Collins: 6 months

Dear Collins,
At six months...

• You are in the 5th percentile for weight (14.4lbs) and 10th percentile for height. Big cheeks but small mostly everywhere else!
• You wear 3-6 month clothes (barely) and size 3 diapers
• You have recently started being ticklish
• You generally wake up around 6:30-7 and then take a nap around 9 and another nap around 1-2. You wake up around 3:30 and then stay awake until bedtime around 6:30-7.
• You still sleep in your swing at night and for naps
• You eat baby food twice a day, almost exclusively fruits. Your favorites are apple and pear.
• When I feed you you try to grab the spoon and play with it. You also like to put your fingers in your mouth while eating, definitely a messy baby!
• When I'm making you a bottle you will open your mouth and start kicking your legs from excitement
• You sleep swaddled and in your swing for naptime and even for a lot of night time. It seems like when you lay flat in the crib your reflux bothers you a lot more and you wake up 3-5 times a night.
• You have been sick the last couple of weeks with a cold/cough and it's been HORRIBLE. You take hours to finally get down at night (we're usually fighting you from 7-11) and wake up fussy a couple times at night and get a bottle and ibuprofen. You wake up early (6 or so) and take both your naps, but we have to go put your paci in multiple times each nap.
• You like to sit in the jumper and look out the window, especially if Titus and Haddie are outside playing.
• You have starting wanting to sit up a lot more. You still can't do it without help but you're getting much stronger.
• When we go to the gym you don't ever want to nap in childcare but they say you're generally happy, especially when you can watch the big kids play
• You are constantly chewing on your hands, toys, clothes, whatever you can grab. I keep thinking you'll pop a tooth any day, but so far, nothing!
• You roll over both ways but you hate to be on your stomach.
• When you are really happy and excited you open you mouth and then eventually shove your hand in it, like you just can't take the excitement anymore.

When I give you a bottle you like to reach up and touch my face, it's my favorite thing about you right now. Sometimes you even stop drinking so you can catch my eye and smile at me while you stroke my cheek. I know you can't help being sick and fussy, but it's been a really hard month, so little moments like this remind me how helpless you are and how much you really do love me. When you hear my voice or see me after I've been gone, your arms and legs start pumping and you get a huge smile on your face. You kind of like Daddy, too, just not as much as me :) I love you, baby girl!