Where has the time gone?

It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital waiting for Allie to make her debut. It was the hardest and most rewarding day of my life. And now here we are, six months later! I'm not sure where the time went!

Allie is growing every day. Its amazing when I look at pictures from just a couple months ago, like this one...

... and then to compare to this one taken just yesterday...

... and this one from earlier in the week.

Maybe the difference isn't that obvious, but I can see her growing and taking in the sights and sounds of the world around her.

She's grabbing her toes like a little monkey and she's trying to crawl. She's also pushing herself straight up on her legs. If she figures out how to grab onto things to pull herself up, she'll be standing! What happened to my little newborn baby? She's already a big girl!

Allie has been making strides with rice cereal. She loves to jump around and be twirled upside down and lifted up in the air. She loves to play with her growing collection of toys. She can be quite the attention hog. We don't mind though.

I love getting her out of bed in the morning because she almost always wakes up smiling (though I could do without the middle-of-the-night wake up). I look forward to picking her up from daycare to see her pretty smile when she sees mommy and daddy coming to get her. I love how she is so happy playing or just hanging out with us. Her little laugh is so cute and we love trying to coax it out.

Its not always easy having the responsibility of a little one, but we wouldn't trade it! Happy half birthday Allie-kat!