You--24 Weeks, 6 Days

We made it through your first Christmas without a hitch and what a delight you were!
For me, there was no better gift.
Honestly, I could have received nothing and it would have still been one of my highest ranked holidays in history.

You slept late for your first Christmas and had us all to yourselves by the time you strolled down.
Miss Lay Zee Bones.
You are a girl after my own heart--we love our sleep-ins!

A new year upon us, too.
2011.
I guess I never really much considerd that you were born in a nice, even year (2010) so it's incredibly easy to figure out how old you'll be in (name that year).

The next six months are going to bring a WHOLE different you into the mix!
You're starting to move by rolling....I can put you down in one place and return just a minute or two later to see that you've rolled yourself over to whatever it is that caught your eye!

You're starting to sit up on your own briefly.
We can't leave you sitting up but you're able to hold your own (rather impressive) weight up for a lengthy ten seconds or so before veering off in one direction like a little drunkard.

You're pushing up well on those little arms in preparation for crawling which sets off mega-anxiety inside me because I walk through the house counting wee choking hazards littering the floor (all of which have been banned from the first level but you can see from just me writing this that I'm seriously going to have to crack down on these fools) and there are A MILLION!
We're not quite ready for you to take off just yet!

Just two days ago you gave me the fright of my life.
You'd fallen asleep sideways in the middle of my bed where you don't normally lay and I didn't box you in with any pillows, thinking that I didn't need to.
I checked on you periodically and you were happily snoozing.
But then I heard you on the monitor and I came up to find that you had wriggled almost to the edge of my side of the bed.
You must've been awake for awhile, quiet and BUSY.
(You'd also pooped your pants something HORRIFIC, child, and smuggled a foot free from your sleeper.  How you managed THAT, I'm still contemplating.)

SO.
That's it for you, missy!
(I know I keep saying this but we had to get through the holidays first.)
You're moving out this month and my heart is just b-r-e-a-k-i-n-g.
I don't want you to go.
I love sleeping with you, rolling over and kissing your plump little cheek, being able to make sure you're warm, waking up to find that we're holding hands or that you're holding my hair.

I could keep you at night still (when I am in bed with you and can keep you safe) but I think it will be too confusing for you--that during the day, you can't sleep in our nest but at night, you can.
As much as I hate it, you're just going to have to go.
Way the hell down the hallway.
Far, far from me.

Sniff.

Six months old and flying the coop.

Sniff, sniff.

This whole month will be devoted to your the making of your very own bedroom and selfishly, I hope it takes that long so that we still have some time together.
Honestly though, this would be easiest if done quickly.
Like ripping off a band-aid.

Hmm.
But see I don't like ripping off band-aids...I am super gentle and peel off one eensy weensy corner and then just a tiny bit more after that...and in 20 minutes, I am band-aid free!
Sort of how it'll take me 29 more days to move you out :)

The only thing that will make this better for me is if I'm super excited about where you're going and if I make it how I think you would like for it to be.
Greer has cornered the market on the pinky/peach hue.
(And it is the PERFECT mix of pink and peach together, please believe.)
Which is fine because you are not pink to me, you never have been.
You...are lavender.
Very light lavendery walls with deeper purple accents.
Cozy and elegant.
I am reluctantly excited about this project--I'm happy to do this for you but at the same time, I'd just rather that you stay with me.
Forever.
(Okay, well maybe not forever, but for indefinite.)

Scott and Lynn were just here to celebrate the new year with us and they said, "She's not a pork chop, she's a lamb chop."
And it's so fitting, really it is!
The main word there is "chop" in case you didn't notice--be it pork or lamb, Luxie, you are DELICIOUSLY choppish.
But lamb is cuter than pork so that might stick as a name.
(Just be glad it isn't "sausage" because that's what Creux was called for the first year and a half of his fat little life.)

My favorite moments of most weeks right now are your "Home Spa Days."
Initially I hated (and I do mean hated) the little bath pod we bought for you.
But now you've grown into it a bit and we can stuff you down in it pretty well where you can't move a chubby little limb so I no longer feel like bath time is a watery version of Russian roulette.

You seem to just love this thing now and we give you a little Boon toy (the kind that will stick to the walls) and you chomp on that and splash and smile.
Daddy and I have been doing this together as I'd been terrified that I was going to drown you a month back so he took over...but then I missed bath time so now I hang out while he soaps you.

You're just so incredibly sweet sitting it in, water up to your tiny little shoulders, your sweet neck exposed in the back, your hair frizzing up from the humidity.
I think you're going to have curly hair like your big sister which is just so foreign to me.
I probably told you this before but when I was little (and on into college really) my hair was so straight that I couldn't even get it to hold curl AT ALL.
Now the texture of my hair is different, whether from age or babies (you kids really kind of wreck EVERYTHING ;)) who knows.
But Greer had these ringlet curls when she was little and they were so tight that I would stick my finger right up inside them and they would wind right around me.
You have just the most adorable beginnings of curls--wispy little flyaways that aren't quite long enough yet to do much of anything except stand out from your head.

You've moved fully into 6-9 month clothing and are outpacing my supply of baby girl hand-me-downs because Greer was on the tiny end of things.  Her 6-9 month stuff is mostly spring wear and it's definitely NOT spring around here yet.
It's really not that big of a problem though because unlike my other babies (all of them), I prefer to keep you in pajamas.
All. Day. Long.
The sign of a successful day for me is if you remain in your sleepwear from night until the following night because it means that I did not have to drag you out in the cold that day.
I'm not a fan of babies going out in pajamas (weird little thing of mine) so if we go public I dress you, but if not, in pjs you stay alllllll the live long day!

You're not even really going out for date night anymore which is actually very nice.
If you're with us, I'm either nursing through dinner or Daddy is holding you the whole time so one of us is really kind of more caught up in you than in the date itself.
You're bigger now and can go longer stretches between feeds (3-4 hours) so I'll feed you right before we walk out the door and we're good for the night.
If we're planning a big chunk of time out, we'll go shopping...go home to nurse...then back out for dinner.
And maybe that sounds like an inconvenience but if it keeps you snug at home and keeps us free for awhile, it's totally worth the extra effort to make it happen.

No teeth yet but a rising interest in food.
We'll bring you to the table this month and see what happens though you're pretty content with your new sippy cups (of water).
Once you start taking solid food, you will take less of my milk and that's better for you than anything I can whip into a puree so we're putting it off for as long as possible.
Regardless, I'm excited to make room for you at our family table.
Officially.
(Meaning, lap-free as right now you slap the food right off my fork or attempt to sog us both by swiping the drink from my mouth. Fiesty little lap diner!)

Love to you, my little lamb chop.
Mama