Six Months of Avery

Dear Avery,

Today, you are six months old. Again, I can’t believe it. As I was thinking about this letter, I could not believe I would be writing your six month letter, I kept thinking my math had to be wrong. Somehow we’ve made it through half of your first year of life.

This month you have continued to show us more of your personality. You are LOUD. Most of the time you are happy and content, but over the past few weeks you have been vocalizing your displeasure very emphatically. You do not like to be ignored (or think you’re being ignored), you do not like to sit still, and you do not like it when your food is gone.

You have much more likes than dislikes, though. You adore your brother. He gets more laughs out of you than anyone else. You like to just watch him and listen to him. You’re probably laughing wondering how one person could have so much energy, and we wonder that, too. You are rolling so fast we have had a few instances where we actually could not keep up with you. We’re slowly succumbing to the reality that we just can’t leave you anywhere ever. Yesterday we moved the coffee table, rearranged the pillows to cover up a few edges, and let you roll around with a few toys. You have never been happier! You rolled from one end of the room to the other, throwing blocks and then recapturing them, for a solid hour. You also love food. I suspected that you were ready for food for a few weeks before we really started solids, and I could not have been more correct. You get so excited when you see the spoon. You love cereal, you like sweet potatoes and pears, and you are warming up to apples. Our biggest battle feeding you is to maintain control of the spoon and trying not to let you grab it and wrestle it in your mouth as soon as possible.

You have two teeth now. They broke through last week, and even though they’re not quite visible yet, we feel them when you chomp on our fingers. You’re sleeping better, minus a little rough patch last week. We spent two nights in a row up with you at hours when the whole world should be sleeping. It was like having a newborn all over again. I’m hoping it was those teeth and not a new trend. A few nights you’ve slept from your late night bottle to about 6am, which is glorious. We’re hoping for more of that.

I made one big change to our routine this month. Previously, I had been feeding you and then getting you ready for bed, but that was just too much for you. I think you were getting too tired and then you wouldn’t sleep, and since we were putting you down in your room with your brother, his wild antics were waking you up even more. We started getting you ready for bed and then feeding you and it’s made a huge difference. Now you fall asleep in my arms while I feed you. Those moments at the end of the day are some of my favorite. I love holding your sweet, cuddly, pajama-clad body while you drift off. It’s really the only time you’ll snuggle now, so I cherish those moments and draw it out a few extra minutes before I put you down. I will remember those moments forever.

So much love,

Mama