Dear Summer: 6 Months

Dear Dear Summer,

      You have lived long enough that I have already started to forget things about you.  For instance, I can remember the words I would have used had I written this post back when I meant to, like at 4, 5 and 6 months of age.  But I can no longer remember that baby.  You're just so amazing, that your current accomplishments are constantly trumping what you did a few months ago.  You are a person, and you are changing and no matter how hard I try, you cannot remain the tiny baby that you are and that I want to keep you as. 

When you turned 4 months old is when I started this post.  I had the words in my head for a long time and they were going to start like this:  Dear Summer, You are the most wiggly baby I know!  Because that was the one most outstanding thing about you.  You spent more time wiggling than anything else (including sleeping).  Everyone around me finally understood what all the complaints where about when you were waiting to be born.  You simply did not stop moving when I was pregnant with you.  You moved so much and in such a way that when people asked what I was having, I told them I was having an octopus.  You moved so much that I would lay awake at night (curled up on the floor) sobbing.  It was a slow form of torture.

So when you were born, and immediately, all the people close to us finally understood that you were a baby clearly on a mission to get somewhere.

At 6 months wrote this about you:  It is not clear yet just what your mission is, but as of a couple weeks ago, you are one step closer to accomplishing it because you have started crawling.  Now I know that your brother also crawled at the same age as you, and Sabine was crawling right at six months, but for some reason you just look so funny going all about the floor and your hands and knees.  Maybe because you're just so teensy.  Like your brother and sister, you are a peanut, but I think you may be the teensiest of  my babies.

Then  I stalled out with a combination of writers' block and an inability to garner 5 minutes to myself.  So I wrote a bunch of notes that I hoped would help me to remember the things I wanted to write about when the mood struck me and I learned the secret to stopping time.  So these aren't going to make sense to anyone else, and I can only hope that in the future I can decode them enough to remember what I was getting at, so, in all their unedited glory, here are some of your 6 month notes:

Your most favorite thing in the world to play with is paper.
Up until now you hadn't really tried to mouth anything.


crawling like a maniac.


you are a rip - last night in bed you were awake for an hour while Daddy and I just laid there 'playing dead'.  this is so hard to do because you are so cute, but you were making that blowing noise that you do with your mouth and smacking Daddy in the face and generally just trying to get his attention.  Then you came over to me and tried out all your moves.


You love being around people.  Some of your crankiest days are the ones where it's just you and me at home.


You love to nurse and only nurse, you will not take a bottle.


They say that a baby's cry is biologically designed to be just annoying enough to make the parents want to take actions to stop it, not run in the other direction.  Well, my dear, you sound like a dying cat when you cry and you sure are lucky Nature made you cute because otherwise...


spit up machine!


runny left eye


fresh milk demands


love paper


song to go to sleep


crawling, pulling up to standing


loon call, hawk cry

So now you are going on 7 months (in 6 days) and I have come back to the computer, with my tail between my legs, to finish this letter.  Having three kids is really hard.  It is not like having two was.  The ante has been upped and your father and I are experiences the consequences.  But we are also having a grand time.  You are such a fun baby.  Your face lights up when you see us come into the room.  You love your brother and sister.  Jacob takes care of you just like you were his own kid.  Sabine tells me all the time how much she loves her baby sister.

Daddy and I talk about how you're a combination of Jacob and Sabine.  You look just like Jacob, but you have the same body as Sabine.  And as far as personality characteristics, you're all a lot like each other.  You're a tiny peanut like them (13 pounds at 6 months), yet full of energy and movement.  You're active and happy and a really bad sleeper (but that is your parents fault, most likely).  You love playing in bed with us when you wake up in the morning.  You love nursing and being held.  You hate your carseat and you hate being changed - whether it's clothing or just a diaper, you do not like to be still and we have to hold you down.  You kick your legs like you just discovered them.  You like grabbing things with your hands and then shaking them around.  Things that make noise are fun for you.  You've just started making some "dadada" babbles.  And you are a people watcher.  MamMa calls you nosy little baby.

I could go on and on, but since you're asleep on my chest in the Moby wrap and I want to go to bed with you, I'll just leave at this:  I love babies so much and I am having so much fun with you; everybody is.  There are so many people who love you and we're going to have a fantastic time watching you become who you will be.  I didn't know I was waiting for you, but now that you're here, I realize our family is complete.

Love,

Mommy