A half year already???

Dear Maya,

Well, you did it.  You turned 6 months old last Thursday.  We're all scratching our heads trying to figure out where the time went.  It seems like just yesterday we brought you home from the hospital.  We started off the celebration of your half birthday with a 'cake' made of oatmeal and banana with a paper 'candle' on top.

After daddy got home, we dressed you in your adorable birthday cupcake outfit from your great-grandparents and took some photos.  Later we had an important errand to run, and we missed your bedtime by 30 minutes.  We regretted it for a couple days until your usually easy transition to sleep was restored.

On Saturday we went to visit your great-grandparents and they had a surprise for you--a high chair!  You sat with us at the dinner table while we had our meal and ate your mashed banana like a pro.  Later your Great Aunt Sue and Great Uncle Carl stopped by, too, and you showed off your crawling skills for them.

Monday was the 4th of July and mommy had plans to dress you in some combination of red, white and blue and take you to the beach.  In the end, daddy was too busy and it was too hot.  In the early evening, though, we took you out for a nice walk on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail in your new stroller. It was cool and relaxing.

Lately it seems all we have to do is blink and you are doing something new.  You've taken a liking to any food we feed you, adding bananas, carrots and rice cereal to your repertoire this week.  You even take little sips of water from a cup.  Oh, and that ol' pulling up and standing thing?  You've got it down to a science now.

On top of the new high chair and stroller we inherited, another new item around the house is your baby gate/corral.  Mommy didn't expect to have to resort to this kind of thing so soon, but you are getting into everything!  You love to pull daddy's magazines out of the bookcase and 'paint' on them with spit up milk.  

Well, it's been an amazing half year with you, little girl.  Sometimes we wish we could freeze time and keep you this age forever, but then you do something new and funny and adorable and we realize how much we enjoy watching you grow.  We love you so much and can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring.