Rayya - 6 Months

Hokey Dina! (Yes, I just wrote "Hokey Dina"). My baby is half a year old. HALF A YEAR!!! Where did those last 6 months go? Crazy!

This is a picture of Rayya with her great grandma, on grandma's 75th birthday! I love this picture!

These last 6 months have been really good in my opinion. Adjusting to having two wasn't nearly the adjustment it was to have the first one. When you have number two you have already adjusted to the fact that you will forever no longer be the number one priority. You've already learned to sacrifice things for yourself, and give your all to your child. You've already come to realize that life will operate a little slower, and you won't always accomplish everything you had hoped to. You've already come through the phase of mourning "freedom", and though you still mourn for it every now and then, you are used to living without it. You are used to taking another body with you everywhere - like the store, or the bathroom. You are accustomed to the extra laundry, dirty carpets, drooled on shoulder, and messy dishes. So throw in baby number two, and all you really have to do is just get used to HER, and not all the changes that she brings about!

I've really loved most aspects of having two children. I longed desperately to see James become a big brother, and he is doing a great job of that! They are so cute together, and I just can't wait to watch them grow up together through the years. I can tell that they will (eventually) be friends. Rayya just absolutely adores James, and she smiles and lights up whenever she hears his voice or sees his face.

Rayya has been a dreamy baby. She is content, happy, adaptable, easy going, and just all around a joy. Her sleeping patterns have been funny, but I'm learning to just accept her unpredictable character and try to "roll with the punches". In doing so, I'm finding that her sleeping habits are becoming better... or at least I don't seem to be so frustrated by them. Lately she has fallen into a decent pattern of a short morning nap, and longer afternoon nap (which has conveniently been overlapping James' nap), and another short late afternoon nap which she doesn't always take. Then her nights have been sporadic, but the last two have been great - she's slept from 8:00pm to about 5:00am, had a bottle, and then slept again until after 7:00am.

Rayya rolls over now, both from back to front, and front to back. At six months James was sitting up, which Rayya hasn't mastered yet. She tries to "scoot" when she is on her tummy, so I think that in the next couple of months we may see her crawling. She still has no teeth, and no sign of when they may appear. She is ALWAYS, ALWAYS soaking wet - and I change her cloths several times a day, as she hates bibs (of course). She says "ga, ga, ga" and "wa,wa,wa" and various other coos and gurgles.

I've started solids a few times, but up until yesterday she would just let it all trickle out of her mouth. James gobbled solids when we started him at 5ish months. Rayya doesn't seem to need it so much, so she is just getting a little bit of rice or oatmeal cereal in the evening. Last night she finally ate more of it than what she smeared all over herself, so that was nice.
I think Rayya might end up being a people-pleaser like me. She is mostly quiet (though she talks a lot, just not loudly), and smiles at most people we meet. She loves to pan the crowd at church until she finds someone willing to make faces at her and smile at her. Like I mentioned earlier, she loves her big brother, her daddy, and of course, ME! She'd be happy to be carried around all day, but also loves her exersaucer. I put her in the Jolly Jumper the other day, but unlike her big brother, she didn't seem ready for it yet.

All in all, I think she's a keeper. We can't get enough of her.