Happy Half-Year, Melody!

Excuse me? Are we at six months already? Where did it go. Seems like I hardly remember a thing, and yet I remember every second. If that makes sense at all.

But looking at my girl at six months, my heart is full. She's beautiful, smart, funny---the girl of my dreams! Here she is...
What a munchkin, huh? She's about 16.5 lbs. As you can see, she got her ears pierced! Mom and I took her to get it done just before Thanksgiving. Nov. 23 to be exact. She's officially a girl now.
That face. It kills me. Her eyes? They really kill everyone. In certain sunlight they actually look crystal.
Aaand look who's sitting! My hippie. She is going for longer and longer stretches--at most, a couple of minutes--before toppling over. She started really sitting about 2 or 3 weeks ago. She has excellent control on her belly, and is even beginning to explore the notion of getting onto her knees.

See the drool on her shirt? Yep, that's from nonstop teething. I said a month ago the teeth would come any day...I was wrong. Looks like she just may get her two front teeth for Christmas (and that's all she wants, cuz then she'd finally whistle).

Melody continues to adore Theo. That's who has her smiling in that last photo. She also loves her baby friends. The moms take turns hosting, and last night I had 14 people in my living room. Albeit half of them were babies, but they count as people. It's amazing how animated she gets around them. They really love spending time together. (And the moms love watching them play as we drank spiked eggnog.)

She's been eating solid food every other day, but she still has the tongue thrusting reflex and makes a huge mess. That will subside soon, which will make us both happy. She wants the food so, so badly! She just needs to figure out how to get it! Now that she's six months, the official "proper" time to get her eating, I'll feed her more regularly. So far she likes avocado, banana, apple, and rice cereal. For some reason she rejected sweet potato, which was Theo's first food that he loved. Guess she wants to be her own chick.

As for toys, she loves her playmat with the toys hanging down, her teether toys, and pushing Theo's cars. She still absolutely adores books and music. I mean, she's really a typical baby there. Her favorite toy is probably a human face. She loves to touch faces. And pet the cats, who have become such good sports they both deserve a medal.

At Thanksgiving she was just full of "da da da's"! She also has the ga ga ga sound. Though she mostly just squeals her head off these days. She's starting to discover blowing bubbles, too.

Melody went on the swings today for the first time! She absolutely loved it! We were with friends. Imagine four babies swinging in a row. It doesn't get much cuter.

She loves the lights of her first Christmas tree. We all are basking in the magic of the season. It's really the best time to have a lovely little family as I do, and I'm fortunate. Now on to enjoy the next half year!