I dreamed about this day, my little Henry pie. Six months. Half a year. There’s nothing particularly magical about it except that back when we were in the trenches, I thought it would never come. Now look at us! We’re all still alive. I wasn’t kidding when I said that now things are getting fun—like really fun—and all the days can slooooowwww down because I can finally say that they’re going too fast. You are a riot from head to toe and I absolutely adore everything from your screeching gibberish to your gurgling laughter.

I’ve continued taking you to the gym daycare and, despite your initial wailing, you’ve warmed up to it. Sometimes when I pick you up, you’re whining, but more often than not, you are still happily watching all the other children. Or, at the very least, solemnly staring. You do love a good intrigue.

You are mesmerized by the interstate that our house backs up to and I can often set you right in front of the sliding glass door in the living room and you’ll stare at the passing cars for, well, not hours, but a long time for your ever shortening attention span. The other night, your daddy was out mowing and so I put you on the kitchen counter while I made dinner and you looked out the window watching him go back and forth, back and forth. It was the highlight of your day.

This past month you’ve started eating solids and you don’t have a picky bone in your body. You have devoured everything I’ve given you (squash, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, plums, grapes, prunes, oatmeal, and on and on) and you always open your little mouth like a bird waiting for me to give you more…because apparently I’m never fast enough. It took you about two tries to figure out how the spoon works and now you often reach for it to try to help it get to your mouth.

We continue to read a lot and go to story time at the library on Thursdays. You have a lot of little friends there and it won’t be long before you are all on the move and playing together. I have loved getting to know other mothers (some of whom I first met at Baby & Me Yoga) and, in our little group of friends, all of our boys are within just a few months of each other so we share stories, experiences, and ask advice from each other every week. You’re the youngest of the group by a few weeks so it’s extra fun to me to see some of the exciting new things you’ll be learning and doing in the next few weeks based on what the other boys are doing.

As difficult as those first couple of months were without a full night of sleep, you have more than made up for it by becoming an incredible sleeper. We worked really hard on establishing your eating/sleeping routine in those early days and it has more than paid off. You continue to sleep 12 hours a night (bless!) and waking you up at 8 in the morning is so much fun. You start smiling before you even open you eyes and stretch as you arch your little back. Once we change your [sopping wet] diaper, you start kicking your legs and talking because you know that the next agenda item is a bottle. Your little mouth opens in anticipation long before it ever comes close to you.

Due to the introduction of solids and your ever-growing little self, your routine stretched again just a couple of weeks ago so now you are able to stay awake a lot longer and take two naps (one in the morning, one in the afternoon). If your afternoon nap isn’t good, we still slip in a catnap in the early evening, but otherwise, we’re down to two naps. The evenings can get long since you end up being awake for over 3 hours, but as long as we keep up with your short attention span, it’s been working.

This coming weekend marks the big return of wedding season and it’s going to hit with a bang (a double header weekend!). I’m so excited to get back into the swing of working, but I’m also hesitant to see how you adjust and behave with someone else watching you. I am so grateful that I’ve had these six months with you to get you on a steady routine and to get to know you so well and am hoping that you’ll just keep being awesome even when your daddy and I are away. I know how busy wedding season always is and I feel that the next time I look up, it’ll be November and we’ll be celebrating your first birthday!

You continue to amaze me with your ever-growing curiosity and skills. You challenge me and try my patience every single day, but you also fill me overflowing with joy and happiness and laughter. I feel so incredibly blessed to be your mama. In the short six months that you’ve been with us, you’ve changed our family to the point where we can’t even begin to imagine what we would be doing if you weren’t here. Not a day goes by that I don’t look at your face and feel overwhelmed with gratefulness that you’ve been given to us. We are the luckiest. Truly. I’m so glad you’re ours.