How is it possible that our sweet girl celebrated her half birthday a couple weeks ago? Clara continues to bring laughter and joy into our lives on a daily basis. The past month has brought about several changes, the most major one being the appearance of her two bottom teeth on September 4. We knew she’d been teething but knew it could be a while before the teeth broke the surface. Things were rough for a few days (mostly for me), especially when her six month growth spurt hit. I think it will be a couple more weeks before her teeth are fully up, and I’m glad they haven’t seemed to cause too much pain.

On a related note, we started solids around that time. She’s been eating wonderfully, and we’ve been amazed at how naturally and easily eating solid food came to her. We gave her watermelon last weekend, and she actually growled when we took it away for a second. Eric loves watermelon, so Clara’s love of it is no surprise.

Another big change is that she’s begun scooting, almost like an inchworm. She can move her legs wonderfully but hasn’t quite gotten the hang of moving her arms and legs simultaneously. She rolls all over the place, turns like a clock hand and also scoots on her back, all of which have proven quite effective to get her where she wants to be. She started sitting up just before she hit six months and has nearly perfected it in just the last two weeks.

Her vocal range is widening, and we now get to listen to a variety of noises including growls, squeaks and squeals. We’ve started to hear more word-like sounds lately, which is very exciting. When she gets hungry, she starts “saying” mamamama and smacking her lips. Since she started teething, she’s started sucking on her bottom lip and makes the cutest little face while doing so.

She was 25.5 inches long and 14.5 pounds at her checkup two weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure she’s gotten longer since then because of her growth spurt and the fact that some of her sleepers are becoming hard to zip up.