Six Month Letter

Dear Devon –

Today you turned 6 months old. While this may not feel like a big deal to you, it’s a huge deal to me and your dad. We did it. We brought you into this world and you are thriving and happy and we are (mostly) getting back to a new normal. Now if you could only learn to sleep better at night we’d be well on our way to that white picket fence American Dream thing.

June was a very busy month for us. We started out with the installation of Barb’s gardens and jumped right into a bunch of other events. Miss Theresa and Mr. Jon got married and you did a wonderful job hanging out with Nana that day. I’m really glad you were with us all day so that I continued to be able to wear my dress and breathe at the same time.

This month also brought about your first camping trip. You are all over being outside – like white on rice as Pearl would say. As soon as you get outside you get quiet and just look and look and look. We didn’t jump in 100% with this camping trip – we don’t have a tent big enough for a pack n play - so we rented a little camper cabin at a state park. This worked out well – you had a quiet and dark place to sleep and we could stay outside by the fire. Or, this would have worked out well if we hadn't been forced to take you to the bar in Faribault both nights because of the tornado warnings. As you will quickly learn, I HATE severe weather, so put me in a woods with my baby and sirens going off and I don’t hesitate. I scooped you up, swaddled and all and buckled you into the carseat and made everyone get in the truck and leave. At least it made for a good story. And you got your first au natural bath:

You had a couple of ‘firsts’ in June and in general I have started to notice some new things about you. On the day Theresa and Jon got married you popped through your First Tooth. This would explain a lot of the unhappiness of the week before. Sorry we didn’t get it. Now we know. And let me tell you, that tooth is SHARP. No more gnawing on mom’s fingers for fun. And when you are done eating, you are DONE.

We took the plunge and stopped swaddling you a week ago. The first two nights were awful but now you are doing fine. A trick for when you have your own kids – have daycare be the first ones to not swaddle for naps. They have more experience and then you the parent don’t have to pull your hair out as baby learns about sleeping with ARMS. EVERYWHERE.

You are still waking us up about 3-4 times a night, but you are sleeping from 7pm until 5am (or so). I’m not sure if you are lonely, scared, confused or what. If we could get you to sleep or put yourself back to sleep without the extra wake ups I think your dad and I would cry for joy. Ok, at least I would. I would probably also get a billion things done the next day since I’d have to much energy.

Being six months old that means you are about to explore the wonderful world of food. There are a few signs the experts say to look for to indicate when a baby is ready for solid foods:
1. Sitting up (check)2. Fascination with adults eating (give me back that cracker)
3. Being able to pull away when full (you start gnawing and we're done)
4. Seeming hungry even after a full feeding (must take after mama)

Well, you were hitting these so we decided to jump into solids. First on the menu – avocado. I think you liked the taste but this whole texture and chewing idea is far out there. We’ve since started rice cereal and peas and it’s not going great. We may hold off a week and try again to see if you are more into this. I highly recommend you get on the bandwagon so we can get some bacon into your repertoire. However, that may mean less for Dad and I…hmmm…

It’s swimming season of course so we took you to the Y for your first adventure in the pool with Maggie and Nick. As expected the pool is a huge hit. Kicking and splashing and eating the toy duck that floated past…soon we’ll start learning ‘yuck.’

You are becoming a cute little social butterfly. No stranger anxiety here – yet. You are happy to meet new people and easily share a smile. One of your favorite things right now is clapping. If you are crying and I start clapping you are instantly distracted and even start to laugh. However when I stop you remember what the problem was. I gotta find me a clapper toy I can wind up…

Speaking of toys, as any 6 month old is wont to do, you put everything in your mouth to explore it. We have a healthy number of toys around the house for you and I think that you are starting to get bored with them – as if you have already figured out what they are all about and are in need of some new stimulation. Let’s not make this a habit for the future ok?

My favorite new experience however was last night. I put you in your car seat (not buckled in) and we went out in the front yard to hang while I did a little weeding. You proceeded to turn yourself over in your car seat and then back out of it onto the grass. When all was said and done you were a good 12 inches from the car seat. That’s when the grass started to look tasty so I had to step in. The best part however is your friend Benjamin did this SAME thing to his parents the other day but they weren’t in the room at the

time and had no idea how he did it. You’ll have to work on keeping your secrets better, little man. Here you and Benji are trading ideas:


Happy 6 month birthday, munchkin.

Love,
Mama