Six Months

Dear Katie,

This post is exactly a week late - sorry about that... but you see, that's what happens when your six month birthday falls 2 days before Christmas. While we're all sick. And it's Maddie's last day of daycare for the year. And I have an Open House to make food for.

But enough with the excuses already...

You, my dearest chubby monkey Katiebear, are six months old. SIX! That's halfway to a year and it's all happened so quickly - where did my darling little grumpy troll go? Although you still let out a good ol' grooooooannnn every once in a while, for the most part the grumpiness is far behind us.

Left in it's place is a happy, content, thoughtful little baby. You smile your dimpled little cheek at anyone who pauses and says hello. Never are you happier than sitting in someone's lap while you watch all the action - specifically your sister as she bops around playing and chatting.

You're still pretty stingy with your giggles though missy - how hard are you going to make us work for it??

You hit a big milestone this month, starting solids! After noticing your increased interest in anything I may be eating, I started thinking we should start soon. Then after a lunch out at Kelsey's early this month, wherein you grabbed pieces of salad off my plate and tried to shove them in your mouth - well, let's just say I stopped and grabbed some rice cereal on the way home. You're already up to two meals a day - and so far everything gets eaten, but nothing has been a clear winner. Butternut squash seems to be your favourite thus far - but with all the preparations for Christmas, I haven't really had a chance to make a lot of food for you yet - we'll see what you think about cauliflower or turnip later this week... yum!

Another milestone you accomplished this month is rolling - as of December 20th in fact - you can now roll from your belly to your back whenever you damn well please. Interestingly though, after mastering this skill, you've since abandoned all interest in it. Fickle little thing...

Sleep is still a relatively non-issue. You stopped wanting (or allowing) to be swaddled this month... and so you sleep in a mixture of back and belly - depends on you, depends on me, depends on what position you get yourself into throughout the night. Lately you've been awakening far more at night, but I'm trying to just attribute that to the ridiculous cold that is making it's way through our house and not because you have decided to no longer enjoy sleeping in 8 hour stretches... oh lordy, please don't be changing that up, because that? That, was niiiiiiiice...

Other stuff you do now that you didn't do a month ago:

• Bang things off other things. 
• Reach out and grab stuff - pretty much anything within reach while sitting in your bumbo at the table. 
• Get really annoyed if I take something away from you or move it out of reach (like my coffee cup - lady, it's hot - trust me you don't want it). 
• Say "da-da-da-da-da" all the time and (just recently) "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma". I'm not getting too excited, I'm sure you don't really mean me, but still - love hearing the first sounds!

We've started sign language with you - milk, more, please, sleep and eat - you watch me so intently, I love that you look like you know exactly what I'm trying to teach you. And already you are doing the milk sign, or are you just flexing your fist? I'm not sure - but we'll lean towards genius prodigy and say, you're signing already!

Sitting up is the next step - you love trying to keep your balance and playing toys with your sister. I expect the novelty of having a younger sibling is going to wear off shortly once you're able to really get in there and take the toys away from her. I say - go to it - she needs a lesson (or 500) in sharing anyways. And when all else fails - just pull her hair!

 Love you my clingy little spidermonkey. My grunty little troll. My smiley, dimply little Katiebear.

Love,
Mommy

PS - I think the jury's in on your eye colour - from dark blue on the outer rings, to a bit of green and then light brown closest to your pupil. I think you, my darling, officially have hazel eyes. And yes, they're gorgeous.

PPS - Ugh - I realize just how idiotic my pics look as I MIS-SPELLED "month". L-a-m-e.

I could blame it on the Hubs and my mom being in the room and distracting me with all their "She's gonna fall!" exclamations (not like I haven't been doing this every month for the past six).

Or I could blame it on being sick and tired and rushed and trying so hard just to get the photo DONE already.

Or I'm a just a jackass.

I did have it spelled correctly in the first pic, before she kicked them all over the place... really. Honest, I did.

Took the words right out of my mouth

After a rather late evening (entertaining friends over the holidays is always fun, but makes those 4am wake ups especially difficult) we were taking advantage of a bit of sleep in courtesy of the girls. That is, until I woke up to hearing Maddie chit-chatting away through the monitor that is in Katie's room.

When I poked my head into the room, Maddie was standing beside her crib on the bathroom stool, trying to "feed" Katie using a dolly bottle. The mobile over her crib was on, there were several stuffies in Katie's crib and a random doll blanket. Katie was smiling her way through all the attention, loving her sister's attempts at "taking care of her".

I smiled at the scene and asked Maddie what she was up to.

Her response (still makes me chuckle a bit)...

"It was wake up time. I looked in your room, but I didn't see you Mommy. Then I came in Katie's room and I was just buggering around in here..."

Took the words right out of my mouth...

xxoo.S

(And yes, while incredibly adorable, it did make my heart jump a bit that I had slept through clearly about 10 minutes of administered attention, which means Katie's doorhandle has a childlock in it's future.)

It's a milestone day!

Playing around with Katie on her playmat today she decided to show me just how big she's getting as she nears her 6 month birthday... pushing up on her arms, hanging out on her belly without any of that screaming we had all gotten so used to. Looking at me - smiling, giggling, laughing - without making me work for it too hard.

And just as I'm about to get up and grab a glass of water she cranks her head to the left and over she goes. Rolling! Like it ain't no thang...

