Last week was Winnie’s half birthday. SIX MONTHS OLD. It’s hard to believe half a year went by so quickly.
My Winnie bear is getting so big. Like, literally. I think she had a hundred growth spurts this month. And she’s a strong girl, pushing and shoving with her legs. Milestones are hard to predict, but I think Winnie might be our earliest crawler. She can already get up on her hands and knees and scoot a bit. Between her scooting, rolling, and stretching, she manages to move around our house pretty quickly.
Winnie mastered sitting this past month. One day she couldn’t sit and the next day she could. Shortly thereafter, she figured out how to get into sitting position all on her own. With Owen and Carmendy, learning to sit was a longer process and it took some time before they could control their balance to stay upright (this could be because both had large heads). Winnie had no trouble learning and balancing, and she’s so happy now that she can sit and look around.
I admit her new sitting skills make me a teeny tiny bit sad. She looks so big when I walk into her nursery and find her sitting up in her crib. The newborn and infant stages are fading fast.
But all the exercise she gets from her new abilities has made her a much better sleeper. PROGRESS is happening, people!! We’re still a long ways away from a good night of rest and even farther away from consecutive nights of good rest. But we’re getting there. Most days she even naps now. And it is amazing and glorious and makes me remember all that is good and holy in this world. I’m actually starting to believe that one day I may not have zombie-like dark eye circles.
Winnie looks nothing like me. She is pale. Really, really pale. Like vampire pale. I’m not sure what to do with a child this pale during summer months. Do I need to put sunscreen on her every time we go out??
Winnie’s hair is also much lighter (she’s nearly a ginger) than her parents’ and her siblings’. She looks like she has no eyebrows – another reason she looks completely different because Richard, Owen, Carmendy and me all have very dark and distinct eyebrows.
As she grows, her personality is developing. Our Winn is sweet, obsessed with chewing (no teeth yet), energetic, alert, nosy, curious, observant and playful. She’s a content and happy baby, although it’s hard to capture her smiles with my camera because she’s rarely still and rarely without something shoved in her mouth. Her voice is still unusually deep and low for a baby, and we joke that she sounds like Lauren Bacall.
Winnie Bear was not happy during her photos this month because she did not want to stay put. Somehow I managed to capture some shots before she rolled away:
Her urge to chew is strong.
Since she couldn’t control her compulsion to put everything in her mouth, we had to remove the sign and rainbow from our photo shoot. Undeterred, she entertained herself by blowing raspberries instead.
I tried to get her attention by acting like a lunatic. She did stare at me, looking concerned, for a few moments.
