An Easter Visit with Grammy Rachel

Ok, so I know that Easter has come and gone, but I wanted to share some fun pictures from my mom's visit.

Yo-Yos are Funny!

6 months old and still growing

Dear Elana, 

 You are now 6 months old!    You have grown a lot in the past few weeks.  At your 6 month checkup you weighed 15 lbs 6 oz (36 percentile), you were 25 3/4 inches long (45 %tile) and had a head circumference of 17.51 inches (96.36 %tile). 

 The one title that would describe you best is "The Princess and the Pea".  You are our little princess and you don't let us forget it.  Everything is all about you lately.  The past few weeks have been rough because you have a cold as well as teething and all you do is fuss, whine, and cry.  Aside from the pools of drool you leave every where you go.  You have not been eating or sleeping well either.  I really hope you get some teeth soon because this is getting a little hard to handle.  Oh, the screaming!  Make the screaming stop!  You are SO LOUD and we don't know how to handle it.  We have given you a nick name of "the screamer"  because that is what you do lately.  But hey, it's not your fault that it all hurts.  It's just part of growing and apparently screaming loudly is the only way you know how to cope with it.  

But the screaming aside, you really can be a cute, fun, pleasant, smiley little girl and we love having you in our family.  You like to smile a lot but other than screaming you don't seem to talk much.  You do have a few "ya ya ya" going on, but that's mostly when you have something in your mouth that you are chewing on.   So when you are not screaming or whining or fussing, you are mostly just quiet.  And right now, there is nothing wrong with being quiet, if you get my hint ;) 

You really like to hold on to anything I will let you get your hands on.  Your new favorite thing to grab on to is the tube of the nasal sucker.  It's almost as if you are trying to pull it out of mom or dads hands so we can't suck your nose out.  You usually grab things with both hands but have started to favor your left.  We may have another lefty if the family.  The 3 lefty's will out number me. 

 

When you have your quite moments you are so very alert and like to watch everything.  When you are calm and content, usually after you have just drank your milk, you like to sit or lie down and watch everything. But only for a few minutes because then you get antsy and start to fuss.  You love to watch your hands, daddy moving around in the kitchen, Cooper, doing what ever crazy thing he is doing at the moment and mommy drink her tea in the morning.  It's funny to see you look at me as I pick up the cup, take a sip, and then put it back down.  You look at me, then the cup, then back at me, to see if I will maybe give you a taste or something.  Not quite yet.  Maybe it was ok for your dad when he was six months old, but not for you.  

Since you don't like to sleep much, you still wake up in the middle of the night, usually between 1-3.  Then again at 5-6.  I wish I knew how to change this so you would sleep longer and wake up later.  We've tried to get you to go to bed later than 7, but you are just so tired then.  Your last nap of the day usually ends by 3 and you can't handle being awake more than 4 hours.  Any longer than that you really bring on the screaming.  I'm just so tired all the time.  And several times caught myself falling asleep at work when I was working with students. 

Last month you started to roll from your tummy to your back. The first few times you did it you seemed so surprised wondering how did I end up in this position.  I still haven't figured out if you can intentionally roll over this way or if it happened because your head is so big and heavy and you just happened to be leaning too far over one direction.  You really haven't rolled over since then.  But you try, you really do try.  It's cute how you get your little back and but arched in the air and then flop back down on your back.  It's just that darn head of yours that is so big and heavy.  

And while I'm on the subject of your head I may as well mention that it is hard to get most of your 6 month clothes over your head.  But even after I do, they still don't fit all that well.  You have almost out grown your 6 month shirts.  I had to go buy a few new ones the other day because it might be time to retire the a few of the ones you have.  And to think, Grammy R just brought those for you in December.  Wow was that last month?!  It feels like ages ago!  But then, January seems to be dragging on for ever and ever!  As much as I don't want you to grow any more, I'm hoping that a new month will bring new changes for you and oh, I don't know... maybe a lot less screaming PLEASE!

And since you are growing, your spit-up has decreased a lot.  You don't need to wear a bib as a necklace all the time now.  And my clothes don't constantly smell like spit-up!  Usually if you can get in at least one good burp while eating the spit-up is reduced.

I almost forgot to mention that you started day care this month.  Wow was this a big change for you and me!   I love your teachers!  Miss Max and Miss Rochelle are wonderful.  Occasionally there will be someone else helping out like Miss Cheryl (who is also great), in the morning, or Miss Mona, who is a little strange but nice, or Miss Linda, who apparently goes to the church Grammy R goes to when she comes to visit.   I was so worried that you were going to scream all the time and only take your 1/2 hour naps like you often do.  Which was how the first few days went.  And I panicked!  Where were the "daycare fairies" that worked their magic and go you to sleep and stop crying and not spit up?  Well it only took a week and the fairies did there magic.  You were sleeping 1-2 hour naps in a crib!  You were not spitting up as much!  And you were having fun.  It is so nice to drop you off in the morning, go to work, and then when I pick you up see your smiling face as I you look at me and let out a happy squeal as I walk in the door. Every thing is going great except for the blow outs you were having, 2 and 3 times per day!  But I think we figured out that it was a diaper malfunction problem.  And once I explained and then showed your teachers the flaps should be out all the way around your let, the blow outs have stopped.  Well for one day at least.  You haven't been back since then.  But hopefully they will remember to check the flaps and all will be good. 

Likes:

• You really enjoy eating: carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, and peas.  
• Chewing on anything you can put in your mouth but your favorite is your butterfly chew toy.
• You still LOVE to look out the window.  This will help you calm down almost any time.  
• Playing with Cooper. (He mostly makes faces at you and jumps over you)
• Being tickled, especially hair tickles from daddy.
• Taking baths
• Holding on to your feet and playing with them.
• Playing with your dog Violet that we gave you for Christmas.
• Looking at books.
• Sitting in your jumperoo (but only for short amounts of time) 
• Laying in your play gym. 
• Kicking- which will involve moving if you are on the floor.
• If we force you to sleep you like to sleep in your swing (you will sleep for hours in it!)  But you are getting a little too big for it which is a little scary.

 

Dislikes:

• Sleeping
• Being wrapped up while sleeping (we still do it because you startle too much, and because we are afraid of change)
• Having your nose sucked out.
• Waiting for anything.
• Unexpected loud noises, especially ones made by dad :)

New Skills:

• Rolling over from your tummy to your back (although you don't do it very often).
• Lifting your head up high when on your tummy
• Holding things in your hands and chewing on them
• Pulling the frog toy down on your bouncy seat to turn on the music.

Now that's talent!

Chewing on ice.  Sometimes you like it and sometimes you throw it. 

Well I can't wait to see what the next few months brings.  Might I add again, hopefully a lot less screaming, more sleeping and a lot more smiles!