We won!

I entered Laura's nursery picture into a contest and we won!

click here to see Laura's entry

(Katie ... please tell me how to make this a clickable link like you always do!)

Now I have $10 to spend at their store :)

THIS is what I was waiting for?

Can I have some mom? Can I? Can I? Pretty please?!?




Ok...so what's all the fuss about? This food stuff tastes like dirt!




At least I got me and daddy dirty in the process!

How long now?

Wondering how long until we see some teeth... Today I noticed a white spot on Laura's bottom gum... on the left side. I'm pretty sure that's a tooth trying to come through!

A couple pictures with mommy...

Rolly Polly 6 month old

What is Laura doing at 6 months old?

She growls. Just opens her mouth wide and makes this deep growly sound. Lynne says she sounds like one of the boys at daycare.

She still loves daycare.

She is starting to really take notice of Toby and Miranda. She'll grab a handful of their fur if they get too close. Miranda keeps her distance. Toby isn't that smart yet...

She will happily play by herself for a short while - either sitting on the floor or in her exercauser or in her highchair.

She is sitting on her own - unsupported - has been for about 3.5 weeks now!

She is up a couple times a night for a full "meal". I think a lot of people think this is too often for her age, but I really think she has reverse cycled herself. Reverse cycling is when a breastfed baby eats more at night than they do during the day... some days she only takes 7-10 ounces at daycare. Most days she takes 12. I don't mind so much as it means I don't have to pump as much for her!

She loves to stand. At anytime when she's fussy - just have to put her on her feet and no matter what she was fussing about, she forgets about it and gets a big grin on her face.

She rolls her ankles in if her stance isn't far enough apart.

She is solidly in a 6 month outfit and a few of her 9 month clothes are starting to fit well too.

She still has no teeth... some days I think they're trying to come through, but for the most part her temperment is wonderful!

She has the best giggle ever! Daddy's scratchy face is sure to get her laughing when he kisses her.

She can be perfectly content playing - and if she gets a glimpse of mommy she fusses until I go to her... uh-oh - is this separation anxiety/clingyness starting now?

She still fits in her infant carseat - although she's getting really heavy to lug around!

She's still totally breastfed... not sure when we'll start solids, although I know that any time from her on out is perfectly fine. She seems content still, so no rush.

She does love to watch us eat though!

She is still in her medium sized cloth diapers... and they legs are fitting better than they did about a month or so ago. She's in a size 3 disposable diaper.

She has her 6 month appointment next week so I'll post her weight/height stats then...

SLOW DOWN!

Ok, hold the phone! ... where did the past 6 months go!!???

Here's Laura helping me in the kitchen last evening...

She helped me make cupcakes for her "half" birthday... (hey, any excuse to have cake is okay in my book!) :)

And tonight we had a party :)
Well, we took some pictures and ate some cake...


In the two above pictures, Laura was too interested in watching Toby sitting in the laundry basket in front of her to look at the camera...

Miranda is such a party pooper...!

Bath time!

Finally took a bath in the big tub - no blow up ducky!





After the above picture, she plunked her head down and tried to drink her bath water... which led to the next picture ... she was screaming mad until she let out an enormous belch and then she felt better :)

Showing off her fuzzy new sweater!

Can everyone see what Laura is doing here? Standing. Occasionally leaning back on her daddy's leg ... but yeah, our not-quite-6-month-old is standing! We all think she'll be walking by 8 months!

Just testing... trying to see what they look like before I print some of them...

And this is what she's been doing today...

Yelling! Just happy yelling...deep, not high pitched. She's found a different voice range she's playing with today. She was doing it at daycare today too and Lynne and the kids got a kick out of it!

And then randomly I get a good picture... but I really wish I could get more consistent good ones!

Tried some Easter pics...

Well, I tried to get some easter pictures - and I really realized that my focusing sucks and so do my post editing skills! UGH!!!

I'm stumped again...

Still acting pretty weird and not herself these past couple days... not napping for Lynne - and not taking evening naps here at home - and not settling in for bed easy either. She is fighting breastfeeding in the evenings again (mini nursing strike???) but she eats fine overnight and in the morning - even says "mmmm" as she reaches for it...

In the evenings when I walk into her room she screams - screams when I try to sit with her and rock her - not sure if she's just resisting going to sleep? Or if she wants to be up on her feet standing now that she's found out what her feet do... or ... or... I'm really not sure. She's not even enjoying naked time anymore. She used to LOVE just kicking around naked at night --- now she doesn't like it unless one of us is holding her in a standing position!

My other thought is... she's getting sick again - this is similar to how she acted when she first had the RSV. But that crankyness only lasted a day or two... we're onto 4 days here now... She does have a runny/stuff nose... so we'll see what it turns into...

She's still sleeping really well overnight though :) Last night, took a bottle at 8:30 (she wouldn't take from me) ... had to start feeding her the bottle while she was sitting upright - then as she relaxed got her into a lying down position. Anyways - once she was asleep, she slept until 3:45. Up to eat then - and then back down until 7 :)

Dang! I don't know what got into her!!!

Laura has been pretty horrible with her asleep and awake times since the time change last weekend... it started off that she wanted to go to bed at around 9 instead of her normal 8... and that she was still soundly sleeping at 7:20am... and we leave at 7:40 usually. She normally was awake with us around 6:15 or so.

