Letters To Norah {6 Months}

Norah,

Happy {belated} half-birthday! I absolutely cannot believe that you are half a year old. How can time fly by so quickly? And, how can one little baby change so very much in such a short amount of time? In just 6 months, you've gone from the teeniest, snuggly infant to a strong, curious, on-the-go little girl. 

As promised, so much has happened in our lives this past month. And, of course, you've been a happy camper {most of the time!} while you enjoyed the ride with us. On July 3, we moved into a new house. The house you are going to grow up in and remember forever. We're going to make so many memories together in this house. It was crazy moving in the day before a holiday. We wanted to work on getting the house organized, but also wanted to celebrate your first 4th of July!

{Watching the fireworks downtown Indianapolis.}

We went to the lake for the weekend after the fourth. You went on your first boat ride. You enjoyed the ride, but HATED your lifejacket! I can't blame you. After the lake, we had one week at home before we packed our bags again and went to Michigan with Nana, Papa, Aunt Quinn, Uncle Andy, and your 3 cousins. You loved the beach, but were very stubborn when it came to taking naps. There was too much going on that you didn't want to miss out on! That week you were also much fussier than you typically are. We figured out why about half-way through the week...teeth! Not one, two, at the very same time! 

We were home from Michigan for four days before we packed yet again to head out to California. We spent a day in Southern California so daddy could go to a work meeting. Then we flew up to San Francisco to spend time with Auntie Lauren and Uncle Jared. We had so much fun with them! You loved being in the city, looking at all the people and taking in all the sights and sounds. We left the city for a couple days and drove to their house in Tahoe. The drive was much longer than we anticipated, but you didn't fuss too much that we were in the car for such a long time! You spent your 6 month birthday on the beach at Lake Tahoe. What a fantastic way to spend the day! 

We're all glad that we are home now and don't have any travel plans in the near future. All of our trips wore you out so much, you slept from 9:30pm to 11:30am the night we got home! You are such a good traveler and we know we're going to spend so many fun times traveling all over the place together. By the time you're one, you'll have two passport stamps!

Last time I wrote you, you were just about to be able to sit up all on your own. You quickly mastered that skill, and have moved on to many new things. You are pretty much crawling now. You use your feet to push and hands to pull you in the direction of where you want to go. I'm guessing within the next couple weeks, you'll have figured out to use your knees to go even faster. 

You are quite the wiggle-worm. It's getting more and more difficult to hold you or try to have you sit on our laps. You know what you want and are determined to get things once you set your eyes on them. You are a talker. You are starting to make all kinds of new sounds using your lips and tongue. It's fun to hear all the different sounds you come up with. Sometimes you surprise yourself after you make a funny sound! 

Your newest thing is your "scrunchy face." You scrunch up your nose and eyes and give us a little bit of sass {imagine that}! Of course, I have yet to be able to take a picture of your new, cute expression. The amount of personality that shines through each and every day is amazing. I see a lot of your daddy in you! 

Just before we left for California, I started you on baby food. You like it SO much better than rice cereal. You are not a picky eater! So far you've had peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, and peaches. You love all of them! You are starting to eat more at a time, especially around dinner time. I just bought you a couple new sippy cups for you to start practicing with. You love drinking water out of them! 

Wow, you've changed so much this past month! You are growing so quickly and not looking like a little baby anymore. You are a quick-learner and absolutely love learning about the world around you. Tomorrow I start my new job at Papa's office. I can't believe that 6 months has past us by this quickly. It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were meeting you for the first time. I'm really sad that I have to go to work and leave you during the day. I'm going to miss you more than you'll ever know! You are going to have so much fun at daycare and will have a blast with the other kids. You don't know how much fun I've had with you these past 6 months. I feel so lucky to be your mom and to have spent so much time with you each and every day. Just remember, I'll always be thinking about you during the day while I'm at work. Promise. 

I love you, sweetheart. 

Mommy