6 Months Old

I can hardly believe that my baby girl is 6 months old already. I'm in awe at how much she's grown right before my eyes.

• She can roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy, but usually chooses not to. She likes her back, but doesn't want to put forth the effort to get off her tummy.
• She can grab at things and put them in her mouth.  Doing this with her binky for the first time  yesterday.
• She turns toward noises and voices, and smiles/laughs when she hears her name
• She constantly laughs at her big sister (both of them).
• She likes to hold things to help her go to sleep.  This little piglet is one things she likes, but she'll hold anything - blanket, burp cloth, sheet, pillow, mommy ...
• We just started solids,  She's shown little interest so far, but is able to move the food around in her mouth and swallow.  She's cried when we stopped feeding it to her last night, but wasn't quite opening her mouth when the spoon was brought up to her.
• She can push herself backwards in the walker
• She is often playing with hands/feet; gagging herself with her hands and sucking on her toes
• Still no signs of teeth, although she's gumming everything she can find and drooling like mad

Since I've been singing in the choir at church, she has been going to the nursery for the first service.  She does well, usually sleeping while Audrey plays.  More often than not they are the only 2 girls in the nursery for the first service.

She's still nursing like a champ.  She takes a bottle, but only from daycare lady.

And the topic all mother's hate, but most people ask: sleep.  Her sleep is OK.  Not great, but not terrible either.  She'll usually nap for an hour at a shot. When she goes to sleep at night she'll sleep for about 3-4 hours in her crib, then wake up and need mom.  Usually she's OK for a bit longer before needing to eat.  She wakes up to eat around 4:30 or 5.  Audrey did the same thing, which at the time I attributed to the cold winter.  But now I think it's a combination of teething/growing and missing mom during the day.  I know we'll get through this and it will get better, so it just is taking some patience for now. I long for the days I don't have to get up at 5 am to feed her or pump, but for now I know it's best for her.

And so as not to slight Audrey, at 24 1/2 months she amazes me every day.  Her vocabulary and verbal concepts are astounding. She engages in conversation.  What colors she's wearing and what she likes.  What she wants to do.  What she is doing.  What mommy is doing.  She is super duper polite (unless it's naptime and grumpy).  She acts very much like a big kid.  She is really starting to grasp concepts like waiting for something (dinner, to watch TV, to go out and play).  She can negotiate (like when she wanted to help pick things up off the shelves at the store, she understood when I told her she couldn't, but she could carry the things I picked out).  She has friends she likes to see and is always asking to play with them.  She especially likes to play with her sisters, big and baby.  I wish you could all see her every day and get the joy that I get every time I see her.