Could it have been half a year already?!
There is a podcast that a friend introduced me to called “the shortest longest time”, it is such a fitting phrase for a families time with an infant. There were times in the past six months that time dragged on at snails pace, maybe even a snail with a broken tail. When she was feeding every three hours for an hour and then had to be soothed to sleep for another thirty minutes. There were times when I could not imagine her any bigger than what she was, I couldn’t imagine what her personality was going to be like. In the very beginning time crept along. We were always completely smitten and in love with her, there were just times when we did not know what to do with her.
At about two months old, Jay was on one of his first trips and she really started to smile and show some pretty cute personality. I took this video of her and looking back she was oh so small and now I can see it was just a little glimpse of her smily, bubbly personality.
Throughout the spring visitors came and went, we had a great time with all of them and it was fun to see the different milestones she was at while people visited.
We have been on countless walks through the neighborhood over the past six months. We live in a pretty large neighborhood filled with a good deal of older people. We have talked to almost all of them. I think I can describe who lives in what house, when new flowers have been planted, and when someone gets a new car. I have kind of turned into that person in the neighborhood, but little C sure does like to take some walks. I read in one of the baby books that if you want to prepare your baby for a sleepy state to take them on a walk. The swaying trees and soothing breeze will ease them into a sweet sleep. Not this girl, from day one she has been so alert and curious about her surroundings, especially when it comes to outside. I will admit that I have gotten some mean looks from some of those old sweet ladies I was talking about earlier when I have Charlotte strapped to me in her baby carrier with an umbrella in my hand as we take walks in rain storms.
We have grown so much as a family. I do not think we expected anything that came with having a baby. We knew that the first couple of months would be hard, trying and tiring, but we never expected to get so much joy out of Charlotte. She is such a joy in our lives. She is a cooing, tooting, giggling, rolling curious little baby who seems to be growing by leaps and bounds right in front of our eyes.
Charlotte’s personality has just been exploding since she turned four months. It started out a little quite, sweet and innocent. Now, she is starting to get a sense of humor. She will laugh on her own and has preferences in life when comes to books, toys and songs. I still wonder what her little voice is going to sound like (her first words just might be “hi jack!”). I wonder if she will love music and art like her parents do. I wonder if she will be creative, dramatic, compassionate, helpful, curious. I guess only time will tell. Either way Jay and I are having the time of our lives discovering who this little lady is that is growing before us.
Happy half birthday Charlotte Gray. You are the coolest kid your dad or mom has ever met. You bring us more joy, laughs and songs that has ever filled this house. We are so lucky to be your parents. We know that you will be one year before we know it. We are so excited to see you grow and develop...if you could just slow down a little we want to stop and savor you at each of your changing stages just a little more!
We love you so much! -mommy
Most parents my age talk about how easy things get at 6 months and if you can just make it to 6 months you’re in the clear. First of all I can’t believe that its been 6 months already. We spent 9 months preparing and waiting for Charlotte to get here and now she’s almost been here for that same amount of time. Melissa said something about Charlotte being half a year old the other day and the sound of that made my head spin a little. 6 months is one thing, but in my mind, half of a year sounds even crazier than 6 months.
I’m knocking on wood as I say this, but my expectations about being a father have been completely blown out of the water. I expected to be a dead tired zombie half of the time and that hasn’t happened. I expected Melissa and I to have less time together, but that hasn’t happened. I expected that our lives would change drastically, but that hasn’t happened. I’m not saying that things haven’t changed, but in general where I thought life would become a little more crazy, having a baby has actually caused us to slow down. I’m so glad that we waited as long as we did to have kids. I think that the 6 years Melissa and I had together caused a bond between us that made the first 6 months of Charlotte’s life such a blessing and a breeze. We have always been a great team together and Charlotte has only strengthened that bond.
So it’s been a great six months. Our first Mother’s and Father’s day as parents, seeing Charlotte grow and change day by day, our first family vacation, and so much more. I catch myself noticing other children these days and wondering what Charlotte will be like when she’s older. We do plan on having more children, but I know that there will always be a special bond between our first child. I’m so looking forward to these next few months of Charlotte’s life where she’ll begin to crawl around and eat new foods and experience all that this world has. I was blessed in so many ways before Charlotte came along already, so to have a healthy, smiling girl....it’s almost too much for one heart to handle.
Happy half birthday Charlotte. You are my everything! -daddy
