Six Months Old

Wow, has it really been six months? Ellie is more and more interactive and entertaining each day. Tim was just commenting yesterday that for all the things we haven't done in awhile (hiking, going to a movie) we sure get to do some pretty fun things that we never could before, like watching our munchkin splash in the bath and blow raspberries!

It is true - we have never been happier (even with all the not sleeping).

Latest stats from her six month check-up:
Weight: 13 lbs, 6 oz. She has moved from the 5th percentile to the 10th! Yeah!
Length: 25 3/4 inches long. 50th percentile. You can't get more "average" than that!


How Ellie has changed over the past month:

• She is very good at blowing raspberries, in fact the spit flies when she does it now.
• Sleep has deteriorated... She is getting up 4-6 times a night now. She nurses two or three times and I rock her the other times. We are currently reading several "sleep solution" books and plan to implement some kind of sleep training in the next couple of weeks.
• Ellie has perfected sitting. She can sit without using her arms for support. She can now hold toys and play with them and sit up all by herself!
• She now eats some solid foods at each meal. Her favorites are prunes and pears. She also enjoys oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and sweet peas. She tolerates carrots, bananas, apples, and rice cereal.

Events of the last month:

• Ellie slept through the night twice, then her front teeth started moving up and that was the end of that!
• We took Ellie to the fair and she got to pet the animals in the petting zoo (we cleaned her hands really well after). She saw and/or touched the following animals: ducks, sheep, goats, a baby camel, pot-bellied pig, and a pony. She especially liked the pony. She kept reaching out for him.
• "Swimming" in an inflatable pool in the front yard. She wasn't sure at first, but then she got very excited and had a great time.
• Most evenings Ellie plays with the other kids who live on our alley. The moms chat while we wait for all the dads to get home from work. She especially likes watching Jamison, who is 13 months old, and he in turn likes to pull her hair... Tim and I think that they will be good friends as they get older.

Five Months Old

This past month seems to have gone by much more quickly than any other since Ellie was born. It seems like every day she does something new - though the "new things" still don't include sleeping through the night. Maybe I'll be able to include that one on her six month update!

How Ellie has changed in the past month:

• The biggest change is that she is sitting on her own now.
• She has finally developed a pretty regular sleep routine. She goes to bed between 7:30-8pm (then wakes up a zillion times); gets up for the day between 6-6:30am; first nap from 9-10:30am; afternoon nap from 1-2:30pm and maybe an evening snooze on our walk for half an hour or so.
• She hates her pacifier, unless she puts it in on her own terms.
• She figured out how to bounce in the jumper.
• She can rotate her body about 90 degrees when she's on her tummy.
• She actually enjoys tummy time.
• She has become very vocal in letting us know what she does or does not want to do.
• She seems to be figuring out how to drop things from her highchair to the floor on purpose.
• She loves petting the dogs. In fact, we have to watch carefully because she tries to hold both sides of Kip's face and pull his nose into her mouth. Yuk! She hasn't succeeded yet, but we have intervened just in the nick of time! (Kip is very willing to let this happen, by the way.)
• We sit out in the grass with the neighbors and their kids in the evening; she loves to watch the kids playing.
• Ellie "drinks" out of our cups. She became very interested in them one day and we made the mistake of letting her stick her tongue in - now all she does when we are trying to eat is reach out for our cups.
• She has figured out how to pull my glasses off of my face. She really enjoys this!
• She sucks on her toes.

Events of the last month:

• Ellie started on solid foods (if you can call them solid!) She really likes her rice cereal, bananas, and pears. She also seems to be developing a taste for prunes. She's not quite sure about avocados or applesauce yet.