Aveline's Half-Birthday

Jarrett and I have decided that barring some God-sent miracle (on His terms) or mistake on our part, we are completely happy and settled with our two little girls and do not plan on having any more children. Because of this, I have found myself savoring each and every moment with this second baby quite more than the first time around. I try to not let myself become too overcome with sadness as I watch Avie grow with each passing day, as I know I have so many days ahead of us to enjoy both girls as they experience every stage of life. I look forward to days of learning to read, learning to ride a bike, looking over homework, experiencing whatever hobbies and extracurricular activities they cling to, helping them through the inevitable middle school trauma, watching them grow tall and beautiful, helping them behind the wheel that first time, seeing them fall giddily in love, crying as they leave our nest, but staying oh so close to them even in adulthood. But right now, in this moment, I take snapshots in my mind of all of the baby-ness. I delight in the rolls of chub, the baby giggles, the sweet baby snoozes, and, yes, even the closeness while nursing, something I only half-heartedly enjoyed with our firstborn.

Now I know I likely will not experience all of these baby stages again, so I am clinging to each new step. And time is passing so quickly. Aveline turned six months old -- half a year -- on Friday. And I am delighted with the energy and excitement these coming months hold as she learns to do so many new things, but I am also overly sentimental and nostalgic over the time that has already slipped through our fingers.

Avie is still pretty sedentary, though still manages to move around a lot in her non-mobile-ness. She is squirmy and wiggly, and pushes with her feet while on the changing table, moving herself upward while on her back as if she were an overturned inchworm. As I have said before, she can roll over in both directions, but still has not really seemed to figure out that she can do so. She still is not so keen with tummy time, but does not understand that she can simply roll over to her back at will. She enjoys sitting up for very brief moments, and can somewhat catch herself as she topples forward. She loves to grab anything within reach, and as I read books to her, she enjoys slapping at the pages. She smiles with delight when I sing to her (and when we are all singing in church), especially the ABC song. And yesterday, when her daddy was playing the guitar and singing along, she lit up with joy. She has eaten numerous veggie and fruit purees and multigrain cereal (to introduce her to wheat prior to six months, as our doctor suggested), and I plan on trying yogurt with her soon. She now eats three times a day (if I remember!) and still nurses around seven or eight times in a twenty-four-hour period. She has yet to sleep completely through the night, and will still awake once, usually twice, before she is up for good, usually between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Many times I awaken with her, as we still often sleep together on the couch during that last stretch. Otherwise, she remains in the pack-and-play in the back room during the night, and in the crib for her naps. I am coming close to deciding to just chance putting the girls together at night, but we shall see. Her first tooth broke through her bottom gum over the weekend! And this (possibly in combination with extreme pollen counts and some messed up naps) has probably made her the most fussy she has been, but still completely bearable. She talks up a storm, squealing (or yelling... however you would like to view it) with delight.

This morning was her six-month doctor's appointment, and though I do not have the official measurements/stats written down (I have emailed Dr. Owen for those), my memory is that her head circumference was 17 inches, her weight was 16 pounds, 9 ounces, and her length was 27 and 1/8 inches. So her head measurement stayed the same from last month, but she gained a little over a pound and a little over an inch. She received two vaccinations, which I believe were the Haemophilus influenzae type b [Hib] and pneumococcal conjugate. Her next appointment will be solely for vaccinations, and she should be caught up by then. Overall, Dr. Owen thought she looked wonderful.

We were a month later than we were with Elsa, but we finally pulled out the camera equipment yesterday afternoon and got some great shots of Avie before we lose that gummy grin. I still need to more thoroughly go through them, and hopefully put together a slide show, as I did with Elsa's five-month photos, but here are a couple of my favorites thus far.

Happy half-birthday, sweet one!