Your You-Ness

{6 months old}
things i don't want to forget:

you play with my hair while eating - twist it around your hand and run your fingers through it. it's such a sweet gesture. i've been thinking about chopping most of it off, but you make me reconsider. 

speaking of hand movements, you are now practicing your dexterity by repeatedly opening and closing your fist. this is especially adorable when you're drifting off to sleep and we can just barely see your little hand peeking up over the pack&play (and then disappearing.. and then reappearing.. and then disappearing...)

you also like to delicately place your hand on our faces, or grab it with both and pull us toward you (so sweet!!). 

(you & aunt Loryn practicing a face grab/backwards hug situation)

i even love your "hunger face." - don't get me wrong, i would never want you to be hungry, but occasionally when you are especially ravenous, your eyes lock on to the target and you open your mouth as wide as possible while taking short, forceful breaths. i need to get that on tape. 

sometimes when you wake up in the wee hours of the morn, you don't go back to sleep right away. you just sit there and talk. daddy and i listen to your "aaaa. aaa. aaaaaaa"ing and can't help but laugh - even when we want to be mad that you're keeping us up.

it's official. you have inherited daddy's "crazy eyes." in other words, when you've been asleep for any length of time and awaken suddenly, your bloodshot, wide-eyed stare pierces through my very soul.. (well that may be a bit dramatic but you clearly look POed). don't worry, wake daddy up at the wrong time and i'm sure you'll get to experience them yourself someday. 

you are for real a professional ninja now. or baby beckham. those kicks are strong! and you kick with a ferocity i've not witnessed before. you've even taken to pulling your knees up and kicking off when mommy or daddy is holding you, and one of these days you're just going to do a backflip right out of my arms. careful munchkin!!

you gave us our first card for valentine's day. it had a picture of you sitting there smiling triumphantly and a little construction-paper footprint bouquet (made cuter by the little uneven monkey-toeprints). i cried.

you recognize "your peeps" now. anyone you know can summon a most brilliant dimpled smile (and sometimes even people you don't know). i love that you do this. you amaze me.

You Like To Move It, Move It...

{5 months & some change}
You now do a reverse army or upside-down crawl when lying on your back where you pull your legs in and then shoot upward like an inchworm. Aaah the beginning of mobility. Help. You are also a teeter-sitter in that you can basically sit up all by yourself, but after a little while you lose your balance and topple sideways in a very cute manner (we try to catch you when you threaten to fall forward onto your sweet face). Your ninja kicks are getting very fast now, and you enjoy doing a little tap dance for our entertainment when standing. You ambushed daddy when he tried to kiss you the other day and laid a roundhouse square on his nose (that's my girl!). 

Your fav game in recent days is "light as a feather, stiff as a board." Well, not so much the light as a feather part. But you seem to find it necessary to suddenly straighten and stiffen your little self when held at a certain angle. Much to daddy's elation, bouncing is now fun for you and elicits a gummy grin that he can't summon enough. He practices the (low) throw and catch maneuver with great success. You really look like you're processing everything now. Of course, you've always had that look about you, but the wheels are turning faster these days. I can see it. Daddy is not ready for you to start with the "mama, dada" yet since that will apparently signal you've reached adulthood (or, at the very least, that you're no longer a baby).

Goooooooooal!

I've been trying to figure out for approximately a week now whether the little kicks and jabs I feel from the inside are discernible from the flipside. The problem is, they've been so few and far between that when I notice her moving and Jon sneaks a feel, she stops. But last night we were lying on the couch and I was determined to catch her in the act. I told Jon to just keep his hand there for a while and we settled in to watch the Real World/Road Rules Challenge.

Unfortunately, Jon is kind of ADD and was playing with Hanna simultaneously. So every time I'd be like 'did you feel that?' Jon wasn't able to tell if it was her or just the tugging motion from Hannabelle wrestling with the rope in his other hand (you'd think he could stop playing with the dog for 30 minutes to try and feel his child I mean come on..  jk  ;)  But she did finally make her presence known with a nice strong kick (or punch? or flip?) during a particularly rowdy party scene with some jammin background music. 

Either she dances on cue or she was headbanging. 
Whatever it was, I'm proud.