6 months old!

It is hard to believe that our little girl is SIX months old already! I remember when I was growing up I would always hear "old people" say how fast time flies. Now, here I am thinking to myself that time is REALLY flying and I am wondering if that means I am "old" too! haha After waiting for so long to have a child, we are amazed by how quickly Angelica has grown from a tiny newborn to an active little baby. Each day she is doing more and developing more and more of her own personality. Sometimes I feel like she takes after me. She knows what she wants and she finds a way to get what she wants. She also LOVES peas and HATES turkey, just like me! Other times I think she is like Dennis. I watch the things she does and think of how she comes up with creative ways to get what she wants. She smiles so big when she is happy and she really lets you know when she is upset. She is also pretty easy to please, like Dennis.

I didn't do a post from when she hit 5 months, so let me catch you up on the last 2 months of what she has been up to! As you saw in my earlier post, we celebrated our first Mother's Day together and had a big brunch with all of Angelica's grandmas and her Godmother. Later in the month, Angelica had her first "real" food - squash. She seemed to like it OK. Each week she tried something new. She has enjoyed green beans (although she HATED them the first time she had them) and sweet potatos. She also has enjoyed peaches, pears, prunes and bananas. She does not like carrots or applesauce too much but she will eat them. She also started to have more fun in the bathtub and enjoyed sticking her toes in her mouth. She continued rolling back and forth from her tummy to her back but usually preferred being on her tummy. She started trying to scoot around the house as well.

During Angelica's 6th month she continued trying new fruits and vegetables. She has continued to sleep a good 10-12 hours each night as well. Angelica has been lucky enough to spend some time with some other babies and kids during this past month and she has loved every minute of it. We had a playdate with her cousins Jeff (3) and Becca (1) and they had a LOT of fun together. We also played with Gretchen (2), Cheyenne (2), Will (1), Audrey (1), and Lucy (5 months). We even had a baby pool party! Angelica had 2 new friends born this month too! Stella Monroe Kruse and Preston Allen Meents were born! During Angelica's 6th month we experienced our first tornado warning and got to hang out in the basement for a while. We also got to see the Blackhaws win the Stanley Cup! We brought Angelica in the pool for the very first time and just like her mommy, she loved it! She enjoys sitting in her floats and having us hold her on her tummy while she kicks and paddles.

Angelica's 6 month checkup showed that she is weighing 17lbs 5oz. They say she is in the 50th percentile for weight, meaning she is average. She was 27 inches tall. They say she is in the 97th percentile for height meaning she is quite tall for her age. She got 4 shots at her checkup this month. They didn't go as well as the others have in the past and seemed to cause her some pain in her legs. All in all though she did OK. The biggest news of the month though is that Angelica is CRAWLING! She is mobile and loving every minute of it. We might be in trouble here. She was scooting around for a while and could make her way across the room, but it took her some time. Now she can get to what she wants in a matter of seconds. It is time for us to do a little babyproofing and we will be starting with some real baby gates and outlet covers. Angelica has already knocked over our large metal doggy gate. It didn't hurt her but it did scare her when it came crashing down. She also took all of the books off the bottom of my bookshelf. I am hoping she will soon learn what the word NO means!

Besides crawling, she is starting to pull herself up to a standing position. We have lowered her crib mattress and taken the coffee table out of the "playroom" area. She enjoys spending time in her walker which we let her do at least once a day so she can still get around without scuffing up her knees too bad. Angelica is loving all of her toys, especially the musical ones. She is also finally sitting up on her own without falling over. It seems like she has done some things backwards, but I feel like crawling was a big priority for her because it seems her main goal in life is to get as close to the dogs as she can. She absolutely LOVES them.

Angelica is still the smiley-est baby I know and many people have told me the same thing. She still has her meltdowns from time to time, but for the most part she is always happy. She smiles first thing when she wakes up and as she goes down to sleep. She smiles when we look at her and she smiles when people talk to her. She smiles when she sees the dogs or when she eats food that she likes. She even smiled at the nurse who gave her her shots! I hope that the smiling continues. It is almost theraputic for us. Dennis or I could be having a terrible day, but we take one look over at Angelica and she flashes us the biggest smile and it's like she is telling us how great she thinks we are and it just melts our hearts and puts things into perspective. We feel so lucky to have her and so happy she is ours. She truly is a blessing.

Here are some pictures I took of Angelica for her 6 month photo shoot. The first few we took behind our backyard. The rest we took at the Goodenow Grove forest preserve just about a mile away from our house. I think they came out pretty good. I have also posted a couple of videos of Angelica crawling and of her waking up and smiling first thing in the morning. Enjoy! (PS If you click on a picture, it will enlarge so you can see it closer up.) (PPS. If you play the videos, they may be choppy trying to load the first time you play them. If you play them a second time, they should play without any interruption. I noticed you can also listen to the videos without sound if you click on the speaker icon.)