Just when I thought this day would never come.
Six months old.
Um, hello. That’s half a year, people.
Half. A. Year.
If someone can tell me how this all happened so fast, that’d be great. Because last I knew, she was a tiny baby who I was worried wasn’t getting enough nourishment and just starting to get used to life outside the womb. And now, she’s a chunky babbler who puts everything in her mouth if it comes into her grasp (or close enough to her face…as has happened with my nose several times).
Reason #1 why I keep a blog: Time flies by so fast, next thing I know she’ll be 18 and I’ll wonder what the days were like when she was this small…and then I’ll look back at these posts and start crying. So even if you don’t read all these updates, they’re here for me to reference when my mind forgets.
At Six Months
Size. I don’t have a scale at home anymore but I’m pretty sure she’s around 18 pounds and growing taller by the second. Up until about a week ago she’s been strictly breastfed, but we’ve since added applesauce and sweet potatoes to her culinary repertoire {more on that in a later post}. We’ll find out her measurements at her (belated) six month checkup next week, when she also gets more S-H-O-T-S.
Movement. No attempts to crawl yet, in fact, no unassisted rolling over either. This could be because tummy time is one of her least favorite things, so mommy doesn’t have her do it as much as she probably should.
She is becoming a champ at sitting up with only a little bit of support and can pull herself back upright if she leans back too far. Strong abs—unlike her parents. {Too many cookies, caramels, and fudge and not enough any running.} She does enjoy a good face plant when she’s practicing sitting on the bed. Not so funny when she’s on the wood floors.
She has figured out that she has both a right foot and a left foot, and that they are fun to play with. Also, she knows she can control her hands and grab whatever is nearby, and that her hands are not just random objects that fly in front of her face every so often. Some nights she’ll just lay there in awe and watch her fingers move. When’s the last time you did that?
Sleep. Darling girl is pretty good to us. Bedtime is now around 7-7:30pm, I still do a ‘dream feed’ at 10pm, then she’s sound asleep until I drag myself out of bed between 8-8:30am and get her up. She’s usually just quietly playing by herself, then smiles and starts babbling immediately upon seeing me. We do get the occasional nights where she’ll wake up crying and then take an hour or two to calm back to sleep, but thankfully, those nights are rare. We have a parental agreement that if this happens during 11pm-3:30am, Todd takes care of her and then if it’s between 3:30-8am, I get up with her.
Naps. I have to talk about naps, because they have been the only headache she has given us so far. Her usual nap length is now about 40 minutes, but some times she’ll shock me and sleep for 90 minutes. If only she’d tell me ahead of time so I could plan for it and get a solid nap in for myself. {example: as I’m typing this up, she’s been napping for, whoa, 1 hr 45 minutes so far!} She used to struggle going down for a nap, but we’ve had definite improvements in that department. Now we have a little routine, similar to bedtime—change her diaper, read a book or two, sing Jesus Loves Me and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a couple times and turn on her lullaby seahorse. Then I can pretty much lay her down, say “time for sleep”, and she’ll drift off to dreamland. We’ve moved her to two naps/day now, but sometimes she’ll sneak a third one in during an evening walk.
Play. Only having two naps a day gives us more time to spend together playing or running errands. And I love that she can go longer durations between naps now and doesn’t get fussy as easily. She can be content just sitting in her bouncer while I make dinner, or playing on the floor by herself. Her favorite thing to do is ‘fly’—basically I throw her up in the air without letting go, while counting to 10. Bonus: it’s a great workout for mommy’s arms. She also LOVES sitting on shoulders (and eating hair while she’s up there) and going Up! Down! Up! Down!…repeat, repeat, repeat until my legs are burning from these squats.
Adventure. When we venture out, one of us will wear her in our Ergo carrier or just carry her in our arms. But that little tank gets heavy quickly. For grocery store/Target trips, I usually wear the Ergo, or place her car seat in the Snap-n-Go stroller or in the shopping cart (depends how much I plan on buying). One time I tried sitting her in the little child seat in the shopping cart, and the next day she came down with a nasty cold that cancelled our trip back home for Christmas, so I have avoided sitting her in there since. I’m all for building up your immune system, but not when it interferes with travel plans. 
Since the winters here are pretty mild, we are usually able to get a long daily walk in with the BOB stroller. LOVE that thing. I haven’t tried jogging with her in it yet, since the manufacturer recommends waiting until 8 months, but I’m getting antsy and might try it anyways (anyone else use theirs earlier than 8 months?).
Love. She loves her daddy. It’s pretty obvious that some days she is completely overjoyed when he gets home from work. I understand and am okay with the fact that she can get bored being home with me all day, so a fresh face is a delight to her. The minute she sees him walk into the house, her face lights up, a big smile appears, and those chunky legs start kicking with excitement. This brings me such joy to see her with him. They also go on daddy/daughter dates every Sunday evening and most Saturday mornings, while I get some much needed time to myself, or occasionally be the third wheel and tag along.
We love our little Ellie Rose.
E. Kiss. L. Kiss. I. Kiss. S. Kiss. E. Kiss. What’s that spell? Elise!
Elise! Arosa! Harris!
And even though the past six months have flown by, she becomes more and more wonderful and playful each day, so we’re excited to see her continue to develop over the next six months. And, hold onto your hats…..become mobile! I get the feeling things are about to get very interesting….
