6 months

Dear boys,

Last Sunday, you turned 6 months old. Since you've been a part of my life, I have counted your time in hours, days, and weeks, and somewhere in the recent past, I have come to think of you as months old. In no time at all, we'll be counting your lives in years, and that is unbelievable to me. For so many years, you were just a wish, and now you are here, growing and becoming my beautiful, amazing sons. It takes my breath away.

In the past two months, you've had such adventures, it's hard to recall and count them all. You had your first air travel, going to and from Massachusetts. You spent time with family - you met and had such a great time with your great grandparents, your great aunts and uncles, cousins and lots of old friends who are as close as family. You learned to smile and laugh, roll your little bodies over, and imitate our facial expressions. You've gone from sleepy little babies to something totally different - what is the name for this stage of infancy? Every day is an unfolding of your abilities, your characters, your paths through life.

This new stage has brought along many challenges for me as your mama. Your sleep patterns have changed, bringing less down time for me to get things done, and making it so that I seem to be getting less sleep than when you were tiny babies. How can that be, though? I don't know, but something has changed, and it's left me exhausted! Part of it is that you're both teething - you've been showing signs of it for several weeks now. Poor Maxy, it is making you so miserable. It seems like, since your first hard days in the NICU, this has been your biggest test. I only hope I'm giving you the support you need to get through it. Sometimes it's hard to tell exactly what you need!

You now demand full attention while you are awake, wanting to interact and fussing when I'm not with you. It's hard on all three of us (and Auntie Laurie, too!) because it makes it hard for me to spend one on one time with either of you. I'm so thankful for my Kangaroo Korner pouch - now I can carry you around in it in a hip carry, leaving my hands free to get some things done. But we do have fun! You reward our work of keeping you entertained with playful expressions, silly faces, gorgeous, light-up-the-world smiles and brilliant laughter.

This month, you've started eating food. We had our first meal with your memere and popi - the rice cereal we chose to give you was a real hit! The next food was avocado, which Shoghi loved. After that was pears, which you both like, and last has been bananas, which Max gobbles up like there's no tomorrow. Your little tummies aren't quite used to the whole digestion thing yet, so we're taking it slow.

Finally, on your birthday, we moved into our new home. It's a really big deal - since you were born, we've been living with Korin, Ryan and Ruby, and now, you, Auntie Laurie and I are all living in our own place. It's got room for us to continue to grow as a family, with a nice big bedroom for the three of us, a bedroom for Laurie, a studio/office for her and I both to do our work from home, and a downstairs that has a great, roomy space for us to spend most of our time. It's funny, too, since this coincides with the end of the so-called "fourth trimester" had you been born on time... we all were held by our wonderful and gracious friends while we adjusted to life together, and now we get to spread our wings and do it ourselves.

In the next half a year, so much is going to change. You've got so much growing to do, and so much to discover. It's going to be such a miracle to watch. Meanwhile, mama has to start working again, so that's going to be another possibly big transision ahead of us. I know it's going to be hard work for us all, but full of fun, adventure, and joyful discovery at the same time. I'm so grateful to be your mama and to be here with you as you grow.

I love you, Shoghi; I love you, Maxwell!
your mama