Six Months: Grabby Girl

Grabbing and drooling

MZ is six months old today -- SIX MONTHS! That's half a year! She's halfway done with breastfeeding, halfway towards being a toddler. And I am not nearly half-tired of having an infant. MZ is hilarious these days, grabbing and laughing and chewing and drooling and vocalizing and rolling.

The past month brought her first plane flight and her first meeting of her East Coast cousins. It also brought what we assume was our last stay in a B&B for a long while. She was quiet as a mouse except in the early AM, which was a perfect time to practice shrieking, her new favorite thing, which she "discovered" in a white tablecloth restaurant in the North End, and perfected in line at the Modern Bakery, where she regaled the crowds with her shrieking and giggling.

We took long walks in the early morning, to allow the other guests to wake at their own pace, and had our first "Mommy Drive-by." For our morning walks, we placed MZ in the Baby Bjorn, facing out so she could enjoy the scenery. She grinned broadly throughout our walks, so much so that people would stop to comment. Yet a woman coming off the Rockport harbor snarled at us for having her in a Bjorn rather than a sling. C'mon, the baby is SMILING. Let's hope she can muster at least that much righteous indignation over children starving in wartorn lands.

The flights were mostly uneventful, although I was alarmed on our return flight, when it was just MZ and me and a whole lot of turbulence. She pooped within the first twenty minutes, but it was 45 before I could change her, by which point it was a full blowout. And there were no changing tables on the plane, just a tilty toilet seat. I was convinced we were doomed to exit the plane with a naked baby and a bag full of dirty clothes, but by the end she was merely bored with my meager collection of diversions, and confused that no one on the plane seemed as interested in her as all the nice Boston-area Freedmans had been. MZ is becoming accustomed to being the center of attention, and has developed a fabulous little cough to remind us when she'd like some more. A cough, and a death rattle. That's what I call the long, wheezing noise she's hit on and seems to love. It's the first annoying habit she's developed.

She has also developed a fascination with toddlers that started with her cousin Sam. Sam meets her at eye level when she's sitting on a lap, and she was obsessed with him: he walks! he talks! he eats! How do I get me some of that?? She actually seemed frustrated by her lack of mobility and communications skills for the first couple of days after we returned, which makes me think that we better plan on signing with this kid.

A few weeks earlier, I would have chalked the frustration up to teething, but I'm over that now. MZ has exhibited signs of teething for six weeks: drooling incessantly, chewing on things, rash under her lip, that little cough. For a few weeks, every time she whimpered, I'd say, "Oh, she's teething." Now my only real question is whether she can actually drool more than she does now. We change her bib three times before noon.

She's also developing great strength in her upper body, she'll spend a quarter of an hour on her tummy, alternating between lifting up on her arms and lifting up her butt. And she finally has the strength to grab at toys from her tummy, and to skootch forward if she braces her feet against something, like the edge of her crib; or backwards, if she doesn't have anything behind her. Oh, and she's rolling over the other way now! Well, she has, on three occasions that I'm aware of. She's more interested in getting her booty in the air, a clear harbinger of crawling, but the front-to-back rolling is cool, too, when it happens.

I realize this all sounds a little kvetchy, but only because I'm tired and it's late and I'm on my fourth and last night of Robert's business trip. And I'm nervous about quitting work to stay home with MZ. But I'm also excited. She is such a sweet, funny little person, and the thought of enjoying those morning smiles without having to park her in a bouncy seat so I can pump, shower and leave her for someone else to play with feels so good, and like such a luxury. We gave returning to work a try, and mostly it just made our life chaotic. And as I look back on the last six months and how fast they've flown, I am so excited to be here to bear witness to this magnificent, enthralling little being.