Grace: six(ish) months

My darling Grace,

I'm embarrassingly late in getting this up, angel girl.  But we're going to stop for a minute and celebrate this milestone anyway because you are SIX MONTHS OLD!  That's half a year!  (Although I wrote this while you were six months, you were almost six and a half months when I took your picture.  And then I strangely waited three days before you turned seven months to post!)

You are honestly the sweetest, happiest little girl I've ever seen in my life.  You make us laugh nearly all day, every day!  You've started talking and laughing to yourself.  It's mostly just ba-ba-ba and giggles, but it's the sweetest sound in the whole world.

Here are your six-month stats:

Six Months at a Glance

Weight:  17 pounds, 10 ounces 

Length:  26.5 inches

Eating:  6-7 ounces four-five times a day

Sleeping:  11 hours at night, 3 naps (anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours each time)
Bedtime:  7:00-7:30
Awake:  5:45-6:15 (you're an early bird like Mommy and Daddy!)

Diapers:  size 3

Clothes:  6 months, 6-9 months

Things You Love:  Touching faces, pulling hair, your jumperoo, snuggles with Mommy, your bunny, sleeping on your tummy, going naked, talking to yourself (loudly!), bouncing up and down, standing with help, laughing at yourself, Lilly, your cousins, finding your paci, grabbing your toes, toys that make noise, Sophie the Giraffe

What You Can Do This Month: sit up by yourself, find your paci on your paci clip and put it in your mouth, roll all over the place, push yourself up on your arms, rock on all fours, pick up and play with your toys (and then throw them down!), find your paci at night (amen!)

Some days I look at you and still see that tiny, squishy, sleepy baby we took home from the hospital... and then some days I look at you, and you're practically in college.  It's heart-wrenching and oh-so-magical at the same time.

You're growing so much every single day, love!  You officially starting sitting up by yourself a few days before you turned six months.  You've started solids this month.  You laugh at just about everything, but especially Daddy.  You're still definitely a Daddy's girl.

Eating:  You're eating 6-7 ounces at a time about 4-5 times a day.  Usually around 6 when you wake up, then 10-ish, 2-ish, 6-ish, and then possibly a few ounces just before you go to bed.  We finally dropped the dream feed, and Mommy has been happy about that!

You started solids this month, and girl... you LOVE to eat!  You've loved nearly everything you've tried, although we can't get you to eat rice cereal unless it's mixed with banana or apple.  You love carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, apples, bananas, pears, and even green beans.  You eat either a Level 1 fruit or vegetable twice a day.  (Momma knows you probably need the iron from the cereal, so we're planning on trying oatmeal soon and adding a third feeding if you like it.)  When you eat, if mommy doesn't get the spoon to you fast enough, you open your mouth and start kicking your legs.  We're working on learning some signs for "more" and "all done,"  but you haven't quite gotten the hang of those yet.

Sleeping:  You get so sleepy at night, sweet girl.  Mommy would love to keep you up until 7:30 or 7:45 each night, but you're usually ready to go down around 7:00.  As a result, we're lucky if you sleep until 6:30.  Some mornings, we hear you just talking away to yourself on the monitor at 5:15.  You usually fall back to sleep, but I have to wake you up around 6:15 so you can eat and get to school.

Naps are getting better.  You usually sleep on the way to school, and then you take 2-3 naps (45 minutes to 1.5 hours each) while you're there, and nap on the way back home.  You definitely still sleep better and longer at home, though.

Other Stuff:  You still hate dirty diapers, and you're back to fighting clothes changes, too.

You're crazy about dogs and other kids.  You are spitting much MUCH less often!  Praise the Lord! :)

We thank our lucky stars for you every day, lovey girl.  How proud we are to be your parents!

Love,
Mommy