Dear Damian,

Happy Half-Birthday! I’m secretly so excited that we’ve reached this point. I just LOVE this age and I wouldn’t mind if time slowed down right around now. You’ll be crawling any day now. You get up on all fours and scoot around on your belly but you haven’t quite figured out how to put them together yet. You try to pull yourself up on things because you just love being in the standing position. I can’t wait for you to be able to do this all on your own. Everything will be that much more fun. I know you’ll try to get into things you’re not supposed to, and that will be stressful, but it will still be fun.

You already try to grab everything you’re not supposed to grab. It’s hard for me to text, eat, and drink anything when I’m holding you now. When I walk by a kitchen counter, two chubby little hands reach out and a warm, squisy body contorts to try to grab anything within reach. Those hands… I could just eat them.

You’re eating everything now. Green beans and sweet potato are your favorites, but you’ll still happily eat squash, carrots, peas, apples, bananas, and pears. Feeding you is so much fun. You attack the spoon like a little bird. If I take to long between spoonfuls, you start whining. But you also let me know when you are done. You close your little mouth and give me the look. It’s so wonderful to have a good eater. I never got to experience any of this with your big sister because she just never cared that much for food.

You still love your sister more than ever. You watch her and smile at her constantly. Now that you’re more active, she’s more interested in you too. She’ll just sit and play with you sometimes. Those are some of the happiest moments of my life.

Things you love: You love the beach and the warm ocean. You love being in the water, period. You love food. You love toys. You love our walks. You love other babies.

Things you hate: You still hate your carseat. You also hate the seconds between swallowing and getting another bite of food.

You’re sleeping better than ever. You usually only wake up once, and you pulled your first 8+ hour stretch this month (though you never did it again). I’m looking forward to this stage we’re entering more than ever. Thank you for being my little six-month old. I love you to the moon.

Love,
Mama