Six Months...

Leila is now 6-months old and honestly I have no idea where the time has gone.  It truly feels like 6 years ago that we brought her home from the hospital and I'm blaming that on lack of sleep.  At the same time, however, it feels like time has flown.   She and Gage are starting to bond a little more other than in conversations when Gage mentions something about her to someone.  All he has to do is race past her and she giggles at him, which is great because it prompts him to continue racing past her.  This, of course, equals attention for both of them.  

He is almost able to pronounce her name correctly now, too.  He has gone from wee-wah, to wheel-a, to Leeeee-la on certain occasions.  Totally cool!  He is doing better than most other people who know how to make the 'la' sound.  As teachers, we didn't want to give our kids weird-weird names or weird-weird spellings of normal names, but I guess we threw more people for a pronunciation loop than we intended.

At six months, the girl is definitely still not a tummy lover.  She arches and twists herself into a C position in order to turn and get things.  Anything but roll over.  Thankfully she has shown us on several occasions that she knows how.  She made that clear at her last doctor's visit when she nearly rolled off the table, even with two of us standing next to her.   (This also means that my bookshelves, cupboards, and all of Gage's little things are still safe as I have that chapter still to come.)  

She has also shown us that she knows what she likes and doesn't like.  For instance, she still likes her mother best of anyone--even if I do the exact same thing as someone else was trying to do for her.  She likes to eat everything that she shouldn't put into her mouth-- maps of the zoo, books, stickers, dirty socks... it doesn't matter.  (Why the above mentioned chapter still to come is going to be holy terror, I think)  She also likes to always be where the action is (total girl).  If she happens to fall asleep in her stroller, the naps don't last long and when she wakes up, she immediately goes into a high-squealed cry--as if she is just totally honked off that she may have missed out on something.  

She is almost 17 pounds, which amazes me.  I may not make them big, but I sure can nurse them.  We were at the lake this past weekend and she got to meet two other little girls born closely after she was born.  They will be lake-girls, too, so it was cute to see them all together.  It's crazy how quickly they change because these girls still looked like baby-babies and Ms. Leila looked like she might want to chomp on one of them for her next snack.  Again, she puts everything into her mouth... another girl's toes are fair game in Leila's world.

Leila is also gifted at making me look like a liar every time I leave the house with her.  The minute someone is near, talking or looking at her... or just near... she is all smiles and contentment.  The minute it's just me and the kids... she is all whine and cry about nearly everything.  So... as you can see, it's absolutely my job to train ole' Gage to race past her.  He's a "runner track" as he says, and I'm all for it:  happy kids and a track lover!  

The next 6 months means the first birthday... I absolutely cannot accept that!