Six months old!

Dear Katie Beth,

Six months - wow! I'm not nearly as emotional as I was when Ben turned six months, and I think that's for a couple of reasons: I know now that six months is still pretty little, and I also know all the fun developments that are just around the corner!

Regardless, you are getting to be such a big girl now.

Weight: 15 lbs, 1 oz (50%)

Length: 26 in (50%)

Head: (25%) We don't know where that came from, but consider yourself lucky!

Sitting up on your own...

...for a few seconds at a time - this was the best I got before catching your face in my hand. Once again, you showed off at your doctor's appointment by surprising me with this new trick!

Sleeping on your belly with lovey...

...you've slept this way for a while now during naps, but recently I've turned you over in the middle of the night since you're an efficient roller-over now. I also had to take out the bumper pad as you were really into finagling it over your head. Thank goodness for the video monitor! Not happy that your crib looks like a baby jail cell at the moment, but safety first.

Eating oatmeal...

"Uh, you've got a little something riiight there."

"I LOVE THIS STUFF!"

I decided to give you some food to try a couple of weeks ago when you didn't seem settled after your late-afternoon meal. As evident here, you tore right in...even got some in your mouth! (If my video camera would ever cooperate with the Mac, I'll get video up of the show you put on.) Since then we've experimented with some other veggies and fruit, but oatmeal is definitely your favorite at the moment.

Gettin' busy in the exersaucer...

...this thing keeps you entertained for significant periods of time. You love every little station, but the star must feel really good on those gums!

Bathing in the big tub with your bro...

...clean two kids with one bath? I'm all over it. And Ben likes to help by pouring water on your feet and sharing his squirt toys. You help too by showing him how not to cry when water is poured on your head. ;)

Speaking of you and Ben, your relationship just keeps getting more precious. Already at such a young age, you just seem to get each other. He looks at you and you laugh, then he laughs, and you laugh harder. You absolutely light up when you see him and he gets a kick out of you trying to grab his lovey or his hair or his thumb...if he's got it, you want it. Something else funny: if you stop nursing, he'll point to me and say, in babytalk, "Kay Beff, dhere's just a yittuhl more left!"

You've also found Zoe and are very interested in where's she heading when she passes by. But Zoe's never been very baby crazy, so you're adoration is pretty one sided.

As cute as you are, I won't lie - it's been a challenging month. Your reflux medicine seemed to stop helping as much as before, which left you uncomfortable and spitting up even more than before, which I never thought possible. This led to the end of your two weeks of sleeping from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m., and eventually brought back a 4:30 a.m. feeding - neither of us were very happy about that. But the screams you were sending out left little to interpret...I'm pretty sure if you knew some curse words, you would've used them to get me to feed you instead of poke in the paci. It is so hard to see you in pain and not be able to fix it. After a few different attempts at remedies, we've got a new angle to try starting in the morning, and I just pray that this will be the one to offer some relief.

Because, this is the face that we just love to see...

...you may be grandpa's, but you are also everyone else's sweetheart too.

It's been six months full of changes, and we are so touched and thankful to have such a beautiful, smiley little girl to show for it. Here's to the next six, can't wait to see what they hold in store.

I love you,

Mommy

PS - Six month picture outtakes...

"Can I eat it?!"

"Back off, I'm starving!"