It has cooled off significantly in the Midwest, and I’ve been spending lots of time indoors, looking through photos of my darling little girl – like the ones below. These reminded me of a beautiful afternoon we spent outside early this fall, when E was around 6 months old.

E proved to be quite the little nature lover.  Just look at those inquisitive eyes!

See how happy E is to be outside? Her daddy was working on the shed, and she and I just had a blast hanging out on the quilt, playing with her toys, feeling the grass, watching bees fly around, and talking to our neighbor, too!

She really seems to love this little beach ball. In my head, I hear her saying “oh, beach ball, don’t ever leave me!”.  You hear now it too, don’t you!!!

This one might be my favorite of all of these pictures. She was DRAWN to the grass. So cool and smooth on her fingers. Such a bright, inviting green. Just look at the determination on her little face!

She would rush over to the edge of the quilt to grab handfuls of the grass, and a couple times, she put the handful right into her mouth – AAAACK!  Most of the time, though, she’d look at it in her fingers, roll it around in her chubby little hand, and then I’d make her drop it all before she could eat it.

Such a wonderful, exciting age.  This girl just brings such joy to our family.  What a blessing.

E is 8 months old!

These pictures are from a recent trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa S.  Grandpa S raked a nice pile of leaves so that E could enjoy a great Fall experience.  Her cousins, H & L, really helped her feel comfortable with the new experience.  L in particular was a great influence on her!  As you can see, they all had a fantastic time playing in the pile their grandpa raked for them!

What a FUN Halloween! It was our first day back from Seattle (where I was working for 2 weeks, and E’s daddy was on 24-hour baby duty), and we barely made it out, but what fun we had when we did!

E was Tinkerbell, and as you will see from these pictures, she made a GREAT little Tink!   The hat isn’t part of the costume, but it was a cold day, so the warmth was needed.  I think it added a little something fun to the outfit, so it ended up in many of the photos.

Is it simply by virtue of having a child that your sense of time speeds up? I can’t believe that we have gone from recapping month 6 to recapping month 7 (very nearly month 8, really) already! Yet, here we are, 2-1/2 weeks past E’s 7 month birthday. It’s crazy, how fast she’s growing up!

E is 6 months old (actually, she’s closer to 7 months, but since I’m so busy right now, it’s taken me a loooonnnng time to write this post, and we’re going to pretend she’s only 6 months old).

In the past month, E has learned how to crawl, sit unassisted, pull to a standing position, eat puffs, put her pacifier in her own mouth, and make consonant sounds.  Oh, yeah, and she learned how to drive, too.

Just kidding.  We only taught her how to park the car.

E has officially started to crawl.  Now, bear with me, here.  She’s not all coordinated yet, but she’s definitely crawling.  Her grandma tried to tell her that what she was doing WASN’T crawling, and here’s what she thought of that:

HA!  So THERE, grandma!

My sweet little E has been sent home from daycare a couple times in the past couple weeks for exhibiting symptoms of illness.  While I appreciate that the daycare workers are protecting the other babies in her “class”, both times, E has been fine.

The first time she was sent home was for a rash that had cropped up on her arms and legs.  I suspected that the rash was due to a reaction from unusual detergent (we had stayed with friends in Indiana the weekend prior).  We were required to take her to a doctor to determine if the rash was contagious, though.  Even the doctor thought the requirement was silly, given the mild appearance of the rash (no raised bumps), the absence of a fever, and the fact that she did not appear to be bothered by the rash at all.

Five short months ago, my daughter joined the world.  Since then, I’ve learned that unless I’m extremely organized, I’m going to get beat by this whole mothering thing.  Something that no one tells you before you have kids: you get really stoopid (yep, that’s stoopid with 2 O’s) when you have a baby!

I chalk it up to being exhausted.  Exhausted people have not historically been known for their keen powers of thinking.  Where once I was a smart, thinking woman of a certain intelligence, I am now a quivering blob of amoebic goo.

Therefore, I have developed certain areas of no-thought-required organization to help me and E’s daddy care for her (yes, he’s been struck stoopid, too).  Take her diaper bags, for example.

Thanks, Aunt Pat for this quilt!

My E is now 5 months old.  Last month I commented that I couldn’t believe she was already 4 months old, and *poof* we’re here at month 5!

She is a force to be reckoned with now.

E is a good baby. Active, happy, cheerful, sweet. Really, really good. And I’m exhausted. All the time.

What must mothers of less cheerful babies feel like? Or moms of multiples? I mean, REALLY!?!!?

E let me take a nice, long nap over the weekend, so I was relatively awake for part of the weekend. But, come Monday, my brain was mush again.

So, how do you do it?  How do you function on a level above zombie?  Because I’m having no luck.  Seriously exhausted, brain numbed, getting dumber by the moment.  Soon I’ll be drooling into my Jello.  Help!