Happy Memorial Day!

For Memorial Day we went to a friends house for a BBQ and a little pool time. Baby girl was not all that enthused about the idea of swimming, but once she got a toy to play with she at least tolerated the water.

Surveying the scene... skeptical of the whole idea.

This time I decided to only have her swim in the kiddie pool next to the main pool, partly because I didn't completely want to get wet, and partly because the kiddie pool was mostly in the shade, and I didn't want her to get to sunburned.

Happy Birthday Auntie Amy!

Baby girl wanted to write her Auntie Amy a birthday card, since we weren't able to talk with her today (annoying Senegalese internet).

She really wanted to hold it for Amy to see, but was a bit preoccupied with trying to eat it first.

















 

We love you Amy and hope you are having a marvelous birthday and hope we get to Skype with you soon.

Just in case you can't read the letter in the above pictures :)

A very merry half birthday!

 

I can hardly believe baby girl is 6 months old! We had our 6 month well visit and she is still putting up impressive stats. Since her last visit she has grown 1 inch and gained nearly 2 lbs, has 2 full teeth on the bottom and another one on the way. She can sit by herself very well and can pivot around in circles on her belly, wapping toys on the ground while she spins, to get after the other things on the ground near her. She is not yet crawling, but can get up on her hands and tip toes and tries to move forward. She hasn't quite figured it out though, and ends up pushing herself backwards. She really wants to get a move on though so we'll see in the next few weeks. We've started her on a few solid foods, once a day. So far she's eaten (and mostly enjoyed: sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, peas, apples, pears and bananas. The Dr. said since she is growing so well and still not napping all that great, to up her solid foods, to twice a day, so we'll see how that goes.


6 month stats:
Height: 27", 90% percentile
Weight: 17 lb 5 oz, 77% percentile
Head Circumference: 85% percentile (those brains are growing!!)

Current favorites and tricks: Rolling from back to front, front to back, and finally she's an AMBI-roller (though she only does it to get out when she is cornered somewhere), sucking and biting anything and everything, talking and giggling, playing in her exersaucer, her owl toy, the song Zip-a-Dee-Do-Da and being held ... all the time. Such a darling little girl!

She so wants to crawl!

Would you like to swing on a star?

Or maybe in the park? During our walk today we stopped to check out a swing set. She was pretty unenthusiastic about the entire situation, so we didn't stay long as we were getting eaten alive anyway. On a side note, how much do you love her shoes? And her little peacock romper, is it just me? Maybe. Seeing her sweaty head reaffirms my thinking that it is time to get a more breathable stroller for our walks though.

When she is cute ...

She is SO cute. Baby girl is sitting up really well these days, and loves to talk and giggle at you while she is sitting up.

But when she is mad ... she is still cute, but understandably less enjoyable. Sorry this photo is so blurry, but just look at her go to town on her owl, it's like she is trying to rip the wing off, or get the entire toy in her mouth, or maybe both.

She must be daddy's little pumpkin ...

Getting ready to eat some delicious carrots and bananas, and of course trying to grab the camera as well :)

Another interesting development, I think baby girl is teething again, as she has been moody and needy, needless to say, this is how we are getting things done these days. I put the apron around her so I wouldn't splash her legs with any oil from the grill, and because it just looks cool ... or not.

I'm almost 6 months old!

A bit old, but worth a post.

In finally looking at all the pictures on our camera, and in preparing for baby girl's 6 month birthday (seriously??), I found a few shots from up in Idaho, this was just before five months. She sure does love her feet!

Happy Mothers and Grandmothers Day!

As a mothers day present, the bean slept in until nearly 6 am! Oh how your perspective changes :) Even with little sleep we love our little munchkin. I am so lucky to be your mom!

First "laughs" I've actually caught

So baby girl will laugh, but not a whole lot, she mostly just giggles, and I can't really figure out what exactly makes her laugh. But a few days ago I was able to capture a few giggles on video. 

She was seriously laughing like crazy before I got my phone, but at least continued to giggle while I recorded it. She initially was just laughing while I changed her diaper. I think she might be ticklish...

I think she likes the ExerSaucer

When I was still pregnant, one of my co-workers gave me their used ExerSaucer. It was a little old, but I put it in the closet since it's better to try things out first for free, and then if I decided I wanted something fancy or newer I could buy one if she liked it.

