A Year 1/2 Full....

Weight: 17.4 lbs (almost triple birthweight!!!)

Clothing Size: Sz 6-12mo

I can't believe it. Why is time flying so fast when all I want to do is slow it down? That's what I should've asked Santa for.

My baby girl is 6 months old already.

I've always thought of things in life in terms of time lapses. Such as..."last year on this very day I was on my way to Toronto for meetings" or "10 yrs ago, my new boyfriend was leaving for Texas A&M firefighting" (good thing we stuck it out cause now we're just a bunch of happy, shiny married people).

I'm doing my best to really be present in as many moments as possible so that I don't ever look back on this time and think "I wish I..." This is also something I'm going to have on my mind as I think about my goals for 2010 which I'm going to scribble down later tonight.

Well, my dear Chloe, this month has of course brought several new things and some cute pictures so here we go:

Sleep:

- you rub your eyes now when you're sleepy and I have about a 10 second window to get you to sleep or you're ready to play again!

- You now officially belly sleep but are doing a great job going from back to tummy in your sleep. I finally took down the hazardous bumper guards and replaced them with mesh ones. Not so cute but tres functional.

- While we're talking about sleep - I'm not getting any. So, I'd love it if you would go back to your nice little routine of 7pm - 6am with one wake up feed. Right now you're up every 3 hrs and I'm almost out of under eye concealer.

Eating:

- The most exciting news here is that we've started you on rice cereal....but you're not so loving that. I've already dedicated my life to breastfeeding you for at least a year so don't worry about going hungry. I still try you each day with cereal with the hopes that this extra little bit will get me 10 more minutes of sleep at night....and extra iron for you of course! You are getting a bit better each day at swallowing.

-You grip my arm so hard while I'm feeding you that I have little nicks all over! You are very gentle during your night feeds though and play with my face & hair.

- You continue to put everything in your mouth and gave gotten very good at grabbing things. I have gotten very good at remembering to move my extra large coffee mug.

Play:

-You now do this really cute slapping thing with your hands when you get really happy.

-You love blowing raspberries

-You love to be pulled from laying to standing and laugh every time!

-You like to talk in darthvadar voice

-Out of all your stuff - your thing to do is sit in your bumbo and chew away on all your toys!

And the not so exciting update is you got your first cold...and you & I have been passing it back and forth to each other for the last 3 weeks. Luckily it hasn't gone into your chest - just a stuffy nose.

Here's a few pics from this month:

Girls' dinner while Mr Swell is at work:

Out for a run on our last night in Florida:

I love how you always know when the camera's around:

Showering with Mr Swell (probably gonna get in trouble for posting this one!)

I love you peanut!