Monster is 6 months old

Dear Monster,

It's hard to believe that you are 6 months old today. It feels like just last week we were in the hospital waiting and waiting for you to arrive. Just as in life, you were stubborn before you were born too! Finally at 10:27 a.m. on Friday, October 14, 2011, you came into this world. You were such a cute, very alert baby with a full head of hair!! :) You still have all that hair and it gets longer every day. The back doesn't stick up as much as it did and we are learning how to style it. You get many compliments on how beautiful you are. And, you are just a very good looking kid. I would think so, coming from me and your daddy. :)

Big things that have happened in the last six months are many. You like to talk a lot but no real words just yet. I think it will happen soon. You got glasses in the beginning of April, the doctor says you probably won't have to wear them much more than a couple of months. They seem to help you focus on your world more and we think your vision will really take off from now on. You keep them on pretty well so far but when you get tired, you try to take them off so you can rub your eyes. It's pretty cute. You are just beginning to eat solid foods. You've had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, and peas. You don't seem to like any of them. I think you just need some more time and you'll figure it out sooner or later. We'll keep trying though. You have 4 or 5 bottles every day with 5-6 ounces. You take 2 or 3 naps during the day, usually longer in the late afternoon and short ones in the morning or at grandma's house. You got to bed at 7 p.m. every night and even though you might wake up a few times during the night, you are pretty content to just play in your crib until you fall back asleep. Very rarely do I need to come in and check on you, so thank you for letting me get a good night's sleep. You can roll over from back to front and front to back and you grab your feet many, many times a day. You are very strong. Whenever you are laying on your back you always have your feet off the ground and your head up as well. We call it you doing pilates. You are a pretty happy girl, really only crying when you are tired or super hungry. Sometimes you'll cry if daddy plays with you wrong. ;) At least you know what you like! You like to stand, jump, and look around. You laugh and smile a lot and sing along when music is playing or i sing to you. You love to be held by us and we love to hold you. Cuddling with you is one of my favorite things to do!

You are a pretty small girl, mostly in the bottom of the growth chart. 22 inches tall, 13 pounds. But that's okay. You'll just be a little cutie like mom. ;)  **Update 04/23/2012... You are 25.5 inches tall and 13.5 pounds according to 6-month checkup.**

You are wearing size 2 diapers and probably will be for awhile longer. You wear various sizes in your clothes, anywhere from newborn size leggings to 3-6 month onesies, and 6 month dresses. Most of the 6 month clothes are still too big for you but the 3 month are just a little too small. You hate to keep your socks on so grandma always has to keep putting them back on you. You go to grandma pat and grandpa tom's for daycare most days of the week while mom and dad are working. They love to have you around and you seem to like it there too.

One not so good thing that has happened is with your head size. At your 2-month checkup, the doctor noticed that your head was much smaller than it should be. It turns out that your anterior fontanel and metopic suture (the spots in your skull that allow for growth) had closed early. We were pretty worried that you may have to have surgery to open these back up but it turns out to be a wait and see kind of thing. So we're waiting and seeing if your head will grow and your development will continue to be normal. If not, I don't know what is going to happen but you seem to be doing really well to me!! :) I think you're just going to "have a small hat size" as the doctor would say.

adjusting to being a parent has not been easy and the first 2 months really sucked but I like it now and I wouldn't change it or you for anything. I love you baby, monster. :)

always and forever,
mama