6 months - better late than never!

growin, growin, growin

I can't believe 6 months have gone by already!  My sweet baby is 6 months old!  Time has flown by so fast and yet it also feels like she's been a part of our lives forever.
Between teaching regular school, teaching summer school and going full speed mommy I let time slip by so this update is a bit late.  There has bee a lot of things that happened in the last week that I have to save for next month!

E got her 6 month shots and check up and passed with flying colors.  Her head is still in the 95% at 17.75in she's still short in the 23% at 25.25 inches and she's average weight 60% at 16lbs 15.5 oz.

E has continued to grow and develop and amaze Ken and I. 
She is on the verge of crawling.  She can get up on her hands and into a plank position but hasn't figured out how to bend her knees down yet. 

She can hold herself in a sitting position for a while, even reach for toys near by her without tipping over.  We still put a pillow behind her because she still topples over backwards occasionally and we don't want her smack her head.
She can pass objects from one hand to another and does so quite frequently. Especially her binky.
She can easily manipulate objects, usually to get them into her mouth.
She can show affection. (see last post)
She can stand when leaning against a stationary object
She make what I think is the sign for 'milk' while nursing, she will repeatedly open and close her hand.  She doesn't do it when she wants to nurse yet so we aren't calling it a first word yet.
She is teething like crazy, she has a very obvious swelling in her gums and has been spitting up the slightly curdled spit up that comes along with teething.
She LOVES the water.  In her bath and in water play at day care she just loves to splash.  When she's melting down and nothing makes her happy Ken and my last resort is 'if nothing else works, throw the baby in the bath'  because she's happy there.
She loves her exersaucer/play gym.  She can spin herself around in it and manipulate nearly all of the toys, she still can't reach the koala and butterfly.  She really seems to enjoy bashing the dragonfly against the chameleon.
She is a total social butterfly.  she loves new people and gives them big grins, even lets them hold her.  She flirts with people when we are out in public.
She has discovered her toes, and is still flexible enough to eat them.
She went to her first nerd-fest (comicpalooza) and got her first autograph (from the author who wrote the novels she is named after)

We celebrated 6 months a few days late by letting her try solid food for the first time and the results where glorious....but that's another post.

keep growin baby girl.  Can't wait to see what you bring next!

Ways we show love

E has gotten a lot more emotive lately.  She has a few ways that she shows that she likes something. 

The first is the pat. 

she tried to pat the bubbles...

 When she is content and there is an object or person who is making her happy she pats it.  pat, pat, pat.  As if she were saying "hi, I like you, you make me happy" pat, pat pat.
She quite frequently gives the pat, pat, pat to things like her bottle, or mommy when she's eating.  sometimes it's a particular toy.  She even gave the pat, pat, pat to another baby this past weekend when we went blueberry picking.  pat, pat, pat.  "you are my friend.  I like your little feet"  (E was fascinated by the other baby's feet....possibly because that was all we would let her reach)

pat, pat, pat "hello friend"

She tried a blueberry, sadly it did not get the pat, pat, pat.  Though she did enjoy ripping the leaves off the plants and trying to eat them.  One of our family friends had their kids with us and the 5 year old was picking with me and she piped up at some point and said "hey, E has something in her mouth!"  I turned around to find a quarter sized blueberry leaf tucked into her cheek.  She repeatedly tried to resume eating the blueberry bushes during the day.

The next is the penguin flap

flap!

When E is excited she flaps her arms up and down like a penguin and sometimes slaps her belly audibly.  It is as if she is saying "oh my goodness, I love you so much I just can't contain it!"  Mommy and Daddy pretty much always get the flap when we enter a room if we've been gone for more than a few minutes.  She also flaps for her musical monkey and for her daycare friend V. 

And of course there is the pinch

When E really, really, really likes something she grabs on and pinches down hard as if she is saying "I love you so much, I don't ever want to let you go!"  the most notable thing she does this to is faces.  Mommy, Daddy and Miss Zena (her AM daycare teacher) all get the pinchy treatment.  And little girl is STRONG, her pinches HURT.  But at the same time, I love them because she only does it to things that she really loves.

Bath time = happy girl

 Mommy and daddy continue to show her love by spoiling her rotten and taking good care of her.  lately she becomes a fussing mess in the evenings.  We think it's because she is teething.  She starts is a cry that we haven't heard before and just becomes inconsolable.  We run through the check list: snuggles, give her a binky, change the diaper, try to feed, try to burp, give gas medicine, give an iced teething ring and sometimes she still fusses. 

mommy loves you, so she'll flip you over

When push comes to shove we throw her in the bath because that's one thing that gets the pat, the flap and the pinch is her bathtub.  She LOVES taking baths.

And of course we still do the "crazy parent check".  Lately E has taken to turning over onto her stomach to sleep.  This drives mommy nuts because of SIDS risk being so much higher when they are on their tummies.  So mommy shows her love of E by very gently turning her back onto her back.  Hopefully there will come a day when all mommy will need to do to re-assure herself E is okay is give a gentle pat, pat, pat.

E and her newest book and toy!  So loved! So Spoiled!

don't read if you have a weak stomach...

So i was just having a lovely quiet moment with E. I had come into the room and she was lying very still. It scared me a little. I picked her up and snuggled her. She smiled. I hummed a made up melody and rocked her. I whispered how much I love her. I held her up in front of me to see my face. I started to say "yeah, I love you so much" ... and then she spit up, straight into my open mouth and down inside my shirt.  Sweet moment down the drain.

So proud of myself for not 1) puking on the spot or 2) dropping the baby.

Though it does make a great story to tell my students when they are exclaiming about how cute E is and how they just love babies.