This post is almost a week late, but I wanted to get the pics and videos on here.
And, this is Piri's ball- and yes, Anika has put it in her mouth. Super gross.
The videos are from the past month. It is crazy, because every day you get more and more mobile and seem to learn new things. For example, last night I turned around while making dinner and found you standing between your car seat and bumbo. I am not sure which one you used to pull yourself up, but you fell down a few seconds after I saw you. You didn’t cry…you just got back up to your knees. You do pull yourself up on most things these days, so we have to keep our eyes on you when around unsafe objects. You tried to pull yourself up on a small trash can and that went falling on you. You were unphased.
I try to sound sweet when I talk to her, I really do.
You are not doing a traditional crawl. We saw you do it a couple times, but usually you just pull your knees up at the same time by kind of dragging them on the floor, and then put both arms forward at the same time. You certainly can make some distance, but it’s not a normal knee, knee, hand, hand crawl. I call it your own variation of a crawl, but your dad says it is not crawling.
You often keep your legs rigid and straight when I try to sit you on the floor. You would rather stand.
This month you have dumped your trash can in your room several times, so I think I will get rid of it for now. I do leave you alone in your room a lot to play, so I want it to be safe. When left alone, you have pulled clothes out of your dresser, you have pulled books off the small book shelf. You have pulled stuff out of your diaper bag. USUALLY, you play with your toys. I am now changing you into your clothes on the floor in your room. I still change your nappy on the changing table, but you move too much for me to do your clothes. You also now cry 3 out of 5 times when I change your nappy. I don’t know why you suddenly hate this. You used to be so good about it. You have pulled your Buzzy bee mobile out of the wall (it hangs above your changing table) and I spent an hour on my hands and knees looking for the tack on the floor. I do use sign language for “changing your nappy” and you smile when I sign it. You also smile when I sign “going for a ride” so I am pretty sure you just like my hands moving and don’t know what the heck I’m saying.
You also cry 3 out of 5 times when being put IN your car seat. Once you notice you lost the battle, you stop crying. You give me a real fight putting you in. It’s like you are saying “I can’t be tied down!! Let me free mother!” I think this is the same concept as me holding you down to change your nappy-you just don’t like to be constricted. haha But, you will play with you r seat and even try to get into it when it is just sitting on the floor.
This past month you had some rough sleeping patterns…well, rough, as in you wake up in the night a few times. I am sure you didn’t mind though. At your 6 month doctor appointment, we were told we can stop night feedings. I was unsure about this. The doctor just said if I want the kitchen to be closed at night then I need to tell you that. I guess I didn’t really mind that I left it open, but it would be nice if you went back to sleeping through the night. After your apt. I decided to give it a whirl. When you wake up the first time, you are not really hungry, so I just cuddle you and put you back in bed and rub your back. You wimper and then fall asleep. I do feed you if you wake up after 4 AM, because you seem hungry then. I have not been bringing you back to bed though like I normally do. (ok, I did last night though because I was too tired). If I bring you back to our bed then I fall RIGHT back to sleep while you eat, so you end up sleeping in our bed too until I wake up. This is me being lazy and it is my way of losing as LITTLE sleep as possible. As soon as my head hits the pillow, I am sleeping again, and you get yourself on and off the boob by yourself. I am trying to feed you in your room and then lay you back to bed. This seemed to work last week. You did sleep through the night once last week, which had not happened in over a month. You used to sleep through the night at 4 months. I think you miss me and want to hang out at night time though! Ha. The doctor did say if I want a family bed, then do it. If I want you to sleep in your own bed, than do that. She said I am confusing you by doing both. I don’t know…Ugh, I kind of hate to be told what to do because I feel like what we do works for us, but maybe I should be consistent. I mean, I do want you sleeping through the night AT SOME point.
We did not do the 2 shots you get because you had a little cold, and I didn’t want you having shots while already not feeling well. She also mentioned the flu shot…I said “We don’t do that” and she said if you don’t get it, then daddy and I HAVE to. I just looked at her and she rephrased that we SHOULD. I have never had the flu or flu shot. Neither have Noni and Grampa. Daddy has had the flu once he thinks, but he has never had the shot either.
I was pretty disappointed with your 6 month visit- not with you of course, but just with how it all went with the professionals. I really had liked the doctor before (actually, nurse practitioner) but she had a student this time, so I am not sure if that played a role. We changed your scheduled appointment from Wednesday (your actual 6 month birthday) to Monday because I wanted to make sure you didn’t have an ear infection. Because we moved the apt. up, we saw someone different than originally planned. You had a runny nose, and I learned from Ashley that can be a symptom of an ear infection. Your ears were fine though. The NP said to start using the antibiotic eye drops in your eyes JUST in case your cold moved to your eyes …and since you had a clogged eye duct when you were younger, she said you were susceptible to eye colds. We just don’t believe in giving you medicine before you even need it. Your eye ended up being fine by leaving it alone. I didn’t really feel supported in my decisions, but at the end of the day- Daddy and I make the decisions, and I feel like we are doing a fine job. Every baby is different, and no one knows you like we do. I don’t like to let you cry it out, no matter how many people tell me to do that. It doesn’t feel right to me.
My Original goal was to breast feed you for 6 months…BUT, the American Pediatrics Association recommends one year, and the World Heath Organization recommends 2 years, so I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon. The more solids you eat, the less you want to nurse anyway. I still pump 3 times a day at work. The only times you eat peacefully are at night and in the early morning. Otherwise, you move the whole time you are eating and you take man y breaks to look up and smile at me…or to play. Or, to talk to Piri and Daddy. You love to talk to Piri. I think you two will be great friends! You can hold your own bottle- I guess you have been doing this for a while, but I didn’t know because I never give you bottles. Noni, Miss B and daddy give you bottles.
