6 months going on 5 years...

Sophia was 6 months on Monday August 11th and is doing so many new things! She is now eating food like bananas, plums, peaches & oatmeal, peas & rice, and rice cereal. Our little girl has a good appetite and at the moment, seems to like everything we feed her! She also likes to try to help me feed her which usually results in baby food all over her face, but she seems to have fun doing it. She can also now hold her own bottle and almost pulls it away if we try to help, like she wants to show us she can do it herself.
She can almost sit up by herself and sits like a tripod until she sees a toy that grabs her attention and then she leans forward and tips on her side. She can hold herself up standing if she has something to hold on to like the couch. And even though she's still quite young, we hold her hands and lean her forward while standing and are trying to teach her to take steps, she can take 2 or three, but then gets tired.
As far as awareness goes, she's constantly grabbing and looking at everything! She loves Hurley and Shakespeare (our Pugs) and gets so excited when they come up to her and sit by her. She grabs Hurley's hair and squeels! Hurley is great with her and doesn't seem to mind, he just likes the attention.Lol. Shakespeare is a bit more cautious and just smells her and checks her out.
Vocally, she is squealing, blowing air and jabbering up a storm. I have the feeling that once she starts talking she's going to be quite the chatter-box! Her attention span is quite long these days as well. Jeff and I will lay her on the bed and put her between us and just talk to her and play with her and she will talk back and interact with us for a long time. This is one of our favorite things to do in the mornings when she just wakes up. She's so refreshed and happy in the morning.
I can't believe how fast she'll grow in just a week! One week an outfit will fit her and the next it's too small. It's the same with diapers! She's growing like a weed! Her hands and feet are still pretty big and she is working her way into a size 3 shoe. I'm just glad two of my friends are having little girls, so that her clothes can get worn more than once.
I'm not the only one who notices. The other day Jeff was holding her and she was holding her own bottle and he looked up at me and said, 'I can't believe she can hold her own bottle now, she's growing up so fast, too fast!" In a way it's kind of sad, because she's not this helpless little baby anymore. She's somewhat independent and curious and determined and seems to need us less and less each month. The sad part is, is that I know in my heart that this isn't even the beginning of having to let go as a parent and I'm sure it will only get harder. But for now, I'm going to enjoy my little girl as the needy, dependent, little angel that she is.