Brown-Eyed Girl: Flashback Friday: Six months of Mommyhood Edition

My baby is officially half a year old. She sits up all by herself and has excellent posture! She's a regular little rolly-polly. She has four incredibly sharp teeth. She grins and laughs with me (or is at me?) all day long. Everyone is a friend and she'll always show her little bashful smile to anyone who gives her the slightest attention. She's beginning to show her true colors as a momma's girl, but hopefully she learns soon that Daddy is a pretty cool guy too. And it's OK to snuggle with him when life isn't the greatest and Mom's busy doing dishes and the like.

I love it when I come into her room to get her up in the morning, or even just from a nap, and she looks up at me through those thick lashes with her big, blue eyes as a grin spreads across her little face. I love it even more when she gasps with delight as I pick her up, burrowing into my shoulder, babbling away about I don't even know what, but it's so happy and I know that even though she doesn't have words for it, she loves me.

I love it when she is playing in her bouncer and get so excited because she pressed a button and a song started playing that she actually starts bouncing as high as she can.

I love those quiet moments when I am rocking her before bedtime, singing lullabyes and she starts to "sing" with me, even as her eyes start to droop.

Mostly, I just love this little girl. It's so cliche and every mother in the history of the world has said this, but she is growing so fast. For reals, I feel like I just came home with this teeny baby that I had no idea how to care for, and now I am cuddling with this still sweet, but much larger baby that is growing out of my lap. But even as I say that, it is hard to remember not being a mom. Life now is so different from pre-London life. It's harder, there's a lot less sleep, and a lot less me-time. But there's so many more giggles, more snuggling, more remembering the simple (and important!) things, and so, so, so much more joy.