My baby is half a year old!!

I cannot believe it, sweet baby.  How has time flown by like this?  You are already 6 months old!! and my, have you grown.  You must have gone through a growth spurt because, girl... you weigh a ton all the sudden!  At your 6 month check-up, yesterday, you weighed 15.9 lbs and were 26.5 inches long!  You are now in size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothing.  I get sad putting away your 3-6 month things... only because it was just yesterday that I was packing up all your newborn clothing!  I can't bear the thought of size "12 months"! 


It wasn't easy getting your 6 month picture done this time around.  You weren't feeling great after your vaccines, not to mention you are sick, yet again, with a cold!

paper...her favorite

she figured out how to rock herself...not kidding!

notice the crumbled paper...

poor babe could barely breathe out of her snotty nose!

"no more pictures, mom!"

this one is my absolute fav, she is so sweet)

Let's see...where do I begin.

You are still reaching your milestones.  You are rolling everywhere now, in fact...it's how you get around!  I don't know how you do it, but you work your way around the room by rolling.  Sometimes, I'll come to get you out of your crib in the morning and you are in a completely different spot then when I left you the night before!  Sitting up has become your new obsession.  You arche your back until someone sits you up---but we always have to have a finger on you otherwise you plop down head first after only a few seconds.. like, today! that's how you got your first boo-boo...

she cried hard...real hard, then laughed?...and check out those lashes!!

Hmm...let's see, what else.

Ohh sleeping, yes that's a big one. FINALLY, you are back to sleeping through the night. Hoorah!!  About 6:30 pm I rock you and give you a bottle till you are drowsy.  Then I lay you in your crib awake or asleep... and you go to bed!  Sometimes you cry... sometimes you play... sometimes you just stare... but that only lasts a few minutes.  Then, we don't hear from you till about 5:30! Although, there are nights that you wake up in the wee hours... but we just leave you for a bit till you eventually fall asleep. 5:30 is still a bit early for my liking so I lay you in bed in between Daddy and me and you usually fall back asleep for another hour or... you squeal with delight and start poking Daddy in the face (i will always encourage this behavior!).  It's one of my favorite times of the day because I get to snuggle with my family :) Naptime...oh naptime. (Getting a baby to nap...on a schedule...for longer than 30 minutes...is a full time job.  Did you know that? Ha,I didn't either.) I have pretty much given up (for now) on having you sleep in your crib for naps. It takes you a very long time to settle down to sleep and once you are asleep... you are startled awake every 5 minutes. Once it's been 30 minutes..bam, you are awake. It's like clockwork. So, I have resorted to holding you and rocking you for hours (don't judge!).  It's the only way you will sleep! And girl, you sleep good.  Every day we sit in Mama's glider at 8am and you sleep for 2 hours!  Then again at 12 for another 2.  Usually I get another 30 minutes out of you at around 4, too.  I know every book says that I need to let you "cry it out" so you learn to sleep.  I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING!  This is the only thing that works...for both of us.  I actually love it.  It gives me such a nice, relaxing break. I read, I surf the web, I email, and even sleep sometimes! But, don't get too comfortable with this idea.  We are going to try the crib again REAL soon. Just giving us a little break :) 

she fell asleep like this...

no...not sleeping, she was rolling around and got stuck

someone thinks a 14 minute nap is funny!

OK, what else.

OH, food! YUM. Well, I made a very tough mom decision this month. It's still very hard for me to talk about since it has always been such a sensitive topic! Here it is- I am no longer nursing! I had to wean you...or did you wean me?? It was getting close to impossible to get you to nurse well during the day.  You were starving!  Also, my milk supply was diminishing and I couldn't get it to keep up, no matter what I did.  You were only able to get so much milk per feeding---and it wasn't enough. My body wasn't producing enough and you were getting frustrated, hence your nursing strikes!  I have wondered lately if I always had a supply issue since it's always been such a struggle to get you to nurse well.  (Anyway... I won't get into any more details. You can feel free to email me or ask me in person!) So, I put you on the bottle...formula.  AND you loves it.  Always have!! I swear you think it's candy.  Since I started giving you formula, you have plumped up...quite a bit!! I also have been giving you a second meal of solid foods. So far you have eaten-- bananas, sweet potato, green beans, avocado, pears, and rice cereal. Your favorite so far has to be the sweet potato and pear... by far. 

she loves her high chair...I get a good 30 minutes out of it, as long as I load her up with toys..

Ready to eat!

notice all the fun and colorful toys?  i guess the wipes are more fun...

You talk. A lot. We never have a clue what you are saying... sounds a lot like, "mahahahamamdadada". We have very serious conversations and very fun ones, too. Then you usually end your sentence with a squeal-- (if you haven't heard it, it sounds a lot like a pteradactyl).

You laugh, A LOT, too. Daddy gets you going the most...but, every now and again I get you to laugh hard at me.  Sure, I need to dance funny or make silly noises...but you love them.  You are so ticklish around your belly!!  Hilo gets you more than any of us can.  One look at him and you are all smiles and giggles. The most fun you have is when Daddy picks you up and you both chase Hilo up and down the stairs! I have never heard such squeals and giggles until then!  Poor Hilo doesn't understand it all...  

This has been such a fun month with you! You are developing such a great personality and I love it.  We spend our days at home playing on the floor with all your toys. You reach and grab them all and put everything in your mouth. Your favorite toy at the moment is mama's cell phone...what is so fascinating about it??  You absolutely LOVE your exersaucer and jumper. What would I do without them? You just figured out that you are able to bounce all over the place in the jumper and it gives you such delight!!  You play with every single toy on your exersaucer, too... it keeps you so busy while mama takes a long, hot shower. I can't wait to see what you do next in month 7! My guess is that you will be sitting up all by yourself and maybe even start to at least try crawling... we'll see! 


I love you!