I don't even know where my camera is. Bad parent.

At 5.5 months, Violet is working on sitting up and standing. She is a very determined little person. She can sit up, unassisted for a couple of seconds, although she can't get herself into a sitting position alone. She can also stand, hanging on to something for a few seconds. Same story - she can't pull herself to standing. She hasn't made any progress on crawling forward. She is, however, quite a pro at accidentally scooting back.

In 2 weeks she gets to start on solids. She really wants to eat now, but Jim has a ton of allergies and waiting until 6 months gives her the best chance of reducing her allergic reactions. According to her due date, she's 6 months now.

Is that cheating?

We went hiking in the Hocking Hills yesterday. Violet loves being outside. She can spend hours and hours just looking around. Bring her indoors and she can only maintain her attention span for about 10 minutes before she wants a new activiity.

In other baby news, our plan is to adopt a child in a year and a half. It takes a while to save the $ and go through the process, so we should be starting now. I'm surprised that it isn't more expensive. There are 2 nonprofits in town that charge 16k and there is an 11k federal tax credit, for a grand total of 5k. It's possible that there will be other expenses, depending on the individual sitution, but that fee includes homestudy and all other usual costs. I've talked with 2 couples who adopted from these local nonprofits and said it worked great. I need to ask the people who chose other options why they didn't go this route, just to make sure it is as easy as they all saying. If you have any insights, please share them!