Today. You have a smile that melts even the strongest of hearts, you have eyes so alert seemingly nothing passes you by, you have a strong determination to do what your buddies, just a couple months older, are already doing, and a stubbornness – heaven help me – that is so close to matching your mama’s.
Today. You tell me, not with words, but with an emphatic spitting out action, that you do NOT like avocado or kiwi, but that you do love (as shown by your ever ready open mouth) steel cut oats mashed with sweet banana, and basil sprinkled chicken mixed with fluorescent orange carrots.
Today. Your eyes light up when your papsy reads softly from the Stinky Cheese Man, and your belly gushes uncontrollable giggles when your mama reads the Gitchy Gitchy Goo book.
Today. You rock the Jolly Jumper ballet style with perfectly executed pliés and all. You enthusiastically sing your Little Ring aria at the dinner table. You freak the crud out of your mama with your continuous prairie dog state…I do NOT need an early crawler thank you very much.
Today. You love to suck on your big toe because apparently thumbs are for amateurs; you love to roll around naked, especially when your mama is trying to fasten a diaper onto you; you love to hug it out with Orville the Orange Orangutan who loves Oreo cookies, and you love to chew on Boris the Bolshevik Bunny’s ears.
Today. You are no longer a newborn, you are no longer a sleeping, crying, pooping lump, you are no longer as needy as you used to be. Today. You are six months old – the best six months of my life!
I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.
~ Robert Munsch