true love

I will go ahead and apologize in advance, because this post is only about Juliana. She is now almost six months old, and she continues to woo us everyday with her adorable charm and personality. Saying that Juliana is a happy baby does not capture who she is completely. She has so many different smiles -- her unsure smile, her full-blown open-mouth smile, her "gummy" smile, her flirty smile, and her charming smile ... each has its own nuance, and each one makes her parents melt. I fear that her first words will be "you're so cute," because that's pretty much all she hears.

She has been sitting up now for a few weeks and loves her new ability. This allows her to play more freely with her toys, which actually means putting more items in her mouth. One of her favorite activities during playtime is simply shaking her toys. Juliana recently learned she is now coordinated enough to do this, so I give her a rattle and let her go. I take this amazing talent as a precursor to her being a musician prodigy.
At her four-month check-up she weighted 13 pounds and 11 ounces and was 25 inches long. She is now in the fiftieth percentile for her age, although judging by her cheek size you would think she would be bigger! I guess she has to have big, squeezable cheeks to match those big brown eyes. We started giving her solids two weeks ago, and so far she is doing great. She really loves her avocados, but isn't completely crazy about her sweet potatoes. Of course, she still loves her mommy food best -- so much so that she still refuses to take a bottle anymore (problematic since I teach on Tuesdays). We're really trying to work on using a sippy cup, but that is a slow process!
Just in case you can't tell, we are absolutely crazy about our daughter, and for good reason. She is nothing short of a bundle of delight, joy, and true love.