6 Month Love Letter

My sweet Hazel Grace,

Hazzie, Haz, Hazzie baby, Hazel Gracie girl. In what feels like no more than a blink of the eye- half of your first year has already come and gone. You are so much fun and I love 6 month Hazel. You're super smiley and so sweet. I can't get enough of your happy little face. You love your brothers and have the best belly laugh. You started solid foods and LOVE them. You chomp down everything I give you and never seem like you're quite ready to quit eating. You are rolling all over the place and seem ready to crawl soon.

When it comes to sleep you are a real mixed bag. Some nights you go right to bed and sleep two long stretches without fussing at all. Other nights you're up from 1-5 am and there is nothing I can do to get you to go back to sleep. Those nights are brutal but it seems like when I'm about ready to loose it, you sleep for a few nights in a row and give me a enough hope that I know I'll survive.

Since you started rolling over we had to stop swaddling you and cut off the swing which really threw off your nap routine. I feel like you napped a lot and acted like a newborn for much longer than I remember with your brothers. You're just now starting to stay awake for more than two hours and fighting it when I try to put you down. I don't think it will be long until we get on the 9 am and 1 pm nap schedule that I am a seasoned veteran at executing. You still love sleeping in the ergo and I can now get a good car seat/stroller nap in while we're at our morning activities with the boys. At your 6 month check up you moved from the 8th to 12th percentile for weight but down from the 20th to the 12th for length. You're still small but my worries about your growth have subsided.

Your days with Grammy and Grandpapa watching you have come to an end. They cherished that time with you so much more than anticipated and absolutely adore you. Grandpapa is quite smitten and the two of you share a special bond. We hired a nanny, Jane, to take over for them. She is wonderful and already feels like a second grandma to our family. I am so glad we figured out a way to keep you at home instead of sending you to daycare. It just didn't feel like the right fit and my mama intuition has never lead me astray. Jane is amazing and I couldn't image a better way for you spend your days while I'm away.

You hated the car with a fiery passion for a couple of months but after Christmas you decided it isn't so bad. Your brothers are constantly in your face, playing with you, loving on you and often times being rougher than I'd like. You're a trooper and seem to enjoy the attention, most of the time. You love doing "bicycle legs," putting your feet in your mouth and reaching for everything in sight. You like taking baths and babble all the time.

Since I went back to work things have been straight up crazy. I'm exhausted a majority of the time and it's hard to fit it all in but I wouldn't have it any other way. You are such an incredible gift and I can't imagine life without you. I pray that I have the wisdom to be the mama you need me to be, to always lean into you and your needs. You fill our home and our hearts with joy and I am so glad that you're mine.

xoxo,
Your Loving Mama

Christmas 2017

Christmas 2017 was an emotional one. Right around Thanksgiving Jake started having some problems with his health and the weeks leading up to Christmas were largely occupied by getting him the help he needed, leaving little time for the pre Christmas festivities that Ty and I both love. After weeks of vet appointments, lab work and other tests we got the news the day before Christmas Eve that Jake has an aggressive form of lymphoma and only a few months left to live. We planed to spend the night at Chris and Kari's so we could wake up there and have all day to celebrate Christmas Eve. We contemplated canceling our plans since Ty and I both cried all afternoon, but decided being with family and focusing on Christmas was exactly what we needed. And it was.

We kicked off the weekend at the zoo lights and had a lovely Christmas Eve. It snowed late in the afternoon which was as magical as it was beautiful. We were home on Christmas morning and the boys went nuts. They were so excited to tear through all their gifts, they didn't really seem to care what the gifts were, they just wanted to open and open and open, and open and open. There is really nothing better than watching their Christmas morning excitement.

The Leitz-Rallo fam reconvened at Steve and Paula's late Christmas afternoon and all three families spent the night. We did gifts with the kids before dinner and enjoyed our adult gift exchange after the littles were asleep. We went to bed late, around 11:30 and Hazel was up from about midnight to 3 am.

The day after Christmas we took the boys on the Polar Express- which they loved, but was way too immediately following Christmas. Ty and I were exhausted after being up with Hazel all night and she screamed for about 80% of the hour long commute to and from.

I was scheduled to work Wednesday but ended up staying home because Hazel wasn't feeling well. Thursday morning we packed everyone up again and drove down to my moms to celebrate Christmas with the Wilhelm-McLaughin crew.

It was a crazy week and we did way too much. We didn't make it to church which is always my favorite part of Christmas and looking back I was disappointed about that. But the boys loved every activity and having time with family is what the holidays are all about. In coming years we're going to have to find a way to scale it back but Christmas 2017 was certainly full of memories that our family will remember fondly.