A Very Merry Half-Birthday

To YOU, Silvia!

Six months old today, can you believe it? I can't. This has been, without a doubt, the most difficult 6 months of my life. Fortunately, it's also been the most rewarding. Adjusting to a second child and all that came with her, Anna's terrible two's, post-partum depression knocking me for a totally unexpected loop; it's all been a struggle.

But the pay-off? Huge. Kurt and I are champions of communication and teamwork, we lean on each other and and in doing so, hold the other one up. Anna has blossomed this summer, really blossomed, and absolutely adores her baby sister. I've had to learn how to breathe and prioritize and sleep and relax. (And then relax some more, you know, just for kicks. With a little bit of extra breathing on the side.)

And Silvia, oh, little Silvia! She's a real, honest-to-goodness baby now. She sits up on her own, she's starting to eat solids for real now, she talks and gurgles and makes pirate sounds for her own entertainment, ("ARGHHHH!"). She's still incredibly smile-y, just the happiest little blue-eyed girl there ever was. She dotes on her big sister, follows Anna's movements around the room as though hypnotized. At night, she's sleeping better, waking up 2 times on average, though sometimes 3 or 4 on a random bad night.

And she's so different from Anna! She's very, very strong, spends her days rolling onto her belly and inch-worming her way across the floor. I know that I'm going to blink and then she'll suddenly be crawling. She walks, when you hold her, she walks all over, thinks it's hysterical. She still won't really take a bottle and is nursing about every hour to hour and half during the day, which gets a bit exhausting for me. I'm hopeful, though, that the solids she's now taking will help her to ease off a bit and start to give me a break on that front.

It has not been an easy six months, no. But from where I sit now, balanced and happy and confident, I can say that even though it was an incredibly difficult transition for all of us, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Silvia is so worth it and has completed our little family in the most perfect way.

Anna sums it up the best, every morning. "Mama, shall we go downstairs and find My Silvia?"

It's the only way to start the day.