Why I like 6-month-olds

Even before Kalina was born, our kind friends were telling us when "it" (meaning baby-raising) would get easier. We had estimates of 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 3 months and 4 months.

I'm not saying it didn't get easier at each of these points (with the exception of 4 months, when everything went down the tubes entirely), it's just that saying that life with a baby gets easier is like saying you can get used to having a live yak attached to you at all times. Yes, it gets easier as you give in to the insurmountable major inconveniences, but that's not to be confused with "easy."

Unless you have a baby boy--my newest theory is that baby boys are easier in general than baby girls and that you can occasionally ignore them if need be (not the case with baby girls, who demand attention at all times).

So at 2 weeks, we ceased to worry whether the baby was eating enough, at 6 weeks she was giving us some longer stretches of sleep at night--often longer than she gives us now--at 8 weeks she started to entertain us and at 3 months she started to be entertained. All of these helped make it a tiny bit easier. (We won't even talk about 4 months.)

And yet, due to a combination of factors that you should know by heart by now if you follow the blog, the baby has only had about 2 total hours in her life in which I considered her "easy." She was sleeping at the time and looked like a little angel.

However, I'm feeling good about 6 months. Could this be the elusive "easier" I've been looking for? Let's consider the facts:

1. She's considerably less floppy than she used to be. I can hold her on my hip as long as my arm allows without her wilting out of my grasp. I also don't continually get the feeling that I could break her.

2. I've heard of 6-month, 9-month, 12-month and 18-month sleep regressions (as well as the horrid 4-month one), but I don't believe anything short of a half-dozen mice let loose in her crib could make her sleep any worse than she already has. It can really only get better or it won't be considered sleep.

3. She's eating more solid foods and within the next 6 months should be fed entirely with solids. In fact, someday she might eat what I cook for me and Matt. And then she'll turn 2 and won't eat anything but olives and sweet tarts, but that doesn't sound half bad to me right now.

4. I get to start planning her very first birthday party, to which you're all invited. I've already found the perfect cake pan.

5. The other day she entertained herself for a good 20 minutes with a single plastic block. She did the same thing the next day, same block. Not that she's entirely self-entertained, but this type of progress does my heart good. (Of course, I had to be sitting next to her the entire time or else she would've freaked out--we're working on that.)

6. Milestones in the first 6 months were often variations of "she lost the tongue-thrust relfex!" and "she can track circles with her eyes!" What a snooze. However, today as a 6-and-a-half-month-old she pushed herself onto her knees all by herself and also stood for a split second without holding onto anything. Now those are milestones.

7. I've quit recognizing her "I'm bored and want Mommy to entertain me" cries as reason to run to her rescue. In fact, most child experts agree that after 6 months it's fine to let babies self-soothe as long as their basic needs are taken care of. Whew. (For extra credit, tell me about a time when you tried to keep so much as a houseplant happy for 6 months straight while experts breathed down your neck through the Internet.)

8. I can make anything into a fun game simply by smiling and laughing. "And now we're going to write Mommy's grocery list! Yay!" And she laughs back, sadly having no idea that the joke is kind of on her. My other super power is the ability to make anything into a toy (sometimes she gets one step ahead of me and makes, oh, say, the electrical socket into a toy before I can hand her an empty paper towel tube instead).

So yes, I suppose "it" is easier finally now at 6 months. So when does it get easy?