The Adventures of Rosa and Eliza: Rosa's sixth month

Hard to believe how fast the first six months went by. Cliched to say, but true. Rosa went from a floppy, tiny, warm mass that mostly cried to a little person who responds to peek-a-boo and patty-cake, sits up by herself, and laughs when we tickle her belly.

This month started with Rosa and I leaving Cleveland and flying to Philadelphia, where we met Jeff in the airport and drove to his cousins' house for Thanksgiving. We arrived late Wednesday night to find those who were still up in their robes, anxiously awaiting our arrival and their first peek at Rosa, the first family member of her generation. Since Rosa was asleep in her carseat, I kind of whisked her upstairs and begged their patience until the next morning. Everyone got a tiny peek though.

The next day was Thanksgiving. Dinner was huge and fantastic as always. All the cousins and aunts and uncles got their turns holding Rosa, who was very accommodating. After dinner, we took the "4-Generation" photo - these are Rosa's only set of great-grandparents - as well as the full family photo that Peter does ever year.

Peter and Terri live on Conestoga Creek, a tributary to the Susquehanna River, and we took a nice walk along it with Amanda one sunny afternoon. As the socks on the hands show, we weren't entirely prepared for the cold! The other great thing I discovered at Peter and Terri's was Terri's glider. Back before Rosa was born, I thought I didn't need one of these, but when I rocked Rosa in it, she just melted in my arms, so when we got home, I ran out and bought one as fast as I could!

We fit in everything we could on this trip, and even got to drop in to see my friend Paul on the way to airport. Poor Paul had sniffles which he claimed were allergies, but I still didn't let him hold Rosa!

When we got back to San Francisco, we had visits from Karen and her son Weston, Rainbow, and Louise, as well as a visit from Uncle Ging and Aunt Alice from across the Bay.

We also had a reunion party with all the couples from the birth preparation class that we took. It was fantastic to see all the babies that we got to know in utero! Rosa was so cute in her Christmas suit from Auntie Kathy (Williams) - thank you! It was at this party (Dec 7) that I think Rosa did her first official sitting up unaided. I let go of her for a good 10 seconds and she balanced. Playing with the other babies was so fun that Rosa sacked out on the way home, holding the one and only Sophie the Giraffe. The bottom left picture is Rosa and Izzy, one of the boys from the class, who came over to visit Rosa another day.

A few days before Christmas, which also happens to be Rosa's 6-month birthday, Rosa ate her first solid food! We chose to start with sweet potato. Rosa did the requisite funny faces and pushing it back out with her tongue... but some of it got in, and thus began the beginning of a new era. I have since learned that solids mean more messes, more outfits in a day, and lots of bibs!

We had a low-key Christmas this year, unlike our usual travels to 3 states that we've always done in the past. For Christmas Eve dinner, we had a vellea of sorts, and although everything we at was from a can or box, the intent was there! Rosa is showing her true Slavic heritage reaching for the pierogies. Then we spent Christmas day with our friends Lenny and Lin, who waited until the end of the day to tell us their big news - that Lin is pregnant with twins! (By the way, we had pumpkin pie and chocolate mousse instead of cupcakes for Rosa's 6-month birthday.)