Happy Birthday to You!

Well, we did it. We made it six months. Yesterday, Alexandra turned six months old. Ok, I know, it’s a bit OTT to be recognising half birthdays, but as this is her first, I’m going to anyway. It’s not like I threw her a party or anything… I didn’t even buy her presents. She did spend a decent chunk of time in her brand new Fisher Price “Take Along Hop ‘n’ Pop” activity centre, complete with lights/music/rattles etc, but that was technically an early Christmas present from her Daddy so it doesn’t count. OK???

So let’s recap. What have we achieved in the past six months? What haven’t we achieved? No, I don’t ask that in the failure sense (babies do things when they’re ready) but more in a “I can’t believe we’ve done so much” sense. We can, as you know, roll. Confidently from back to tummy, accidentally (and only occasionally) back again. We blow raspberries, smile, laugh, giggle, chew on anything we can reach… oh yes, manipulative, gross & fine motor skills galore! Reaching, grasping, then either putting in mouth or banging, whichever takes her fancy. She can pull & set off the musical doggy on her chair. Her neat party trick of bending and chewing/sucking on her toes is also pretty impressive. Who needs Fisher Price when you have toes? Ok maybe we do. Or not. Needing and wanting are two very different things. Anyway, what else can our little monkey do? She’s almost sitting unaided. Well, she does briefly if I put her legs in tripod formation, but she topples over pretty much immediately when she starts to move. She can jump too. Alright, I’m lying. She has many other gross motor skills to conquer first. She does however do a brilliant jumping impersonation in her Jolly Jumper, which is just awesome. Thank you Nanna Joy!!

Now that I’ve rescued my knuckle from the baby’s gob, I continue, keyboard covered in dribble. I feel like I’m missing something. Of course. Nappies. Yes well the less said about them, the better. I will say, however, that little miss is not only enjoying her regular booby (a skill which we’re both pleased to have mastered), but she is also having veggies & meat puree for dinner, either pear or apple puree for snacks, AND she can drink water out of a cup. Ok, it’s all very messy, but it was bound to be. Anyway let’s just say all of this food makes the nappy business quite interesting, and leave it at that.

I’m running out of ideas, but I’m sure there’s plenty more. No teeth yet, but she could dribble for Australia so they’re probably not far off. No crawling either, but she can push and hold up her torso with her hands so she’ll get there. I really don’t know if she recognises her name yet, but she did look up at the television the other day when, while watching our afternoon fave Deal Or No Deal, the contestant said “We have to find the monkey”. Oops. Could have been a coincidence but it was pretty funny all the same. She’s also capable of sleeping through the night – a HUGE achievement, however it’s obviously a boring and terrible waste of time as she doesn’t seem too keen on it. Or so she keeps telling me in the wee hours.

Alexandra’s obviously not talking yet, but with her myriad of other special sounds, I know she’s telling me something important. We have our own way of communicating anyway – I know what she needs, what she wants, what she likes and what she doesn’t like, and that’s the main thing. She’s happy, and that’s my greatest achievement in this past six months. Or ever really. So here’s to you Alexandra Anna – Happy Birthday my Little Monkey. xxoo