All Michaela, all the time!

Today is about Michaela. Why? Because exactly 6 months ago from this moment (about 9:30 Alaska time), my interthecal block was wearing off, the nurse had pushed pitocin against my wishes, and I wanted to die from the horrific pain in my back as I tried to bring this wonderful little girl into the world. HA! About an hour after that, I was reluctantly signing the consent form for my c-section. And about an hour and a half after that, Michaela made her appearance!

The last six months have absolutely flown by and neither one of us can imagine life without her in it. Ok, well, there would be more traveling, and better nights out at the movies (where we both get to stay in our seats the whole time without having to visit the crying room to calm down a baby who should be asleep), and definitely a LOT more sleeping, but our lives wouldn't be nearly as rich as they are now. And I really mean that.

So other than saying that the last six months have been great (almost) all the time and that I never could've imagined the depth of love you could have for a single little person, I don't have that much to say. I'll give you captions on the pictures, but we'll just let everyone soak in the Michaela-goodness!

NOT a fan of peas. We'll try again some other time...

We busted out the Kelty backpack this week. We had a day that was warm enough to skip the extra blankets, and the potholes are too much even for the Bob (thanks to 3 weeks of rain), so we figured we'd try a new ride. She didn't like it until we started moving. Then she enjoyed being up so high!

Until....

Yeah, she can sleep anywhere. She fell asleep at some point on the walk and we managed to get her off Jason's back and moved around the living room before she eventually woke up. No, this is not the only picture of this. Silly girl.

Today we tried green beans. I think more got in her mouth than everywhere else, but I can't be sure. Like her handiwork on the tray?

We switched back to the old standby of rice cereal and sweet potatoes later today, but mixed it up with a few bites of green bean as well. This would be the end result of that. She likes to "help" get the spoon in her mouth... yeah, not so much a help as painting on her face!

The big girl hanging out in her highchair! Jason made a comment about how different she was in just six months... from a helpless, tiny(ish... I don't think 8lb, 13oz counts as tiny) little baby to this baby who can sit up in a high chair (or on the floor by herself) and eat real food and make faces and crack us up!

And, finally, a 6-month portrait. We're having real ones done by my friend Amy later this week (she's just starting a photography business here in Kodiak and we already had some pictures done with her... check out her blog - Simply b photos), but I had to get at least one on the actual day. This took many tries because my goober of a daughter keeps trying to look around the camera to find me. So between her being all crooked and leaning over to the side, and me just laughing at her, it took a while to get a good shot! See, she cracks us up!

Someone asked us the other day if we now wished we'd had a baby sooner than we did. I mean, really, 10 years after getting married we FINALLY got around to it. But I told him that I think Michaela arrived at just the right time. There will never be any "what-if's" or "I wish I woulda's" for us in terms of the other goals and things we wanted to achieve (at least for me... I think Jason would agree). For that, I'm so thankful because it means I can really just enjoy my daughter and appreciate the blessing she is to us!

Happy Half Birthday, Sweet Girl. Mommy and Daddy love you!