Happy 1/2 Birthday, Daniel!!

+/- 25 Things About Being 6 Months Old
by Daniel, with help from Mommy

1. Today is a Very Important Day, I'm half a year old!!!!
2. I am thisclose to being double my birth weight...I am now 16 pounds, 4 ounces.
3. Everyone thinks I'm bigger, but I'm still holding to the 20% percentile for weight. The chubby cheeks throw everyone off!
4. I am now 26" long.
5. I still wear my 3-6 month clothes comfortably.
6. I still wear a size 2 diaper.
7. I've been busy learning new things! On May 26, I sat up for the first time...all by myself! We were at Tony and Carey's wedding and I tried to take attention away from Tony's vows! Sorry, Tony.
8. Also at the wedding, I also had my first dance with a girl (not my Mommy). Thanks, Marie! I think you're super cute, too!
9. Now I love to sit up all the time. It's a whole new world! I've only fallen down a few times. Mommy gets very nervous about me hitting my head.
10. Speaking of Mommy, I'm very happy that she has been able to give me only breast milk since we were in the hospital. It's been hard for her at times, she made her goal of six months. Now she's hoping to give me only breast milk to drink for my whole first year. Daddy bought us a freezer and Mommy is working very hard to fill it up with yummy milk. Go Mommy!
11. I hold my own bottle all the time now. I can tell when Mommy or Daddy is getting it ready. When I see the blue box of milk, I wave my hands and make sucking motions with my mouth. I can't wait!!! But when I get it, I can hold it all by myself, even when it's full. And I only spill a little bit...sometimes.
12. I did get introduced to something called food. It's like milk, but you eat it with a spoon. So far, I like rice cereal (if something's mixed with it), pears (super yummy), peaches (mmm!) bananas and prunes. I don't really like peas. Mommy says she finally found something I got from her! I'm getting much better at eating, and only make a little mess now.
13. I'm also figuring out the sippy cup. I surprised Mommy when she left me to play with it when it had a few ounces of water in it. She checked on me and it was ALL GONE!
14. My other new trick, which my parents are over the moon about, is that I'm now back to sleeping through the night. Sometimes I wake up once just to make sure they're paying attention, but most nights I sleep from about 9pm to 5am.
15. On the other hand, now I don't always like to take naps during the day. This frustrates Mommy because she says it's HER nap time. I like to nap with her best. If she will snuggle with me on the couch, I'll sleep for two hours! If she puts me on the swing, I can only sleep for about 30 minutes. What can I say? Ik ben een knuffel beer. (I am a cuddle bear).
16. I made my first art project, for Mother's Day, with the help of the nice ladies in the nursery. It's a poem about being a mommy with my footprints on it. Mommy cried when she saw it.
17. Mommy continues to take lots of pictures of me. This month we went to a lot of the local parks. I posed on my Bumbo. I love that thing!
18. I have a new toy. It's a blue ball. I used it to practice sitting up. Sometimes Bailey dog tries to play with it, but Mommy says it's MINE!
19. I have a new nickname: Arby lips. Mommy and Daddy say my lips look like the Arbys logo.
20. My eyes are still blue, and Daddy says they look like the galaxy. I guess that means they are really cool looking.
21. My big-boy hair is starting to come in! After psyching my parents into thinking I was going to have dark hair (I did at birth), then Red, now it looks like it'll be dark blond... Just like my daddy! ;-) except I have more, daddy...
22. Today I received my Dutch passport. Now I'm really ready to see the world!
23. I just got back from my second trip to Canada. We saw my namesake Joel's son, Noah, baptized this past Sunday. Even though I'm 4 months older, I'm not much bigger than Noah. No hand me downs for him!
24. On the way home from the Vriends, we saw Niagara Falls. WOW! That's a big bath tub!!! We saw our friends the Lavenders and the Thiessens there. What a random meeting. But...no Dutchies. Daddy says there are everywhere.
25. ON THURSDAY, I GET TO MEET DA DAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and my cousin, Noah, and my Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy). I've heard so much about this big Dan I was named for. I can't wait to meet him and show him how cute I am. He and his family are moving from China to Virginia. We'll practically be neighbors!
26. Last Saturday, I was dedicated in front of the whole church. I had actually already been dedicated when I was just 10 days old, but that was for family. This time was for the church family.
27. I celebrated my first Mother's Day. Daddy and I took her to a really cool manor and garden, and I thwarted mom's attempts to take pictures of me with the tulips. Sneaky, eh?
28. Daddy turned 35 this month, but he says he doesn't feel old because I bring out the kid in him.