Half of a Year

Layla,

Last week you turned 6 months old! How did that happen? How have I already had you in my arms for half a year? I can barely believe it. You are such a special little blessing in our lives. We love you to pieces and have so much fun watching you grow and develop and do all the new things you are doing lately.

About a month ago you started rolling over. You were so good at it right away, you killed that learning curve! Now you are a pro at it and you roll over so much that you make yourself angry about it sometimes. It's funny but I feel sorry for you when you get mad and cry so I usually roll you back over (since you are too upset to even roll yourself back) or pick you up!

You have also started eating solids. I started trying this out a little over a month ago with you. I've been making all your baby food from scratch which has turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be. So far you have had butternut squash, sweet potatoes and avocado. You don't show any signs of favoring one over the other at this point. You also eat cereal and yesterday I bought you some Mum Mums and you devoured them!

You still take between 5-6 ounces of formula every 3-4 hours. Some days you get thrown off and end up only wanting 3-4 ounces and it's very sporadic and unpredictable. I think it's because you are teething. No teeth yet but you want to gum everything to death! You especially get excited when you see one of Brooklyn's sippy cups. Your eyes get as big as saucers and your hands go crazy reaching for it. It's quite funny. Of course you throw a little fit when you can't get it or we take it away from  you to let Brooklyn drink, but that's OK, we are learning to deal with your frequent little tantrums.

Did I mention you have a temper? Yep, you do. Not sure where you got that from. Definitely not me...I still have all mine. Must be your daddy then...Yes, that's it! Once you decide that you are tired and ready for sleep, you start squawking like an angry seagull and throwing your head back and your arms up. We know then that it's time to lay you in your bed! You usually go right to sleep at that point with your lovey, the bunny head with a blanket attached. You like to scrunch it all up and hold it to your face. You also have tantrums when you can't hold on to a toy you really want to chew on. You get frustrated and start throwing things and flailing your arms. It's cute to watch for a few seconds but then I try to calm you down and help you hold the toy.

You are sitting up on your own! You have an occasional fall to one side or the other but for the most part, you are doing it all on your own. You love it too! It allows you to sit and play with your sister, whom you LOVE! Brooklyn makes you laugh more than anything or anyone else in our family. She still hasn't figured out how much you love her, but she will come around, don't get discouraged. I know you hear her say "no baby" a lot but she's still a baby in a lot of ways herself and is still learning how to love her sister. One day, you two will be best friends and do everything together and I look forward to watching that relationship develop between the two of you.

Your eyes have become the same beautiful blue as your sister's and your hair is lightening up a bit. You've lost all the dark hair on the back of your head and it's being replaced by lighter hair. You are looking more and more like your daddy everyday! I see a lot of him in you. Don't worry, you will be a very pretty version of him. He doesn't make a pretty girl right now but you will! (He is quite handsome for a man though!)

We are getting ready to transition you into the big crib that Brooklyn has been sleeping in. She will be getting a toddler bed soon and you will move in to sleep with her in her room. You have outgrown the travel crib we had for you and the pack n' play just isn't working. You've spent several nights in our bed and I can already tell that you would be happy sleeping with us every night if I would let you. But I'm sorry, I'm not going to let you do that. We did it with your sister and it became very difficult when it was time to put her in her own crib. We don't want you to go through that so we're going to do things different this time around.

You aren't sleeping through the night anymore. I'm a little bummed about that. You did so well with your sleeping all the way up to about mid September. Then it all fell apart. You outgrew your swaddle blanket and kept getting out of the other ones that I wrapped you in. You were waking multiple times a night. Now you're down to about 2-3 times a night. You don't wake up quietly either, you wake up screaming your head off. I'm not sure why you're so angry when you wake up, but you are!

(Sorry for all the high-chair, eating pictures! Next time I'll try to post a bigger variety of shots of her. She just spends a lot of time there right now!)