SIX MONTHS OF SQUISH

On Christmas Eve we also celebrated Elyse's six month birthday. I say that like we did something but really it just means that I plunk her in front of my camera and take some pictures... soooo, it is pretty much like every other day of her life I guess.

Six months is a big deal around here though. As much as she and Lauren are different people, Lauren's experiences and our experiences with her tend to define some of our thoughts about Elyse. Like Lauren being 5 months and 20 days old when she went into the hospital. When Elyse passed that mark, I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't even know I had been holding since she was born. It was as if, if Elyse could make it through that day in her life, she was going to make it. The rational part of me knew that she had no heart defects and she was trucking along like a champ, but the small traumatized part of me was on pins and needles. Not consciously, but it was always there in the background. 

When I was in my early 20s I got in a series of car accidents. In the first one I was rear ended by someone going full pace (he was apparently looking out of the window when I had to stop for the person in front of me slowing to wait for a pedestrian and make a right turn). Bam. Just as I was getting over that one, I was biking home and got hit by a pick up truck who thought he could make a quick left turn in front of me but apparently he wasn't quick enough. Smack. Then I was told that bad things happen in threes and I was convinced that I was going to be hit again and die before I was 26. That belief was completely baseless, but it was there. The day after I turned 26, I felt such a weight lifted. 

It was sort of the same with Elyse. There is no link between Lauren's experiences and Elyse's life but those milestones, like 5 months and 20 days, are still there. But now that Elyse has passed it and is her happy, squishable self, the biggest link is broken. 

At six months Elyse is rolling around, sitting unassisted, jumping in her jolly jumper, starting to eat solid food, almost crawling and smiling, smiling, smiling. She continues to be the happiest, easiest baby in the world. Her face lights up anytime Lauren is around her, and the two of them are like magnets to each other. And they have a long time to enjoy each other.