Pure Love

Today was my baby's six month birthday. 

I'm sure I echo every parent out there when I say I can hardly believe it.  Six months is so... measurable.  It's half of a year and there are only eighteen years!  Oh my gosh.  I can't let myself think this way.

Anyway, we had a great day.  It was the first really sunny, warm (well, warmish) day.  Daddy is working all weekend, and not home during baby's waking hours... so it was just "Mommy and me."

After our usual morning routine, we made a special breakfast trip to Panera.  Baby loves any change of scenery and enjoyed his time looking around and babbling at Mama.  Mama enjoyed her usual, asiago bagel with sundried tomato cream cheese and hazelnut coffee.  Yum!  (ahem, yes, this is a cheat day... so far I've only lost one pound, which I chalk up to my baby waking for the day earlier and earlier, thus never leaving me more than 6-7 hours sleep!  Better luck next week...).

Back at home, as a sort of "birthday cake," baby enjoyed his very own bite of Mommy's zucchini bread (literally, Mom's Zucchini Bread from allrecipes.com, but with half whole wheat flour).  To my delight, he not only loved it but became angry when I wouldn't give him more!  I've long been on a quest to try as many new recipes as possible in order to find the very best ones to be the staples of my children's childhoods.  Don't judge me!  That's the kind of thing I love.  I want our "menu" to be very seasonal, so different flavors will work with the weather to bring back what I hope are happy memories.  I'm currently working on a master list of Christmas recipes so that I can whittle it down - because I know I need to choose just a few to be "the" Christmas recipes, enjoyed by my family year after year.

Later we went on a long walk on the Minuteman Trail.  Just our usual routine, but the sun was nice.

He was in the sweetest mood ever this evening.  Oh how I wished Daddy could have seen it!  He was smiley and sweet, and very intent on staring at and snuggling with me.  I tell you it was pure heaven.  As I carried my freshly bathed cutie to the chair for our bedtime book, he stared up into my eyes, gave a huge toothless grin, touched both his hands to the sides of my cheeks, and exclaimed "Aaaaah!" in delight.  I never want to forget these moments!

Sometimes I get so sad when I realize that this "baby" is a temporary being.  Already, my "newborn" no longer exists.  Of course he's very much the same person, but he's a different creature, if that makes any sense.  I wish I could have stashed away even just an hour or so of his "newborn" time to dole out to myself over the years.  The flipcam is the best we can do, I guess.

Happy birthday, Baby.  You are my magic.