I'm pretty sure I spent a month trying to "show" Maddie how to roll. Tucking her little arm up and over and nudging her in the belly to get the idea.

Second child around I'm watching her learn this new skill all on her own.

(And no, it's not a classic case of second child neglect. More like, let's not encourage this independent movement - a baby that stays where she's put is quite handy.)

Katie had other ideas of course. Not surprising as she's been rocking/moving/kicking since the day she was born. It had to happen sometime...

Goooooo Katie!

xoS

Resemblance

This was supposed to be a Wordless Wednesday post - wherein I posted a bunch of baby pics and sat back and relished in the feeling of proving once and for all that at least one of my daughters actually looks like me... and well... well, here you go...

 The Hubs - looking all smiley and baby-like...

 My ladybugs - also looking all smiley and baby-like

And then there's me...

(can you hear the sad "womp womp" trombone sound?)

xxoo.S

Because I'm lazy...

Too lazy to actually form a proper post anymore... so you get bullets...

• Katie started solids last week - on Thursday to be exact. This was after I spent the last week and a bit trying to avoid grabby little hands while eating (yes, she sits on my lap during most meals - what?). I started to feel a bit guilty about eating in front of her after these kinds of displays, so we started on rice cereal. She is a messy eater and still very grabby. Clearly she thinks she can feed yourself. Newsflash to the 5.5 month old... You can't.
• On Friday night, we spent 2 hours trying to figure out why our Christmas lights outside wouldn't turn on. I despaired that we may have to call an electrician (and yuck to that expense right about now) ... and then Hubs found the problem. One of the ends of our extension cords was sitting in the gutter in an inch of water. Yeah - water and electricity don't like each other.
• Maddie spent the past 5 days visiting Grandma and Grandpa Vallier - which meant a VERY quiet house for us. And eating takeout Thai food for dinner. And not having to sweep the floor after every meal. And having freedom to run errands in the afternoon (prime naptime). And realizing just how effing easy life was with just one kid... wow - so. easy.
• She came home just yesterday and spent the entire evening spider monkey-ing (this is our inside word for crazy clingy cuddles) either the Hubs or I. So for once, I think she missed us too. That's nice...
• One of my productive tasks was getting all the presents wrapped and under the tree - Maddie wasn't home 45 minutes before one of the presents was opened. I told her, "We don't open the presents yet - we have to wait until Christmas", only to be told that she didn't do it. She "Din't do anything Momma" ... apparently we have magical presents that open themselves.
• I hate to say it out loud (as we spent 5 months thinking Maddie was actively teething and expecting to see her first tooth any day now) (no seriously we really did - 5 whole months) ... but I think Katie is teething. She's very gnawy and grumpy and sleepless and agitated and rashy. Sounds like teething, right? Ask me again in a few months...
• I officially have 90% of my Christmas shopping done. 95% of my Christmas baking done. And the cards are getting mailed today. That's not really an update as much as it's a bragging note. I'm super-awesome. (To everyone who is done everything already - shut up).

xo.S

He speaks the truth

Early morning texting...

Me: Did I just buy a reindeer costume for my car? Yes, yes I did, indeed.

Hubs: Seriously?

Me: You bet your rat's ass I did. It's cute! Also... early morning shopping with a non-caffeinated brain is dangerous!

Hubs: Well congrats! You are well on your way to being a complete embarrassment for your kids to be around.

Me: LOL! I know! I'm awesome.

xxoo.S

So we decided...

You voted which wallpaper you liked best and we (sort of? not really at all actually...) listened.

I just pondered over all the designs again with the Hubs (can I tell you how much I love "tipsy on a few glasses of vino" Hubs? He's awesome. And cute. Even cuter when I've also had a glass-and-a-half) ... and in just that 10 minute conversation I was totally reminded why we got married. We have the Exact. Same. Taste.

(Except with shoes. Don't get me started on his footwear. Because I have impeccable footwear taste. (Trust me. I do.) And he never listens to me about shoes. It. Drives. Me. Bonkersbananas.) (Yes, that's a word)

So to give you the vote counts (since most of you voted via Facebook, and you can't see that here).
#1 = 1 vote
#2 = 4 votes
#3 = 1 vote
#4 = 10 votes (clear winner! Spoiler alert - we're not going with it... sorry!)
#5 = 0 votes
#6 = 3 votes
#7 = 1 vote
#8 = 1 vote
#9 = 1 vote
#10 = 1 vote

Design #4 was the clear winner... and we both lurve lurve lurve...

(drumroll please)

#8!

Have I mentioned how much I lurve this design? I wanted to go more traditional. I really did... But in the end I couldn't do it.

Thanks for all the responses - it was great to get feedback! And if you're ever in my powder room (after it's finished) and want to rub in my face just how bad my pick was and much better yours would have been - well - I welcome the debate!

xxoo.S

At least she's not crying...

We broke our record of crying for Santa this year. Instead Maddie just went mute and stared at him in horror at every attempt he made to chat with her. But she did give him a high five and managed to hold back the tears while sitting on his lap.

Katie remained oblivious the entire time - just stared at me like, "Dude - when are you going to get me out of this dress? I'm over the dress, okay?"

If you're wondering about the look on Maddie's face, this is the absolute closest we could get to a smile out of her. I think Tyra would be proud - she's clearly smizing for the camera!

xxoo.S