my big girl

Maya turned 6-months old earlier this week. She is growing up so fast, I swear I feel like she was just born a couple of weeks ago. My sweet daughter continues to be such a little joy. She is so silly, so happy, so fun. We are incredibly blessed and lucky to have such a good natured kid.

We started her on rice cereal a couple of weeks ago, and with good results. Some days are better than others though; some days she will open her mouth willingly and gobble up a few spoonfuls of cereal, other days she closes her lips tight and turns her head to avoid the spoon coming at her. Here are some pictures from the very first time we tried rice cereal - it looks like we were torturing her but it's gone much better since that first time.



Tonight will be a bit of a milestone - we're adding apples to the mix! This will be the first food, other than rice cereal and rice crackers that Maya will have. I'm going to whip up some fresh applesauce in my sweet new Williams Sonoma Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker tonight. I'm so excited! I think Maya's really going to like it, I've given her a few licks of banana over the past couple of weeks and she really seems to like that, so apples should be a big hit!

The 6-month stage should be entitled "I want to do it myself". Over the past few weeks, that one phrase has described baby girl perfectly. She wants to feed herself, hold her own spoon, hold her own toys, do everything herself. I think it's awesome and we're encouraging it. She has even been - are you ready for this? - putting herself to bed. One day, she just up and decided that she didn't want to be held, nursed and rocked to sleep anymore (the routine we've had since her birth). It took me a few nights to figure it out. She'd squirm and fuss after feeding and lean and reach toward her crib. I thought she was just been fussy and over-tired. Then, it suddenly occurred to me - she just wants to be put in her crib and left alone to fall asleep. So I kissed her about a million times and laid her in her crib. She was asleep in seconds. And it's been like that ever since.

Sure, it's easier and takes a lot less time to put her down, which is great. And she's getting more and more independent, which is fantastic. But I have to admit I am a bit heartsick that she's starting to need her mummy less and less (sniff, sniff). What a big girl I have!