Kailyn- 6 Months

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Kailyn!!

We have enjoyed yet another busy month! Kailyn has enjoyed many playdates with friends, celebrating Daddy's Birthday, learning how to do new things, and much more!

New things: Kailyn has grown up so much in the past month. She is no longer an infant that just lounges around and coos! She is now sitting up all by herself, playing toys. If she is laying down and wants to sit up, she fusses and pulls her head, neck, and shoulders up off the floor like she is doing a cruch- trying to get up. It is cute! She has found her toes and plays with them all the time, especially when she is laying down, she will put her feet straight up in the air and grab them. Kailyn has also found her ears...Mommy thought she had an ear infection because she was swatting at them so much, went to the doctor, and she is just fine- good to hear. She has been playing in the saucer and jumperoo for a while now, but she has just learned to jump while in the jumperoo and she is really good at it. She will jump, jump, and jump some more...we have to get this on video soon. Kailyn has rolled over both ways, but only a few times. The two times she rolled from back to front, she was in the living room on her play mat and Mommy and/or Daddy were in the kitchen or somewhere else in the house and came back to her fussing because she was on her belly! She still hates being on her tummy, so we think she just isn't interested in rolling onto it. Truthfully, she would rather just sit up and play! And speaking of sitting up, she has now graduated to getting to sit in the shopping cart when we go somewhere. We rarely take her carseat in anywhere anymore because even if she is asleep, she will wake up when taking it out of the car. She is, however, getting a little better in the car. She will still cry some if she is hungry or tired, but if she is sleepy enough, she will just go on to sleep. So thankful that car rides are starting to get better! Kailyn is also enjoying the new freedom of sitting up because she can ride in the stroller now! We got a Sit N Stand stroller so that Kailyn has a front seat where she can be buckled and Caleb has a backseat that is a little bench where he can sit but still get up and down as he pleases. Big brother is also enjoying the new freedom the new stroller has given him. She is also chewing on everything all of the time. When she wears dresses, she will even pull them up to her mouth and chew on the end. Mommy keeps thinking that she will get teeth soon, but there are no signs when we check her mouth. She definitely has a little temper though, if you put her down or in something and walk away, watch out! She will cry like you broke her little heart. But if you sit with her and play with her or even take her with you when you change rooms, she is the happiest little girl you've ever seen. She is also starting to really talk and babble a lot and even squeal, which Mommy loves!

Food: Kailyn is now a baby food junkie! We started baby food with her a few days after she turned 5 months old. Since she had been eating the cereal and oatmeal for a month, we decided that there was no reason to deal with the extremely runny 1st foods and skipped over to the 2nd foods. We began with doing vegetables at dinner time for a few weeks, then moved into doing fruits for breakfast. Recently, we added baby yogurt for lunch. Now, sometimes the lunch yogurt does not happen if we are busy on a playdate or something, but she doesn't seem to mind as long as she has her bottle. She definitely still preferrs the bottle, but we think she is enjoying the food too. You just can't wait until she is too hungry to do the baby food, or she is too mad and will not eat it, just wants her bottle. We are still fixing her 6oz bottles at every feeding, with her eating part of it to begin with and saving a little for nap time, sometimes she doesn't even finish the entire bottle.

Sleep: Kailyn has mostly went back to only getting up once per night. She still will throw a curve ball every once in a while and get up twice. Most of those nights, Mommy can either give her the pacie or rock her back to sleep without having to feed her if it is still early on in the night. But when she regularly gets up sometime around 2:30-4, we give her a bottle and she will go right back to sleep. Maybe month 6 will be her magical sleep through the night month?!! Just last night, she only got up at 4:30am, took a bottle, went back to sleep until 7am...fantastic job, Kailyn :) We have also started letting her nap in her bed for the afternoon nap. Morning naps, Mommy usually just lets her sleep in the swing still because that is when she gets a shower and Caleb is usually running around upstairs. This way, Kailyn has the downstairs to herself and it is nice and quiet. She is still only able to stay awake for about 2 hours, but she is getting better about being pushed past that if she is out and about. Last week, Mommy was able to keep her awake every day until Caleb took his nap, then she would lay Kailyn down for her 2nd nap at the same time...Mommy was loving that. This month, Mommy is hoping to regulate Kailyn's sleep schedule a little more and get her on a consistent 2 naps her day routine. Maybe that will help her night sleep?

Fashion: We can definitely tell she is constantly growing, but the past month not too much. She can still wear a lot of 3-6 month clothes, but she is regularly wearing 6 month outfits. Mommy has even put her in a few 6-9 month outfits and they fit pretty well. Now, given that a lot of brands are different in sizing. Ralph Lauren usually runs a little small and boutique brands such as Petit Ami usually run a little big. And she is still wearing a size 3 diaper. Her little foot hasn't grown much either, size 1 is still fitting great. We tried on a pair of her size 2 sandals this weekend and they were still big. Oh well, thank goodness for consignment sales, we can resell it and it isn't too big of a deal that she never wore them.

Her schedule is still very variable, but this is a typical day:

6am- Wake up

6:30- Breakfast, 1-2 tbs fruit baby food

6:50-7:45- Play time

8-9:30am- Morning Nap, this is where her schedule is iffy, can be 20 minutes or 1.5 hours...if it is a short nap, she usually will need another short nap before lunch time, this is where Mommy feels we need improvement!

9:30- Get dressed for the day, part of a bottle

10-11:30- Play time, Run Errands, etc.

11:30 or 12- Caleb's lunch time, so Kailyn usually eats yogurt with him if we are at home.

12:30-3- Afternoon Nap

3:30- Bottle

3:30-5:30- Play Time, Run Errands, Play with Daddy, etc.

5:30- Dinner, she either eats before or after we all do, we try to keep her happy in her high chair so we can all eat together. This will be easier once she is able to eat puffs or some other snack while we eat.

6:30- Bath Time

7pm- Bed Time, asleep by 7:30

3:30- Middle of the night feeding

July 10, 2012- First time to eat baby food. Gran Gran fed her Sweet Potatoes and Corn for her first dinner!

July 13, 2012- Enjoying a big playdate with Church friends. Kailyn and Caleb are to the far left.

Enjoying snuggles with big brother :)

July 14, 2012- Attending Finlee's 5th Birthday party, playing with BFF Rylann at the party!

July 16, 2012- Practicing sitting up with the Boppy pillow as support.

July 17, 2012- Was a BIG day! Kailyn had lots of firsts :)

Playing with her toes.

Sitting up by herself!

And sitting in the shopping cart for the first time.

July 18, 2012- Playdate with friends at the movies, Kailyn played for a little while, then had a bottle and napped through the 2nd half of "Horton Hears a Who"

July 19, 2012- Happy Birthday, Daddy! Enjoying a family dinner at Phil's

July 21, 2012- Saturday morning, reading books with Daddy.

July 21, 2012- 5 Month pictures at the Botanical Gardens

July 28, 2012- Swimming at Grandmama and Grandad's pool

July 29, 2012- Enjoying riding in the stroller while big brother plays at the park and feeds the ducks with Addison.

August 1, 2012- Playing in the stroller while Caleb plays with friends at the splash pad.

August 4, 2012- Kailyn is SIX months old!

Check out those big, blue eyes...they are going to break hearts one day!

You can never smile too much, baby girl! We love to see this everyday :)

Playing in her bed.

Well, baby girl, you are now into the second half of the first year of your life. Your Mommy and Daddy could not be any prouder of you. You are such a joy to have around and we love snuggling and playing with you! You have grwon and progressed so much in the past month and it is so fun. We can't wait to see what you will do next...