The boy!

My baby is six months old!!!!!  

No, I'm not kidding!  Yes, it does feel like he was just born!  I think back over the last six months and feel like it has gone by in about a week but when I think of a specific memory, like our first night home with him, it feels like it was a million years ago.  It's such an odd sensation to remember your children's lives in vivid detail note that I can't ever remember where my keys are and at the same time feel like it has gone by and you haven't soaked them up enough.  I feel like I was just battling learning how to breastfeed thinking that solid foods were as far away as college.....yet, here we are.  My boy is eating foods and eating them like he has been doing so all his life. Actually he took the first bite, grabbed the spoon and shoved it back in his mouth then proceeded to look at me like "HOW have you been keeping this from me all this time woman!?" 

He is changing a little more every day.  Every morning I swear he is bigger than when I put him to bed.  His laugh is contagious and makes parts of my heart sing that I didn't know were there until he opened the door to them.  He is content and calm like his Papa and Daddy all while making the same serious face.  Note to self, find a picture of my dad making the same face and post here.  Hey dad!  Remember all those times you embarrassed me at the mall? .... Kind of regretting it now that your daughter found her voice on a public blog?  Bwahahahaha!  

By the way, that's the face my dad is making as that realization sinks in.  ;)

Bennett is such a snuggler and I LOVE it.  He is independent and plays on the floor or in a seat while I tend to things that need to get done but he also loves to sit up checking the world out from the perch of someone's knee or the crook of my arm.  

He is an excellent napper taking 2-3 good, hour or more naps a day.  He then sleeps from about 7pm to 5am (wakes to eat) then back out until 6:30 or 7am.  I get called to put his paci in once or twice sometimes but I don't have to stay up for that.

As of five months ish he has been rolling over both ways, although much more from tummy to back.  

 

He is tripod sitting and actually staying up as of TODAY!  He knows how to get my attention and laughs so hard when it works.  He makes me cry with relief when I think of how close we both came to having a much different outcome at the beginning of his life. Click here for that story. He can melt my heart with one of his little smirks and calm my nerves as he reaches up and holds my cheeks. 

Before we got pregnant with him I had such a hard time picturing our family with a boy in it.  I would try my hardest to imagine it but just couldn't.  As soon as I got pregnant I KNEW he was a boy.  I was so excited but I still couldn't quite picture how it all would look/feel.  It has only been six months but I already wouldn't recognize our family without him.  He has affectionately become known as " the boy" or just "boy" in our house.  Not kidding, that is his honest to god knick name.  Sorry boy....see?  The girls love him and instinctively know how to make him laugh.  Alyssa can calm him even when I can't. They were all meant to be siblings and it is amazing to watch.  I feel like I have waited my whole life to have all my people together and I am just trying to absorb every minute while not losing the ability to function in the world.  It's hard to soak up all of the seconds in a day while trying to remember all the details of everyone's schedules.  Maybe by the time they move out I will figure it out.  Until then, just keep texting me reminders.  You know who you are.  :)

Dear Bennett,

I dreamed of you before anyone knew you were there.  I held you in my heart before anyone else could see or feel you.  I learned your personality before we knew what you looked like.  I memorized your soul before you took your first breath. Happy six months boy.  You are the perfect ending to our baby journey.

Love,

Mommy

Don't know where to start....

My poor little blog.  I think of posts to write then never get around to sitting down to write them.  I will try to update over the next few days so the posts may seem a bit disjointed.  Here goes...deep breath in.

I loved the randomness of being a kid.  I miss it really.  That frame of thinking that things just happen magically and are awesome all by chance.  The reality is that behind every "random" activity there is a parent who planned for at least 3 hours 30 minutes to make that magic seem, well, seamless.  Take picnicking at the park for instance.  I decided that we needed some spontaneity in our lives and we were going to up and have a picnic dinner at the park and play until the girls were worn out.  The kid in my head was all "THE PARK!  Ok, out the door we go with dinner and everything fun to play with at the park!".  Then it hit me, that reminder that I am the parent and not the kid. hahaha! There is a lot of prep work to be spontaneous with three kids.  My goal is for them not to notice and to just remember us randomly jumping in the van and heading to the park for dinner and evening family time.  What really happened was about 45 minutes of me making said picnic dinner, gathering blankets, changing baby, packing bubbles and other goodies and finally getting girls ready. 

It's not quite the same as being the kid in the scenario but watching them run to the car all excited for a break in routine then acting like eating on a blanket in the grass is the coolest thing EVER kind of made the effort seem.....effortless. It's kind of how mom's look back on labor like "Pishaw! That wasn't SO bad, I could do that again."  

Stay tuned for future picnics and evenings at the park.  I am now a hero to two little girls and I have to admit I kinda like it.  :)