Happy Half Birthday.

No more pictures Mommy!

The other day was Babe's six month birthday! I know every mother around the world has said the same thing but, "My little baby is growing up so fast!"

I know she is only six months old but she already feels so big.

Six months ago I was asking, "Who would ever have more than one child? You'd be crazy to intentionally go through all that pain again."

But now I'm already saying, "Who would stop at just one?"

As happy as I am that Babe is getting bigger, more fun, more personable and able to go out and enjoy more adventures, I sometimes miss my wrinkly little newborn with the baby lamb cries.

She is changing every day. Just this week she has started saying "da da da da" and "ba ba ba ba". And she is shaking her head no, although I don't think she knows what it means she just does it to make it more difficult to get the food in her mouth.

Even though some hours or days are really frustrating I try to remind myself to enjoy every minute. Recently some job positions have come available that I would have loved to apply for. But that would mean going back to work now and giving up on my next six months of maternity. Even though I  worry about forgetting what I've learned and getting behind my peers in experience I simply can't justify giving up on all that time with Babe. I worked so hard after graduation to earn enough hours to qualify for mat leave. Although a couple of these jobs would have been perfect for me, seeing the change in Babe from week to week just proves to me that I'll never have this time again and there will always be another job waiting. How lucky am I that I get paid anything at all to stay home with my precious baby?

But back to the half birthday. We didn't celebrate the six month mark. I just took some pics of Babe with her birthday balloon (which she thought was pretty cool) and I bought her a gift from the local baby boutique.

I got Babe this great bear! Isn't he cute? We named him Scribbles. I had my eye on him for awhile and finally decided to purchase him with Babe's half birthday as the excuse.

These dolls really are great. They are called Aminal dolls. They are 100 per cent organic with organic dyes, fabrics and cotton stuffing. They are also fair trade. They are certified by the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) which regulates the working conditions of employees. Aminals say they are "produced using the fairest, safest, most humane labour standards available".  And they are even compostable! So if you decide your kid has too many stuffys you can apparently just chuck your Aminal in the garden. I guessing he's take a pretty long time to break down into soil though.

I thought they were so great that I also bought a couple as gifts for some upcoming kid's parties.