Dear Sage at 6 months |

Dear Sage at 6 months

by elizabeth on October 30, 2012

As each month passes, life with you gets exponentially better. Every week it seems you build on the wonderful person you were the week before. I am waiting for you to become difficult or to hit that fill-in-the-blank “stage” but it hasn’t happened yet. You continue to be a flexible, go-with-the-flow child who rarely cries and fills our world with indescribable happiness. Your cries surface only with good reason; you are tired, frustrated, or hungry. When responded to quickly, your cries rarely become much more than a few whimpers, although when put in your car seat there’s usually a pretty respectable resistance. With a little help from the pacifier though, you settle in and begrudgingly accept your buckled entrapment. There are few things that rattle you. I have been in the day care room when you get knocked over, have your hair pulled, or get pet a little too hard by your older friends, but you breeze right through it. Resilience should be your middle name. You look at the perpetrator almost like you understand that in knocking you over or petting you too hard she was only trying to give you some love but has yet to realize her own strength.

You hit two more milestones in your fifth and sixth month. Just before your five month birthday you started sitting up on your own. This was so fun for us because now you feel more present in our world. As we play together we can look at each other face to face and can hand things back and forth. You are so happy to be off the ground and prefer it to being on your tummy. I think you like to watch the world go by independently and from a more comfortable position.

The second milestone is teeth! I am happy to say that we worked our way through the first teething episode, your two bottom teeth, without too much trouble. There were two days, very clear in my memory, when you were quite uncomfortable. But after hours of holding, cuddling, rocking, and napping your teeth finally popped through and as quickly as your pain came, it was gone.

At the end of October, we finished our second month of daycare and while I was very worried about this environment before you started, I now feel that you gain quite a bit by being there. Every weekend when Daddy and I spend our entire day with you, you show us all the new tricks you have learned during the week. You are so social and you adore watching the bigger kids run back and forth across the room. As they run they stop by to give you toys, hugs and sometimes even kisses. Most of them pay a lot of attention you and you don’t mind their physical affections in the least. The women who care for you are so lovely and responsive. When I come to see you I often feel like I am prying you out of their arms!

This month marked your first real summit too! We went on your first full day hike and climbed Mt. San Jacinto. It was about 8 hours in and out of the backpack and you were happy, smiling, or sleeping the whole time. You made it up to 11,000 feet! One thing that continues to be consistent in your monthly development is your love of the outdoors. You bounced through the trees on your Daddy’s back just soaking it all in. You enjoyed sucking on a pine cone, digging in the dirt, holding rocks, touching trees, the whole bit!

You are working on figuring out how to crawl. You lay on your tummy, pushing your torso way into the air and stick your bootie way up in the air only to find that your torso rocks back down, just like a teeter-totter. One of these days I imagine you will combine the two and will find the foundation position for an emerging crawl. When you are on your tummy it looks like you are swimming. So if you were a fish, you would certainly be moving by now. You like to kick your legs over and over in every position. You favor your left leg and sometimes when you do this in your car seat or on your back, while including the perfect little pointed toe, you kick and kick like a dancer.

This week you start your swim lessons. You will go twice a week and because it is an outdoor pool, Daddy bought you a little wet suit. We can’t wait for these additional excuses to get you in the water. Experiencing life with you makes every little thing that much better.

I shouldn’t end this entry without throwing in some of your nicknames. Sageypoo, Sageypoodle, bug, buggy, sweet pea, sugarbug, lovebug… just to name a few.

Six months

25 1/2 inches tall, 15 lbs 8 ounces