In contrast to Madelyn, whose first year I chronicled in depth here, I’ve been relatively silent about Amelia, who is a little more than six months old. These days she is getting very close to sitting up by herself. She loves to stand in her baby exerciser and gnaw on the toys in it. We’ve started to feed her a few things, and she really likes to eat. But nothing epitomizes Amelia more than smiling. This kid smiles and smiles and smiles and smiles. It’s her natural state, and has been since she was a few days old.
Amelia and Madelyn are pretty different kids. That’s not to say Madelyn isn’t happy and smily; she is. But Amelia is much more placid. She sleeps sooooo much more readily than Madelyn. (Imagine wild cheering here.) We give her a pacifier, wrap her up, and out she goes. I’ve only had to rock Amelia to sleep three or four times. Madelyn? Rocking her to sleep was standard operating procedure once she got past four months. Every nap and nighttime was a battle, often an hour long or more. Multiple times I fell asleep on the couch holding Madelyn because that was the only way she’d go down. And she still amazes us by staying up past 10 then rising before 7. On the other hand, Amelia goes to bed around 8 and sleeps four and five hours at a time. The only thing we have to worry about with Amelia is her face: she has a little eczema, and she scratches her face if we let her. So we put socks on her hands and swaddle her for naps and bedtime.
Since yesterday was mother’s day we dropped a bunch of pictures and movies in Flickr for our girls’ Grandmas. Have a look and enjoy our little smiler.