HOW IN THE WORLD has an entire half a year gone by?? I swear it was yesterday I was lying in bed complaining about swollen feet or awful indigestion. And here we are.. an insane 182 days since that warm day in November. You are our world, little girl. I know you inside and out. Every giggle, every cry, every coo and ah. You are FUN. I mean you light up every room and put a smile on anyone's face you come in contact with. You think everything is funny (especially your Daddy) and that giggle. That giggle is the best noise I have ever heard in my life. And boy oh boy are you independent. No snuggles for Mommy. You only want to roll around and play by yourself - but with your eye on Mommy of course. My little social butterfly.. you talk and talk and talk all day long. You love big - the smile on your face when you first see us in the morning.. Oh my, I hope you never lose that big love, my sweet baby. We are loving watching you grow Maddie Jane.. but you could cut us some slack and slow down a little, yeah??
EAT
Sweet baby, you LOVE to eat. If you can't tell by those insanely cute rolls on your thighs, you are a food lover. You have a special place in your heart for all things orange - pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and carrots, and a BIG lover of any fruit. We usually do a fruit and a tiny bottle in the morning (6am), a big bottle at 9am, a veggie and a small bottle at noon, a big bottle at 3pm, a veggie/fruit/meat at 6pm and a big bottle at bedtime (8pm). We will wake you up once more around 10/11pm and "top you off" .. this always maybe guarantees us a full nights sleep! You aren't the biggest fan of formula now that you have been introduced to so many fruits and veggies and really only crave that bottle when you're sleepy. We are introducing more and more food with baby-led weaning. You aren't a huge fan of things with texture, but we are always letting you try.. More about the introduction of foods these days and not about the calories since you are getting the majority from formula.
SLEEP
You are a great sleeper and we are so, so thankful!! I would say you sleep through the night about 70% of the time. If you do wake up, it's around 3am, you need a quick diaper change and a small bottle and you are right back to sleep. We were really worried about stopping the swaddle, but you transitioned like a champ. The picture above is your signature pose - you sleep like this every single night. You wake up around 6am, take a nap 8-9am, take a nap 1-3pm, a small snooze around 5pm, and go to bed at 8pm. Of course every day isn't this scheduled (especially with all our traveling lately..) but you stick to something of this sort pretty much every day. You will occasionally fall asleep in my arms if you are super sleepy, but you want to stretch out in your bed alone. (SO thankful you are a crib sleeper, but it does break Mama's heart a little bit that you don't want snuggles..)
DEVELOPMENT
SO MUCH has happened this month. You are changing left and right. The biggest difference is your strength in your core - all the sudden one day you just started sitting up! You can't stay very long, and usually revert to more of the tripod stance, but you're getting there! You roll and roll and roll and only sometimes get stuck on that belly. You do the "airplane" and grasp so hard like you want to crawl so badly. I bet you master that skill in a couple weeks at the beach with all your cousins' encouragement! You grasp at everything, can turn it around from side to side and then it will immediately go in that mouth! You can stand up for a long time if we hold your hands and love looking out around you. You really notice people and know who Mommy and Daddy are. You love using your little voice and can mimic some noises that we make. We keep thinking you will get a tooth any day now with the insane amount of drool - you go through 2-3 shirts and 2-3 bibs a day!!
LOVE/HATE
You LOVE sticking your tongue out and blowing bubbles. You still LOVE bath time .. it's your favorite time of day and HATE getting out. You LOVE your jumparoo and could stay in it forever. You LOVE putting anything in your mouth, especially your refrigerated teething rings. And you LOVE putting those stinky, smelly toes in your mouth!! You LOVE your puppy Molly and even the endless kisses she gives you. You LOVE looking at yourself in the mirror during diaper changes and HATE that Mama is trying so hard to wrestle you to be still. You LOVE DisneyJr and we watch Little Einsteins every morning while getting ready for work and daycare. You LOVE Ms. Jenny at daycare and are picking up so much from the other kids. As you can tell you just LOVE everything. You are such a content, happy baby. You are such a sweet, sweet girl and I am so incredibly blessed to be your Mommy!!
6 Month Photo Drop
