"Girls Just Want To Have Fun" {6 Months}

Happy Half Birthday, Carly!  Can you believe it's been 6 months since Carly entered our lives!  It really seems like a long time ago.  So much has changed since then...especially Carly!  I was thinking this week about those first few weeks and how difficult it was to soothe her or figure out what she truly needed.  Now it's like no big deal.  She cries, we solve it.  And of course, she is SO MUCH FUN!  That smile has fun written ALL over it! :)

 There are a million things I could tell you, because each month her ability grows by leaps and bounds, along with her awareness of herself and the world around her, but I will try to bullet point the things we are most enjoying.

• Hands down the thing I love most is that she reaches for us when we ask to pick her up.  She will reach from Mommy to Daddy and it melts your heart when she wants to be in your arms!  She has also remained incredibly snugly with me and I just love it.
• She also reaches for other things, like the door knob when we get close to the front door, or the window on the back door.  She reaches for everything in sight, including my glasses, my hair, our food...you have it, she wants it.
•  She knows when we walk into her dark room that it's nap time and starts fussing immediately.  As soon as that paci hits her mouth she places her head on my shoulder.  I give her a kiss, tell her its time to sleep and lay her down.  Sometimes she plays for a while and goes down without a peep, other times she plays and lets us know when she is ready for us to come back and re-insert her paci, and sometimes she cries from the moment we put her down and will do so for 10-15 minutes (we go back in every 3-4, however, just to re-assure her and remind her it's time to sleep).
• She knows her name!
• Easy to entertain (if you don't mind sitting on the floor with her or walking around)
• Smiles more than she doesn't
• Sucks on her toes
• Adores being outside more than anywhere else
• Throws a fit when we change her shirt (not her pants, not her diaper, just when we have to mess with those arms)
• Has learned that dropping something can be just as fun as picking it up
• Can sit upright for a good 10 minutes if she is in the right mood and entertained.
• Is completely distracted when nursing if ANYTHING else is going on in the room.  I remember my Mom saying that at 6 months I was the same way...social girls run in the family, I guess.
• AND...she's just started eating "solid" food.

Actually, I saved the best for last.  Maybe it's tied with the reaching, but she babbles non stop. We just love listening to her jibber jabber about whatever it is going on in her head.  Her favorite thing to say is "Baa."  "Baa, baa, baa, baa, baa..." never gets old.  She is pretty loud, too, and has experimented with just how loud she can get.

I have essentially thrown the schedule out the window this month because it's just so darn frustrating.  The only thing that's pretty much guaranteed is that she will sleep between 9-9 1/2 hours each night.  The nap thing is so frustrating so I am doing my best to just roll with whatever she wants to do that day.  In a perfect world, her schedule would be:

7am-up, nurse

9:15-nap

10am-up, nurse

12pm- eat

1pm-nap

2:30pm-up, nurse

5:30pm-nap

6:15pm-up, nurse

9pm-get ready for bed

9:30pm-asleep

She actually does follow this schedule about twice a week, which adds to the frustration of the other days because I just don't know what to do when she takes those 30 minute cat naps.  Especially if her afternoon one is short, she ends up catnapping for 20 minutes on our chest from like 7pm-7:20pm.  Either way, we always seem to get her to sleep within 15 minutes of her regular bedtime, so somehow it always works.  It'd be great if she was consistent, or predictable, but she just is not one of those babies.  I asked the doctor about it at her 6-month check-up and his response was, "sometimes you just get what you get."

Speaking of the doctor, her stats this month remain consistent with 70 percentile in height (26 inches), 20 percentile in head, and 15 percentile in weight (only 13lbs, 13oz!).  Doctor said she is growing healthy and told her she had beautiful eyes.  I asked if I should be worried about the weight and he said absolutely not.  He asked how much she was eating when I give her a bottle and I said anywhere from 4-6 ounces and he looked at her and said, "wow, you eat a lot for such a little girl."  He thought 6oz was probably over feeding her a tad.  Ha...I over feed my child and she is still tiny.  I actually had to nurse her right after our appointment, so we went into the feeding room at the office and after I asked if I could weigh her again to see how much she was taking in.  She had eaten 4.5 ounces, which is really good to know!

Well I'd say that pretty much sums up our baby girl.  She took some fabulous 6-Month photos this week (dress compliments of Auntie Anna)! 

We just adore our little peanut, and rightfully so.  We remain thankful for God's blessing on our lives and for trusting us to raise His precious child.