What I've learned about being a parent during the last six months...

1. Teething sucks.
2. Shots really stink (but how cute is it a few hours later when your daughter is mesmerized by the sparkly bandaid on her thigh and pulls it off herself when you didn't think she was even capable of intentionally grabbing things?).
3. Don't expect your daughter to like Pride and Prejudice until she is at least 18 (years, not months).
4. The giggling stage is the best one ever!
5. Maybe carrots are more delicious than I think they are. I think they are gross. Kevin loves them.
6. Being a single parent would seriously stink (and the life I live doesn't even come close to that...but on these days when Scott is gone from 7 am until 10:30 at night I say a prayer of gratitude for him and our marriage).
7. It isn't the end of the world when you misplace your camera. It just feels like it.
8. There will never ever ever be a day when your home is fully organized and clean. Ever.
9. Expect the unexpected: sometimes your child will surprise you (eight weeks early). Sometimes you will surprise yourself.
10. It's okay to decide to be D-O-N-E with nursing at six months when you've been hooked up to a machine like a dairy cow multiple times a day for multiple months because your baby didn't really get a chance to figure out the whole "nursing" thing before it was too late. Given the situation, six months is really good. Also, don't expect to be thanked for the task because chances are your daughter probably won't ever know what lengths you went to in order to give her the best possible chance at a healthy body. But it is nice to have a husband who supports and praises you even though he probably secretly thought for the last six months that you are 100% crazy. (I think he's a bit relieved that we both decided that should this situation arise again--meaning a baby who doesn't nurse--formula will be the. only. option.)
11. There is a certain magic about being the first person she sees when she wakes up in the morning. That First Smile is priceless.
12. You have to make the sounds when you read Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
13. It's okay to stay in your pajamas past 10 am if you've been up in the middle of the night every night for the last week.
14. There is a certain beauty about being "that person"--the only one your baby wants to calm her down or cuddle her, the one with all the answers when those tending can't figure her out, the one that gets to be her main life source--not to mention a certain exhaustion.
15. Life. Is. Beautiful.