6 months of Aidan

Dear Aidan,

You’re officially 0.5 years old! One exclamation mark is really not enough for this momentous announcement but I have to restrain myself.

Since mama is an educator, let us recap how far we have come in the past six months.

Week 1: “Oh my gosh we made this teeny tiny human!”
When you were first born, your dad and I were constantly in awe of you. Those precious toes? That rosebud lips? Your head full of hair? It came from us. US! SO CUTE!

Month 1: “We have a Good Baby on our hands. But of course.”
All you did was eat, sleep and shit in three hourly cycles. In fact, you were so fab at going back to sleep after a feed and cried so little that we patted ourselves on our backs, gleeful that we had conceived such an angel.

Week 6: “Does he stop eating, like EVAR?”
You went through a growth spurt and let’s just say that we spent a lot of time in bed, you and I. Your dad had to bring in sustenance for me.

Month 2: “Urghs! Stop crying! And when is he going to start smiling?”
Ooh, I remember those times well. Those long periods of non-stop wailing. Your dad was SUPER PISSED OFF. He just couldn’t put you down for a nap, no matter what tricks he pulled out of his bag. And oh my, you were still jaundiced and looking like a piece of burnt toast that DID. NOT. SMILE. I was utterly convinced that I had a “cao bin/cao kuan/cao ta” baby for the rest of my life.

Week 10: “Is he ever going to nap?”
Yup. Story of your life. 30 minutes of coaxing, 20 minutes of sleep. Great ROI. At the same time, though, you started making cooing and gurgling noises. You were CUTE! I no longer felt like I was talking to the wall.

Month 3: “He smiles! He’s a little person!”
Thankfully, you finally learned how to work those facial muscles and SMILED. And what a cutie patootie smile you have! At this point, I also decided that it was futile trying to get you to sleep so I started carting you out and about.

Month 4: “We need sleep.”
You went through this period where you loved to wake up every other hour in the night. EEEKS. Good thing you are cute. And oh, you started laughing! It was pure magic the first time we heard you chortle. In fact, it’s now our mission to make silly faces just to hear you laugh.

Month 5: “Flippin’ flipping!”
I was wondering when you were going to flip and boy did I get my wish. Around the time that you turned five months old, you discovered that you could flip from your back to your tummy. WHAT JOY! Unfortunately, it also meant that you were up at 1am or 4am practising your newfound skills. We’d put you down in our bed and the first thing you did was to flip. We were preparing to be sleep deprived for a good few weeks but thank goodness it only took days.

So here you are today, all of six months old. Your personality is starting to show too. Your dad thinks you will be a cheeky monkey in future and I agree. You can be bossy and impatient, and you really know how to work a crowd. Clever boy. But you are also oh-so-adorable and sweet natured.

I’m getting more mellow at this motherhood thing, no longer jumping at everything and anything. It’s really on-the-job learning, more than anything else, and we are all figuring it out together as we go along. My sleep debt is mounting by the second but that’s just part and parcel of parenthood.

There are so many things about you that I love: how you touch my face so gently, your coos and smiles after a feed, when you are sobbing and going “MAAAAAAAAAA”, the way you reach out to grab at the cats, your laughter when I yell “NAKED BABY!!” during bath times, you stretching your arms out towards me when you want nobody but mommy to comfort you, your bouncy cheeks that I love to kiss so much, your sweet baby scent, your giggles when I sing to you.

Everyday is a wonderful journey with you and no words can ever articulate just how much you mean to me.

I love you more than bees love honey, baby boy.

♥
Mama