She did great overnight for most of the week though... four nights in a row she was only up once! Got up to eat at 2-3ish and was back out until 6...up to eat and then back down for another hour or so.

Now today she's totally wacky! She was up this morning at 5:15... was ornery in the living room with daddy for an hour - I fed her...then she zonked back out... up at 7:15 to eat... then zonked back out... until 9:30!!! She fought and fought against taking any nap today...but finally went down at 12:30 and got just under an hour in. We went to Richie's parents this evening and I think she may have dozed on the way there (at least she was quiet, not sure if she slept though)...she got a 20 minute nap while we were there and then she slept hard on the way home... now it's 9:45 and she's wide awake and ANGRY about it! She goes between giggling to MAD really fast. Right now she's with her daddy - he seems to be able to calm her much easier than I can today.

TMI ahead... (yep, you've been warned!)

She isn't even eating well today... just kinda snacking. She has had plenty of wet dipes though so I know she's still getting plenty to eat. Oh, and this morning she had the worst throw up episode yet - all over her, me, the floor ...good thing I heard her cough first and turned her away from the computer!!! Got her all cleaned up from that and changed her diaper - then she had a bit of spit up - went to clean her up from that and realized my leg was wet - she's soaked through her diaper - put a new one on her and not 10 minutes later she let loose with the biggest butt explosion she's had in a long time! Let her finish with that and then she needed a bath... and let me just say that this poo was bigger than the one after not going for 7.5 days last week!!! Don't worry... I did not take any pictures! :P

Ok, off to try to settle Laura in for the night...

This photo is getting entered in a contest :)

The entries to this particular contest will be judged based on personality and charm... think she's got it? :) It's not a web based vote though, so no one here can help us out... she's gotta do it on looks alone!!!

A few pictures :)

Who says kids need expensive toys? This night she had fun with daddy's maglight for awhile - and the she was playing with a big spoon from the kitchen...


Today Laura and I went to a birthday party for Isabella. She turned 1 today. I have great pics of Laura with the birthday girl, but I'm not sure if her mom is okay with me posting the pictures ... so here's one of Laura all dressed up in her party dress today.

Give me a few more days...

Sorry for the no posting thing this past couple weeks - last weekend was busy - went up to visit my grandma (Laura's great grandma) - Richie was sick - now I've been sick all week. Feeling a tad bit better today... just hoping I can kick it without having to go to the doctors... I'll update when I'm better and have more time ...

I can say though that Laura has perfected sitting unassisted. She did that just after that last post - so just over 5 months old :)

As requested...

The Mohawk!!!


This one has the mohawk too, but hard to see against the brown couch...
This one is sure to make Aunt Megan roll with laughter :)


...and I just got my new flash today and I'm so glad I have such a cute model to practice on!!!

New things she's doing...

Laura has found her ... tongue! It's the cutest thing! We were at the pool on Saturday (more on that later!) and after we were done, she started sticking her tongue out and "wagging" it at me... I thought she may be hungry - but she wasn't... she was just experimenting with her new found body part. She has kept up this tongue fascination each day since then. Sometimes she sticks it out repeatedly, and other times you'd swear she's making a meal out of the thing. Chews and chews and chews on it. So funny to watch!

Saturday was Laura's third time swimming - and she finally enjoyed herself!!! YAY! She was smiling while we were there... looking around and actually having a good time. She loved it when I laid her on her back in my arms - she could suck on her toes and she was just in heaven doing that. I did dunk her again and she surprisingly didn't scream loudly afterwards - just fussed a little and after I hugged her in close and let her get her toes again she was fine.

She is also sitting up a bit on her own. I've had lots of people ask if she is sitting up on her own in the 5 month picture I've posted - but we kinda cheated with that...she's really supported by the couch cushions. BUT - since then she's even gotten better at sitting. She does great if she's leaning slightly forward with her hands on her feet (or the floor) but as soon as she lets go she starts falling backwards and shows no signs of being able to try to catch herself. She is also bearing weight on her legs really well now!!! Rich thinks she'll be the kid who is so efficient she skips crawling and goes right to walking. I just know when she's doing that we'll miss these non-mobile days! As it is now, she scoots around when we put her on the ground for tummy time. She pushes up with her arms and manages to scoot herself backwards - usually right off the piddle pad she's on so she's actually gotten the floor wet a couple times. Oops :)

No more signs of teeth yet - we've thought a few times that there might be some trying to come through - but her temperment is back to normal since she's feeling better. Her sleep routine is back to normal too :) Just getting up 1-2 times each night. I'm not even doing her "dream feed" every night now. (I used to feed her in her sleep just before I go to bed at 9:30-10).

Her hair - that's another story - my poor girl is losing her long locks of hair! I looked in her crib the other morning and thought to myself that her sheet looks nasty - upon closer inspection, it's all her hair falling out. Her left side of her head is nearly bald and so is the front part - the front just looks like it has hair because what's on top is so long that it falls down the front. I was just noticing when I was feeding her before I just put her to bed for the night that her right side of her head is pretty bald too - she could sport a pretty mean mohawk if I had some hair gel! Oh yes, and of course she has the baby pattern bald spot on the back of her head...that's been there for weeks now.