Leone is growing so fast that the peach fuzz on her head looks longer from one day to the next.
She’s got a little bang in front now, like Tintin. And her eyelashes have grown long and unruly.
But the biggest change since she turned six months old five days ago is that she suddenly has so much purpose. She knows what she wants and she tries to get it, a look of serious concentration on her face.
When I have a cup filled with water and I take a sip, Leone fixates on the cup, grabs at it with both hands, and shoves it towards her mouth. She smacks her lips, water spraying out, and she lets it dribble down her chin. Then she intently gums the edge of the cup. Beware the mother who also wants to take a sip. Leone shrieks her disapproval and clutches at the cup with the force of a sumo wrestler.
She babbles all the time now. Her favorite sound clusters are “da da da” and “na na na” but she says a lot of other words too. And today when her sister was leaving, Leone moved her arm back and forth as if trying to wave goodbye.
She doesn’t crawl yet and she still hates to be on her stomach. But she will stick her butt in the air as if she is trying to go somewhere. Usually she scoots herself backwards just a bit, gets frustrated, turns over onto her back, and is all smiles after that.
How can the baby be half a year old already? Compared to a newborn she’s practically a grandmother. But I feel like she was just born.
She’s sleeping beside me as I write this, one arm thrown over her head, her belly moving up and down with each quiet breath, her leg cozy against mine. If she didn’t smell so sweet and if I didn’t love her so much, I wouldn’t be able to forgive her for growing up so fast.
Tags: baby and temper tantrums, crawling, growing up, purpose, purposeful baby, six month old baby, six months old, waving
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