5 and 6 Months

Dear Elliott,

This month you get two newsletters in one, because momma has been seriously busy lately. August went by fast, because we got to spend ten awesome days with your Auntie Nicki, who swears she taught you to roll over. Then I started trying to figure out packing our house, and before I knew it, August was already over and our house needed to be moved across town in three days. So we called some friends and they did most of the work for me. We moved into our new apartment and you got your own bedroom and have slept pretty well since that, and then your Grandma Peggy and Aunt Sissa came to visit us.

They did a lot of the unpacking for us and helped make our house look like our home in record time, because apparently they are physically incapable of sitting still. They are champions of getting stuff done, and one of these days I'm going to have to try to copy them so that I can keep up with you.

You started to get up on your hands and knees that week, and I had to fight the urge to tip you over so that you couldn't figure out that you were thisclose to figuring out how to crawl. Then I watched you practice every day, watched you turn red and start yelling at the toy that your fingers just couldn't quite grasp that got pushed further and further away from you, until one day I noticed you had developed a technique. You would get on all fours, wait a second, and then fall forward an inch or two, then repeat until you managed to get close enough to whatever you were going for that your flailing hands could knock it toward your mouth.

And so now, I guess, you are kind of a big boy. A six-month-old, who can get into the toybox and pull the dog's hair and charm people's socks off by grinning a big, gummy grin. And I have managed to survive the first six months of being a mother. I am learning the fine art of respecting nap- and bedtimes but being flexible enough to not become a total anti-social hermit. I am thinking of traditions that I want our family to have since Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all speeding our way. I am trying to figure out how to babyproof our apartment and have it still be a good place for adults to live, too.

While it is sad to see you outgrowing tee-tiny baby things and getting closer and closer to being independent and not needing me for everything, it is also pretty exciting to watch you growing and learning and opening up into a little boy.

Love, Momma