The Best Six Months of My Life

Half a year has passed since the marvelous day our darling Moriah was born.  Without a doubt, the past six months have been the best of my life.

Not that there was anything wrong with the previous 432 months--on the contrary, they too had been filled with joy and beauty!  But as my family grows, my heart grows, too.  My love increases.  Life becomes more and more full and precious and lovely and magnificent and cherished.  And so, it's no mistake to say the past six months have been the best.  :)

 The big news of the month for Moriah is that she started solid foods.  I likely would have started her a little earlier on them; but simply for the sake of convenience, I waited until after we returned from our beach vacation.  After all, we had enough other stuff to take without worrying about baby food and baby spoons and bibs, etc.  :)  But shortly after we returned from our trip, when Moriah was about five and a half months old, I opened a box of rice cereal, mixed up a bowl, grabbed a spoon, and brought it to Moriah's lips.

She devoured it.  ;-)  Watching her eat made me realize, "Ah, yes, I'd say she was definitely ready for this!"  :)  

So far she's had rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, and a time or two I gave her a few bites of pureed pumpkin (which I happened to have in the frig, leftover from when I made pumpkin pancakes recently).  That made her face contort and her tongue push the eject button, spilling orange goop onto her bib.  Oh well, no harm done.  I'll keep giving her the cereal and then try her on some other baby food soon.  :)

 In addition to the solid food she eats (although "solid food" is a misnomer really; one of my boys pointed out recently that it should more accurately be called "mushy food")  ;-), Moriah still nurses four or five times a day.  I treasure those times with her.  To have a good reason to sit down and cuddle with Moriah is freeing; it liberates me from the myriad of other tasks that I could be doing around here!  Time with her is time well spent.  :)

I think it's safe to say Moriah has me wrapped around her little finger.  I dearly love that baby girl.

Usually in Moriah's month pictures, I choose an outfit for her that is a little...shall we say...fancier than the one she wore today; but as I was thinking about this October picture, I decided to go with this simpler item of clothing for a few reasons:  

1. my parents gave it to Moriah shortly after she was born, and that makes it extra special to me,

2. you can't tell in the pictures, of course, but it's so soft and cozy...perfect for a cool October day,

3. the "I ♥  mommy" saying makes me smile.  :)

 

This was the first photo shoot in which Moriah rolled herself over from back to front.  She could do that more than a month ago; but other times I've taken her pictures like this, she's been so interested in the camera and in what I'm doing (and, sometimes, in what her brothers are doing, too, if they happen to be around when I'm photographing her) that she's stayed on her back.

Not this time.  ;-)

As Moriah was laying on her blanket, I thought, "It sure would be nice to get a picture with her."  So I laid down beside her, held my camera up with one arm as high as I could, and snapped a picture.

Well, several pictures, as you can see.  :)

What a ray of sunshine this little lady is to us!

Happy half-birthday, dearest Moriah!  You are loved more than words can say!!