I Can't Believe It.

Elise will be six months old tomorrow. I'm sitting here thinking about that and getting a little sad. If I didn't plan on having more kids eventually, I'd be pretty depressed right now. Tomorrow starts the time when Elise's only food isn't my breastmilk. She's never had anything else. Her being able to eat other things, I'm sure, will feel like a relief sometimes, but right now I just want her all to myself to love and take care of. As exhausting as this first six months has been sometimes, I'm not sure I want Elise to be a big baby yet. But she's definitely not a newborn anymore.

I was talking on the phone to my oldest sister recently, and she mentioned that my mom didn't want to stop breastfeeding me. I am the youngest of seven children, and my mom nursed us all. I said something about how weird it was that I was like 18 months old when my mom finally weaned me (and even then it was because the doctor told her she should because she had bad bruises on her chest from being in a car accident). Now that I think about it, though, I can understand how she might feel that way. There's something happy and intimate and innocent about nursing a baby.

Elise is so grown up all of a sudden. Matt said the other day, "She's so cute when she sits and plays. She looks like an actual human, not like a lump of lard." Translation for those of you who are offended for Elise's sake: "She's so cute, and she's getting to be so grown up and independent." Matt keeps things light around here.

Elise is so ready for solids. Today she lurched to grab the food I was eating, and for quite some time she's had a hawk eye on me as I eat. She loves to sip water from a cup (even though most of it comes back out of her mouth again), and she thinks spoons are really great to put in her mouth. (Then again, I'm not so sure she cares about spoons in particular because she puts everything in her mouth.) She's been sitting since her 5-month birthday, and she's getting better at it all the time. She's going to love solid foods.

We're planning on introducing rice cereal tomorrow. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and maybe even a video, and you can expect a blog post about it. And I'll try not to be too sad that my little girl is growing up.

8 days old

now