Six Months Old. Six Months Old?!?

She'll become unbearably vain if all I ever do is write about how beautiful she is.

 But COME ON! If she doesn't have the cutest (and most constant) smile of any baby ever, 

I'll eat my shirt! Oh, wait.

Okay, okay, here are some non-beauty-related updates:

It's really cute to watch Bridget and her b-fri Grace together now--

they sit up and babble/squawk/laugh at each other.

She loves to watch expressions change, and she grabs faces to try and figure it out:

(Auntie Kerry's here)

You can always make her laugh with peek-a boo...

 ...or a huge grin and a funny noise...

 ...or a couple of tickles.

Will was crunching an empty water bottle in his hand today and Bridget could not stop giggling at him.

  Finny tickles her often, or cozies up to her on the activity mat, 

and then he announces, "She likes that!"

Or, even more adorably, Bridget will grab his arms or pedal her feet, clipping him in the process, and before I can say, "Bridgie, don't do that!" he'll reassure me, "I like that."

She sleeps from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. without interruption;

she loves her bottles but isn't much interested in purees;

she takes a 1.5-2-hour nap in the morning and then a catnap somewhere around 2:30 p.m;

she protests either Mommy or Daddy walking away from her (that's a new development);

she still uses a pacifier at bedtime but not during the day;

she scoots all around her crib and backwards on her activity mat;
she still spits up ALL THE TIME;

she loves her brothers and finds them endlessly entertaining.

And here's my happy little girl laughing:

Bridget: Four and Five Months Old

Bridget at four months old, getting photo-bombed by Finn:

(And loving the nuzzles!)

Bridget in Ohio, refusing to nap--cheerfully:

Bridget at five months. Still cheerful:

Saying goodbye to her beloved babysitter:

Girl time in New Hampshire with Fiona and Skye:

Letting the lake rhythms put her to sleep:

Happy, happy baby!

(And wannabe crawler!)

She makes me happy too:

My beautiful five-almost-six-month-old girl:

Status Quo(tes): End of Summer

All the posts in my queue right now are photo-laden and thus time-consuming to write. And the one thing I don't have right now is TIME. I  have a lot of fun, and I have a lot of cute kids, but I have absolutely no time. Those long posts will have to wait.

In the meantime, here are some Noon quotes from the last month:

8/15: The TV is on while I get breakfast on the table. "Look, Mom!" Finn suddenly shouts. "It's BARMEY! Hey! BARMEY! I LIKE BARMEY!"
[He was referring to the notorious purple dinosaur, which he had previously called "Farmey!" Both mispronunciations are adorable, but neither is cute enough to make me let him watch that show. Not even close.]

8/16: Will woke up and said, "Mom, did I go in a helicopter and swim in dirty water with Dukie [his toy dalmatian] last night? Or was that just a dream?" When I told him it was a dream, he asked, "Well, can we go in a helicopter sometime soon?"

8/18: I asked Finn to bring me a paper towel and he replied, "I can do it in a moment!" "What are you doing right now?" I asked. "I'm hugging Bridge," he explained from the living room.

8/24: The boys were carrying their enormous, lifelike dogs down the hallway. Will said to his brother, "Let's go to the dog show." "Okay," Finn said agreeably. "That's where dogs watch shows wih their owners," added Will. They perched on the couch and proceeded to "watch TV" with their "dogs."

8/26: "I used to do that," Will told me and Dave in his most grown-up voice, responding to something Finn had just done. "Yeaaaaah. Back in the day," he clarified. [Will's also started saying things like "Allllright, Mom. If you say so!" and "I don't know where he got that idea!" accompanied by a sort of polite chuckle.]

And something Finn just stopped doing was his double negative routine: "I don't can't do it!" or "I don't not want that!" He said it so authoritatively for so many months that I almost forgot it wasn't normal.