Six months old

Dear Ess,

We can't believe it, but you have been here with us for a half a year now. Astonishing.

As usual, you've spent this month busy growing. In the last week or so, you seem to have started teething -- you're drooling a lot, and chomping on our fingers whenever you get the chance. Unfortunately, you've also gone back to your old sleeping patterns at night, in which you're up three to five times over the course of twelve hours or so. We're hoping this is temporary. It certainly helps, though, that you are so gleeful when we come to pick you up in the morning and at the end of your (still very brief) naps. The glee on your face on those occasions, we believe, is only eclipsed by the joyful laughs you've recently prompted by looking at yourself in the mirror.

The past month has been marked by big trips for all of us: yours to New Jersey to see your grandparents and great-grandparents, and ours to the Gritty City theater while you were babysat by your paternal grandparents. You got to be adored, entertained, and loved during every waking moment of your trip. (We got to see the most disappointing movie in recent memory on our little getaway.) It was on your NJ trip that you started to come out of your shell a bit; now you are coyly smiling and showing off your personality to people in virtually all social situations.

You are becoming more fascinated by the world around you, especially when it comes to books, Thursday trips with Dad to the bakery, traveling in the hip-carry with Mom, and watching a certain black-and-white dog blowing off steam. All the while we become more in love with and more fascinated by you.

We love you, sweet baboo.

Dad and Mom