Six months!

Oh how I wish this one were in better focus.

I have lots and lots and lots of photos like this.

She looks so big here, it makes my heart break.

I interrupted the toe-nomming party. (And look at those thighs!)

Always manage to get a pink fuzzy blanket-chewing shot.

*Melt*

Six months old already?! Wow.

The big thing lately has been sitting up. Julia will still topple over - and be shocked by it every time it happens - but she can generally sit up on her own for a few minutes. She likes being upright and will only be content laying down if she's tired. She does do this thing now where she'll very deliberately leeeaaaan over forward or to the sides. When we're holding her, it's really cute, but it's kind of embarassing when she does it in public and I put her in the grocery cart and then look over and she's awkwardly sideways in that little seat. She LOVES her jumper; we put her in it and she bounces like it's her job. Her hand coordination has gotten so much better now too. She can deliberately grab whatever she wants, bang things together with both hands, and manipulate objects really well.

No teeth yet; although I can feel the bottom two, they seem to be in no rush to move on in. She's still being nursed almost exclusively. We've been doing a small meal every few days, but I know it's time to make it a daily thing. We're not far enough into it to tell what she likes and dislikes, but I feel like she dislikes squash and likes avocado and peas. She just started sleeping entirely through the night; I'm not declaring "success" yet but I think we've largely dropped the 4:30 AM feed and now she goes 7-7. Her napping has also gotten much better: she has a morning nap and a midday nap that are both at least an hour long, and an early evening catnap. She can't stay awake for longer than about two and a half hours, but we're gradually moving to a more predictable schedule with longer awake stretches, and not a moment too soon.

Julia loves looking at new things, when I sing silly songs to her, being held up high and "flying," watching hockey on tv, and sitting on Daddy's shoulders for horsey rides. She's still a serious little girl, but by no means grumpy. She cries less than a minute a day, and only then when something's actually wrong (usually either she's tired or sleepy or spit up on herself). She does squawk in protest when I pull her diaper tight or pull her seatbelt tight, which cracks me up. She also does these squeals or screams when she's a little uncomfortable or when she's trying to engage us in conversation; she sounds like a little pterodactyl. She's not especially fond of books yet; right now they're just complicated chew toys. She does like the bath a lot more than she used to, and R says her splashing has crossed over from cute and adorable to kind of annoying, so she's totally got the hang of it.

She's really a lot more fun than she used to be. As she's gotten lower maintenance, physically, she's definitely ramped up mentally. It's tougher to keep her occupied and happy all day now that she has opinions and isn't shy about voicing them, but once in awhile I'll pick her up and she'll put her arms around my neck and everything in me just melts.  <3

I can't believe we're halfway to a year!