perchance to dream

Can you believe my baby turned six months old this past month? A half a year?! So unbelievable. In some ways, the months have flown by. In other ways, they've passed by so slow. They really have been "the longest shortest time."

We've hit a lot of milestones of late. The babble has started to become recognizable - at least to me. Do you hear "Ma-ma-ma" when you listen?



We've also started solid foods with much greater success after a failed attempt with oatmeal. Rice cereal, bananas, apples, and sweet potatoes. Dr. B instructed us - at our six month appointment - that we need to start "more aggressively pursuing solids," so after another veggie, we will try chicken! Such a big boy.



November was also filled with celebrations - Baby Beeton's baptism and his first Thanksgiving. We had almost 20 relatives attend the baptism, including Henry's three fabulous cousins - Baby B, Baby L, and Lil' M. For lunch, we had everyone back to the house for soup from Souper Girl and Subway sandwiches. The grandmas made delicious salads, and Grammy ordered cupcakes with little decorations to commemorate the day. Thanksgiving was spent in Virginia where Baby Beeton got his own very special place setting. Too bad we hadn't started sweet potatoes by then!

The big crowd at our house meant that we finally finished the kitchen (save the floor). It looks wonderful, and I wish we had done it sooner. Everything is so fresh and clean. And, we even have a peg board like Julia's. And a wonderful by product of the kitchen being finished is that we cleared out all the kitchen stuff from the dining room. This means that we can eat at our dining room table, and we have a huge area for Baby Beeton to play in. I'm starting to really love my house.



We've been getting out a bit more too. Pancakes with Santa, a visit to the zoo, and lunch at Burger Tap Shake at Foggy Bottom. It's been a good month... except for...

SLEEP!

Baby Beeton - for the last few weeks of November - had been having a terrible struggle with sleep, waking up every hour, taking hours to get back to sleep, and being a general grouchy man. At the time, this lack of sleep eclipsed all the good things that had been happening in our life. Each day, we discussed various sleep strategies; we read tons of sleep books; we cried over the fact that it looked like we would have to let him cry it out. We were miserable.

But, it got better.

I only write this now because I want to acknowledge this dark time, know that we got through it, and record the strategies that helped (The No Cry Sleep Solution, Dr. B's advice to "let him cry a little... don't be cruel, but don't run to him every time he whimpers," a sweet little blankie that feels a little bit like Momma's robe).

We're not out of the woods yet, but for now, it's peaceful and quiet. A good time to rest.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Finished reading The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.