun! It makes me smile to see you crawling around and getting into things! You look so little...but you know where you want to go - you love to go into your brother and sisters room and wade through the duplos and find things (we're lucky, so far we have NO toys that are too small to be dangerous, which is mind-easing for me!)

-Now that you sit up, you have joined your brother and sister for bath time a couple of times and you LOVE it! You've always loved your baths, but now that you can splash and swim and get all their fun bath toys, it's even better! Quite the party in the tubby at night! Daddy and I often get drenched :)

-You started solid food this month, and you've been loving it! I generally feed you breakfast and dinner and then you just do a lot of nursing in between. I think we might add lunch this next month. Oh, you also started practicing with your own sippy cup! I put a little water in it and it keeps you entertained as you carefully place your little hands and lift it. Just watch out below for when you toss it off your high chair tray!

-You still wear 3-6 months sized clothes :)

-You love lullabies, and classical music. Well, maybe it's just music in general, but you definitely loved listening to the Nutcracker Suite around Christmas - you even danced in our family's production of the Nutcracker - you were Marie and you did the Waltz of the Flowers with Mama.

-You draw people to you. Seriously. People are just drawn to you - I mean, most people are drawn to cute babies, but people even say "there is just something about her..." your eyes? your smile? your sweet disposition? I like to think you just bring out the best in people - what a wonderful trait! 

-Your brother and sister love that you can get in on the action, now that you're crawling and sitting and eating at the table with us and doing all sorts of fun things - like laughing at them. Sawyer will make himself fall off his chair at the dinner table over and over again just because he loves to make you laugh. You bring so much joy to our family - I can't even imagine our life without you in it. We are so lucky to have you, and we are so in love with you.

-The second part of the month, you started trying to pull yourself up onto things - anything that will work. We don't have a lot of furniture, so one of your favorite places to pull up is our dining room chairs, which can be tricky, but you're doing it. Sigh. Can you slow down just a little bit? A little?

-I kind of accidentally gave you the nickname "Hazey" so now your sister likes to call you Hazey, too :)

-Your eyes appear to be settling into a nice custom shade of Hazel.

-I think your hair is going to stay dark! It's so beautiful! Your sister's hair (if I recall) had already started lightening up by about this age (all of you were born with super dark hair) but if yours is still dark now, I'm thinking it might stay! When I look at your brunette hair and pretty defined eyebrows, I imagine dressing you up some Halloween as Audrey Hepburn, I'm not sure why. But I think it would be so fun, and you'd look stunning!

-So much more I could say...but the most important is simply: I love you. We love you. Everyone loves you! You're our beautiful, lovely Hazel Grace and the world is blessed and honored to have your presence here :)