Half a Year Old!

Mr. Elephant had to hold my chalkboard for me because I kept putting it in my mouth.  Thanks, Mr. Elephant!

On Friday, Ellie celebrated her 6th month-day!  She's so big I can't believe it.  I think this child must have eaten the little baby I brought home from the hospital not long ago.  It certainly can't be the same girl!

To prove it, here's a video from when she was less than 24 hours old.  She had a really pathetic, yet kind of funny, little cry, so my mom, sister, & I took this video so we could remember it.

Right near the end, you can see my mom's hand covering her back up (in the TWO flannel blankets she needed to keep warm) and you can tell just how scrawny she was. 

Me and Mr. Elephant (held by Mommy's doctor) on Day One!

I know a lot of people who have had preemie babies, so she probably doesn't seem that small to them, but just try to consider the fact that she was FULL TERM.  It is honestly a miracle that she had no problems whatsoever.  She just didn't have an ounce of fat.  Just skinny, that's all.  And she's catching up to 'average' now!  But more on that later ...

Daddy gave me some oatmeal and let me try to feed myself!

She is just the friendliest baby you will ever meet.  She loves to interact with people and gives out smiles like they're free.  Which they are.  But ... well ... you know what I mean.  Anyway, she still has her times (usually when she's tired) that she gets fussy and cranky, but for the most part she's a very happy girl.  Her laugh is infectious - and she's very VERY ticklish!

I had fun celebrating Independence Day with Grampy!

She loves swimming in the pool!  She also really enjoys making 'motorboat' sounds with her mouth and trying to chase after Maggie.  Just in the past week, she's gotten really good at sitting up on her own, so she enjoys playing that way.  She's gotten the hang of the jumperoo and the johnny jump-up and has fun in both of those.  We can almost take the pillow out from underneath the jumperoo, too!  Just about 1/2 inch more and she'll be able to properly touch.  She babbles and coos a lot and when we're in the car, it sounds like she's trying to sing along with the radio, which is super adorable.

O-M-G!  MOM!  I can STAND in this thing?! ...

... SWEET!!

(For the record, she did not pull herself up like that.  I stood her there and let her hang on to the edge for fun.  When she starts showing signs of trying to pull up, we WILL lower the mattress because we KNOW that it's not safe the way it is.)

What doesn't she like?  Naps.  Any kind of sleeping, actually.  I think she just is so interested in the world around her that she doesn't want to miss anything, so she doesn't want to sleep.  But when she misses her big afternoon nap, she's just a cranker for the rest of the night and is all out of whack until the next morning.  We've got a pretty good routine down, though, that I pick her up from the babysitter and we come home, she eats a snack, and then falls asleep for most of the afternoon.  This week that has decided to go out the window, but usually it works really well!

We gave her some cantaloupe as her first fruit on Sunday evening.  She loved it! 

Mmmmm yummy cantaloupe!

At one point, she dropped the mesh feeder and it was out of her reach and she just screamed and screamed until Andy gave it back to her.  She had a pretty good sugar rush then, too.  But it wasn't long until the sugar crash and then she was ready for bed!  I can't believe she's big enough to be eating fruit!  [Ok, enough of that, gotta keep these hormonal emotions in check!]

Check out this adorable video of her and the cantaloupe ...

So today was her 6 month check-up at the doctor.  She did amazingly well.  It was scheduled for 1:55, which is usually about the time she is eating her snack and getting ready for her nap, so I was a little worried that she would be fussy.  But she wasn't!  She gave smiles to all the nurses and office staff when I was checking her in and was really good for our nurse as well.  She had a little trouble being weighed, but that was just because she kept wanting to reach up and slide the slider things on the baby scale!  She didn't even cry when the nurse took her temperature!  She showed off all of her skills to the doctor, and got a good report on everything.  She weights 15 lbs. 1 oz. (which is in the 29th percentile) and is 25.5 inches long (which is in the 32nd percentile).  The doctor is very impressed with her progress!  She managed her shots very well.  Just three of them this time.  The first one didn't even phase her at all.  She cried at the second and third, but stopped and smiled as soon as I picked her up.  All in all, a very good trip.

We got home and she ate her snack and went right to sleep!  The last time she got shots, they made her very sleepy for the next 24 hours, so I'm hoping that maybe I can sleep the whole night tonight?  Maybe?  Ahh, probably not.  Since she started rolling over at the beginning of June, I've only gotten 2 full nights of sleep, and they were both last week.  The doctor said that giving her a snack of fruit or veggies in the evening before bed might help her sleep longer, but there's no guarantee.  Evidently it's not uncommon for this to happen and it's just something she has to re-grow out of.  *sigh*

Anyway, that's what's up!  She's going to be crawling very soon, we think.  She will get up on her hands and then flop on her belly and then pull her knees up under her.  That's all the right pieces to crawling, just not in the right order.  So as soon as she figures that out, she'll take off like a rocket.  We've got the cabinets and drawers all locked up and the baby gate installed and the outlets plugged.  I think that's about as prepared as we can be.  Oh dear, a mobile baby.  I don't know what I'm going to do!  Stay tuned!

Me and Mommy's amazing doctor in the hospital - Day One.