6 Months Already??

Little Rose is 6 months tomorrow. It is such a fun fun time! She has the biggest open-mouth smiles for us. We can make her laugh very easily. She plays!!! I don't have to be holding and entertaining quite as much. She really reaches for toys and can move around quite a bit. She is so curious about everything around her. She can really crane her neck around when she hears a sound. Her little arms are really strong and she can push her upper body really high from the floor.

What else?

She is wearing 3 month and 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. I don't know her weight and height--I'll find out at the appointment this month. I still get stopped everywhere over how beautiful she is--today in the grocery store, at an apartment complex. At Panda Express this worker totally freaked out, saying she had thought she was a doll, then realized she was real. She is a little dolly baby--yes, this is my blog and I can say how beautiful my baby girl is! My mom said her eyes are like blue marbles in the light--so true. She is getting a little bit of hair (little!) Her cheeks and nose are always pink because she rubs her face down against the mattress at night. She has this funny thing where she kicks her right leg over and over. She also brings her hands together under her chin and brings them up and down (Raimo considers it her show of victory). She also slaps her hands down toward her legs over and over when she is excited, like lots of babies do I guess--but it is just so so cute!

She enjoys getting undressed!! Pajama time is a fun part of the day--we give her belly lots of kisses and she laughs and laughs. She is very ticklish. She now associates getting undressed with laughing--it is so funny. I love her!!!

Also, ever since she was born I have kissed her feet when I change her diapers. I still love pulling those feet out of her jammies and putting them up to my face and she curls her toes against it and smiles.

I started letting her "cry it out" this week. If you think about it, that phrase is stupid because there is nothing to "get out" of her. She is really just learning how to fall asleep unassisted. This is going to help me tremendously--for the record, I have been spending large amounts of time in our bathroom (the only really dark room in the house) with the fan on for some white noise, rocking, singing... whatever I have to do. Whatever--it worked for us for a few months. But so far the sleep training seems to be working and I feel great about it. She doesn't have to cry for hours--it lasts maybe 30 minutes. I go in and rub her face and make sure she's ok, but she stays in the crib. And then she sleeps!! Now if we can get her to take naps longer than 30 minutes at a time, this will be awesome. It will also be awesome for whenever she happens to wake up too early from a nap or when she wakes up over and over at night--hopefully she'll be able to figure out that going back to sleep is the thing to do!

I bought some rice cereal, but I just don't want to do it! Maybe I will wait a little longer. I'm totally good with the milk-only thing. So simple and so convenient and so free! I have enjoyed breast feeding a lot (not that it's over). The beginning was very rough. Rose has not been the best at it--even now she still fights me on one side, and now she is getting so strong that it is getting harder to hold her! But I love the closeness and the fact that I am the one that gets to do it. Rose sure loves her milk.

One fun thing: she now reacts to music! She stares at the cd player and seems to really respond to what she's hearing.

I feel like this milestone is a big one. It is really a big difference from the other months, and I think that if the sleeping improves it will be even more of a milestone!