6 months old

It is hard to believe we've already spent half of a year getting to know Mandy. She's a wonderful baby (when she gets a nap) and I love every moment with her. Even though I already knew what love felt like, I was completely unprepared with how my second child captured my heart. She's sweet and fragile, complex and strong. Her grins fill me with joy and her snuggles make me sigh. How could I possibly be so blessed with this gift?

We went to Mandy's well child exam today. Everything is normal, even her height and weight are right at 50% (16 pounds even and 25 1/2 inches long). She rolls everywhere and eventually gets where she wants to go. She isn't sitting up by herself, but she's close. She loves her new solid food and has now tried squash, apple sauce, and green beans.

Emma went with us to the doctors and played with a little kitchen set in the waiting room before we went in. She followed me nicely into the exam room with Mandy and played great in there too. About 10 minutes into the exam she said, "Oh, no!!" and went to the door to try to get out. After questioning her and trying to understand what the problem was, I realized she was very concerned about the kitchen. Emma had put her cake into the oven and set the timer before we went back to the exam room and she was worried the timer had "dinged" and the cake was burning. It took me and the doctor reasuring her that the cake was OK before she would settle back into playing with the the toys in the room. No worries, as we left, she checked her cake and it was done. She blew on it, ate a huge pretend bite and offered the rest to the receptionist and me. She has quite the imagination. That was some good cake, I must say.

Perhaps Mandy will ask me some day why I took pictures of her mostly naked with bunny ears on her head. I have no great reason except I could not resist. I was taking pictures of the girls together and, as usual, they weren't smiling. I tried wearing the bunny ears and jumping all around the room (sorry, no pictures of that). Still no smiles. The ears ended up on Mandy and I just love her sweet look.