So far, you have eaten Everything I have ever given you to eat. You now eat the Happy Munchies Organic Broccoli, Kale and cheddar cheese munchies (made by Happy Baby). I think Piri ends up eating quite a few as well! Noni gives you cheerios, which I just found out about. You do sit with us at dinner MOST nights, and you seem to love that time. You do reach for food off our plates and daddy often gives you some. I gave you avocado and you were able to feed yourself off your tray with your fingers. It was slippery though!
You weigh 15 pounds, 13 ounces. I could have sworn the scale said 15 pounds and 2 ounces, but that is not what the nurse wrote down. You are average for height and weight (for a girl).
I can see your hair growing…VERY slowly. Your nails grow at rapid speed though!
You still love to play on the floor in any room. We put down your alphabet rug in our main living area, and then put the basket of toys on the rug and put you down. You never stay on the rug, but it I try to give you an area without dog hair. Last week, you took All your toys out of the basket and then played with the basket forever!! You even rolled the basket from one side of the room to the other and then took a break and laid on your back smiling and kicked the floor with your legs (thump thump thump)…I peaked around the corner to see you doing this and it was like your own little victory dance. I feel like I miss EVERYTHING with the camera. You crack your dad and I up A LOT. Actually, daddy was giving you some of his spaghetti and watching you play with it was quite comical. Sometimes while playing, you do get caught under chairs, stools, a foot under the floor radiators (They are not on), IN your basket, under your crib, etc. But, you screech/scream and we usually know it means you are stuck, and we help get you out.
Last week, I decided I wanted a morning shower. Usually you and I shower at night time. Oh, you did have your FIRST sink bath last week though. You liked that too, but you kept turning the water on. Usually, I get in the shower and daddy hands you into me when I’m ready. If daddy is not home, then I just bring you in with me from the beginning. If I leave you on the floor in the bathroom you will try to get into the toilet. Last week, I had fed you in my bed and then wanted a shower before work. I put you in your crib and thought you might cry but I was going to be quick. Since the bathroom is right next to your room, I could hear you the whole time. You were talking up a storm, so I took my time and had a 15 minute shower. When I got out I found you in your crib just having the time of your life sitting there playing with a blanket. Oh yes- You now have a blanket AND I gave you a Lovie. I am not sure If you will pick a different lovie or not. Also in the past month, you had your first bath WITh daddy. Not just daddy givng you a bath, but both of you in there. I told daddy to bathe you and he called me up…I figured he needed a towel for you and didn’t want to leave you in the bath, but I walked into you and Him in there together. You were so happy. I laughed at daddy because he had a hand towel over his boy parts! LOL. He said he wanted to make sure you didn’t grab …because you are a very grabby girl and he has seen you man handle mom’s boobs before, so I guess he was scared of that.
You are OBSESSED with tags. Tags on stuffed animals, tags on blankets, tags on rugs, tags on clothes, tags on ANYTHING. You rub them and just love tags…BUT YOU DON’T Like that little blanket with ribbon tags on it. You could care less about that. You want real tags …maybe you like the words on them! Lol. You also like to play with plastic shopping bags (obviously we only allow that supervised) and packaging bubbles! You look at your books and chew them. Actually, most things will make it to your mouth at some point.
I could go on and on. You amaze us every single day. You really do. People have said you look like daddy for a long time, but people have said you look like me recently- ironically, since you have filled out! Lol. You have very big feet (So daddy and Noni say). They look normal to me. Daddy has big feet too. Maybe your big feet help you stand up! Ha. It is no secret that you are Strong. I mean, you have been incredibly strong from the day you were born. I will be honest- sometimes it freaks me out a little bit. I will try to put you down on your tummy and you put out your arms as straight and rigid and Just WONT budge. I feel like I am forcing you down sometimes. You have also kicked me pretty hard…not on purpose, I am sure! You are NON Stop moving. You only cuddle when about to fall asleep or feedings before bed or right after. You keep us busy, but you also are so happy that we feel like it all balances out. You do go out to eat with us all the time. You do sit in the high chairs at restaurants now. You used to sit in my lap or someone else’s lap. You will never just sit in your car seat unless it is IN the car. It usually doesn’t even leave the car unless you are going with someone else. MANY drinks have been spilled because you reach for things on the table. By the way, A drink has never spilled when you were on my lap because I KNOW what you are up to. No matter how many times I have warned other people, they don’t stay on top of you and then SPILL Happens. Ha . A spoon will usually entertain you for a while at a restaurant, but also all the activity keeps you pretty entertained. You came up to Anna and Seth’s wedding this weekend for 15 minutes and you were in your glory. ALL that activity, music, dancing and ATTENTION- holy moly. You went home with Noni and Grampa and had a fun sleep over with them. You sleep in their room in a pack n play and of course- you slept through the night for them! (the rest of the wedding will be a separate post).
While we were at the wedding (noni and grampa were guests too) you stayed with our friend’s parents. The same people we visit at the island in the summer. You were pretty good for them, but I think you were getting fussy when I got there, but you were all smiles once I was there. We were talking to them the next morning about parenthood and how it changes you. The subject of the overwhelming feeling of love and protection came up. How daddy and Mommy never imagined we could hurt someone or kill someone, but if someone ever did something to you, we would be tested. In some ways, it feels like you have been part of our family forever, and in other ways, your first 6 months have FLOWN by. As you know, I think you are absolute perfection…even when You test my patience :)
