Julia -- 6 months old

It's just about time that I write a little something about Julia, don't you think? Our baby turned 6 months old last Saturday. Can you believe it? I cannot.

Julia is a delightful girl and I like her a lot. She is generally pretty easy-going and smiles easily. She's quite content to just hang around as long as there is something to see. And by something to see, I mean just about anything that's moving. Now that she's older, she's also reaching and grabbing at the things that are moving around her.

She prefers to sit-up rather than play on the floor. It took her a while to learn to roll over. She can do it now, almost any time she wants to, and yet she mostly just stays put or spends the entire time on the floor trying desperately to transition from lying to seated position. That, she can't do on her own yet. She's almost sitting unassisted but is normally either in her Bumbo or on my lap or in the stroller.

Julia is extremely social. We'll see how it goes when she's older but I don't detect much shyness. And she likes action, to her detriment. It's tough getting her to sleep sometimes because she's so fascinated by the world around her. While, I don't get the sense that she finds all the excitement overstimulating it does prevent her from falling asleep sometimes. It seems like he's having so much fun that she just doesn't want to sleep.

Speaking of sleep, there hasn't been a lot of it. Julia can fall asleep on her own (some Mum's are impressed by her ability to fall asleep) but she just will not stay asleep. She usually wakes up after a 30 minute nap and is ready to go again. We've worked a lot on getting her to stay sleeping but our methods are failing us. The only really sure way to keep her sleeping for an hour or two during the day is to sleep beside her. Julia loves co-sleeping. She also prefers sleeping on her side with her donkey on her head. Don't ask why we know this. Nighttime isn't as bad since she'll sleep anywhere from 2 - 5 hour stretches. I guess because we're co-sleeping with her. I haven't figured out what the pattern is that increases the odds of getting a 5 hour stretch instead of a 2 hour stretch. I get a little grouchy sometimes over her not sleeping. It's hard to get anything done during the day if she won't nap. At the very least, when she's awake she's not too demanding or too clingy.

So, allow me to make a list of some of Julia's accomplishments and traits:
- Can hold a seated a position for about 30 seconds or so
- Holds onto fingers and stands on her feet
- Can roll over from front to back and from back to front
- Lights up when she sees me, her dad, or any friendly face but especially brightly for Clare
- She talks a lot. a lot. A LOT. For now, it's obviously just babble, but so so soon.. oh boy.
- Feeds herself rice cereal
- Does not like bananas or peas and is indifferent to apples
- Really likes to drink from a sippy cup already, even though she's only tried it a couple of times
- Loves to cuddle with her donkey
- Splashes in the bath and tries to put her face in the water and tips her head back to get her ears wet
- Has convinced our cats to let her pet them
- Gives hugs and kisses. Real ones. It's amazing
- When she is excited to see you, like when Rob comes home from work and she hasn't seen him all day, she smiles a huge smile and reaches her arms out for you to pick her up

The truth is that Julia has integrated seamlessly into our family. Clare adores her, she adores Clare. I guess we're kind of typical second time parents in how laid back we are this time. There aren't as many photos of Julia, not as many blog posts for her, and the time is passing by without too much notice of each of her 'milestones'. It seems less like moving from milestone to milestone and more just like a continuum. We're just sitting back and watching it all unfold.

Talk to you soon,

B.