Well the jury is no longer out: she loves it. It makes sense, as she loves to stand anyway, and this way she can see everyone in the living room as well. (sorry the pics are so washed out ... phones are only so good at multitasking)

 

I think it kind of looks like a little space ship ... but she likes it so I am fine. It's so funny to watch her spin herself around to get to the different toys.

On an unrelated note, I have started making baby food for the bean. I purchased some special ice-trays to freeze individual portions and have whipped up a few things in bulk to feed her over the next few months. So far I've made Sweet Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Apples, Pears, Bananas and Avocados. I plan to make some peas, beans and blueberries to add some more color, but so far so good. I've actually only fed her Sweet Potatoes, Apples and Pears; she'll tolerate the Sweet Potatoes but LOVES the apples. I haven't decided how much cheaper it is to make her food myself, but I prefer to know exactly what is in her food, since she is having a tiny reaction on her chin every time I feed her anything. I still don't know if it is an allergic reaction or just irritation from her 'food wearing' technique. Only time will tell, but I've stopped giving her rice cereal in case she is allergic to soy. I may need to make my own of that as well if I can't find a brand without soy added... we'll see.

 

She is also getting much better at opening her mouth to take a bite, and I don't feel like I have to trick her to eat as much anymore :). (She is eating rice in the blue, and pears in the pink, my hand looks huge!)

Play date

We had a fun play date with some of the other little ones and baby girl made a new friend! It was so fun to watch them talk to each other and get to hang out with other grown ups!  The owl toy seems to be a favorite of all babies. L even lunged forward / army crawled to get it ... makes me worried crawling is only a matter of time.

Holding hands ... how cute. And just because I think she's cute, here she is this morning before we went on our walk.

On the move

She started out on her play mat, and this is where she ended up. Trying to eat the bed skirt.

Daily dose of cute

Baby girl is growing and becoming even more adorable. She is 5 months old, is weighing in over 17 lbs, we don't have an official doctor visit until 6 months, but I wanted to post so I would remember some of her favorite things right now, including:

  * Being held, all the time, doesn't matter who by. She has recently started crying until you pick her up, and then she gets this pleased as punch look on her face and is so happy perched up on your shoulder. She is also currently refusing to nap in her crib, she instead is insisting on being held while she naps. I have all but caved in, and have decided I will train #2 to sleep in a crib for naps.

  * Being sung to, current favorites include Rudolf and random Rolf Harris Aussie songs.

  * Rolling from her back to stomach AND FINALLY stomach to back! She is still not an 'ambi-roller' and only rolls to the left, even so, she can cover some serious ground and can spin completely around on her tummy to get facing whichever way she will be able to see people (she is a very social baby for sure).

  * Putting anything and everything in her mouth; including but not limited to, toys, hands, clothes, blankets, binkies, her feet ... anything really, today while she was in the bumbo she moved herself around so she could grab her car seat and started sucking on that.

  * She still lacks hand eye coordination so often, instead of sucking on things, she just gets the items near her mouth, and licks them ... weird, but funny as well

Some of our favorite things about the little bean:

  * She is getting to be a champ about going to bed. She has a ~8 pm bedtime and goes down fairly easily and often sleeps through until morning (waking ~6-7 am), even when she does wake up, it is usually only once around 4-5 am.

  * When she sits on your lap, she'll hold onto your arm; she also hugs on tight to you when you go up and down stairs, so cute.

  * Even though she won't nap in her crib, she will sleep being held, and makes the most amazing sleeping noises while snuggled into your arms.

  * On nights she's slept well, she is seriously so cute in the morning and SO HAPPY.

  * When her hair is slightly dirty, it can make a pretty awesome mohawk. And on that note, just her hair in general, even with the slight bald spot she is developing from her crib.

  * How she sleeps on her side.

And now for a daily dose of cute for all of you:

 Grandma liked this outfit so much she bought it twice! Can you blame her though? Also check the hair height.

 While singing Rudolf ... also debuting some more fabulous hair.

 Rolling, and just being darling.

After eating pears. YUM! She was much more enthusiastic about these than she has ever been about rice cereal or peas. Shocking huh?