6 months

It is extremely fun to have a baby in June - because more than likely, they will be fat, smiling, laughing and sitting all by Christmas time.

At 5.5 months, Ana girl started sitting up by herself. She also laughs, which started earlier than that. If you tickle her that'll usually work - but she differs from her older sister (whose default mode is crazy, laughing, screaming, loud) and is usually content just to beam at you the moment you say her name or talk to her. The girl, once bundled up, shushed and rocked back and forth usually falls asleep in 30 seconds flat. One of us will say, "i'm going to go put Ana down" and then we come back less than 5 minutes later. We are being spoiled by our perfect baby.

(Ana at 5.5 months)

 For Christmas, we got our baby girl a colorful rug to sit, lay and play on for our living room, which has a hard floor. We also got her solid food. (Literally - I stuffed her - actually my, b/c I'm not done making hers - stocking with an array of pureed goodies.) She likes it! Both on Christmas day and today she ate the whole little bowl I made. I've completely forgotten how to feed a baby anything but milk and right after I write this I'm going to read up on introducing solids. I keep looking at her in that high chair and thinking, "arent you too little to eat!?" but I guess not. In fact, she is really a giant. She busts out of 6 month clothing and has settled happily instead to her 9 month stash.

I try to think of the things we already knew about Zoe's personality at this age that are still true. Things likes craziness, laughing out loud, liking to have attention and be the center of things. I try to think about aspects of Ana that are likely to remain true, although that is a little hard at this point. She is, above all things, sweet. For her last round of shots she cried only after the second one and as soon as I picked her up she stopped crying and gave Lisa (the shot-giver) a big smile. (I thought Lisa might cry as I'm pretty sure that is not the reaction she usually gets from children she has just inoculated.) Ana is also gentle, a little "shy" (sometimes she'll give a big smile and then bury down in our shoulders) and easy-going. She is also quieter than Z, more content to watch and observe than always actively participate. She is, in a word, wonderful.