Lovin' On Littles: 06/30/13

**This post will be updated with more pictures shortly!

Our good friends, Tiff and TJ, celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in May and had planned their anniversary trip over a year ago. They invited us and 4 other couples to go with them and chose Fort Myers, Florida as their destination. We were originally in, but then upon finding out we were expecting, we needed to wait a bit longer to officially book our tickets so we could make sure we were able to leave you for that long.

After I started my new job, I requested the time off and got it approved...so we booked our flights for the whole week. We left you for the first time overnight seven nights in a row. (I'm impressed that my mama heart could handle that!) But I have to give all of the credit to you being able to spend the entire week with Aunt Roo. Had you not been with her, I would have been a wreck...I'm sure of it. Luckily we were able to FaceTime with you several times and Roo was pretty good about sending us lots of pictures of you.

We had so much fun! Daddy got to go golfing with the guys at 3 different really nice courses while the girls hung out at the pool, I went shopping one day, mini putt golfing, rented a limo and went to dinner, spent time at the beach, ate dinner on the beach and watching dolphins, and on the last day we rented a pontoon and took it out on the ocean. The highlight of that trip was lots and lots of dolphins.

Day 1 - Full day spent relaxing at our pool

Hunny and I waiting for the limo to arrive.

Ascha, Amity and I during cocktail hour.

Photo stop on the limo at the beach.

This might be one of my all-time favorites of Dan and I. Such a
beautiful set up.

Anika and I...Never mind that she's black and I'm white :)

The girls on the limo!

And of course, our hubbys.

Love these 4 so very much. Thank you for a wonderful week.
Couldn't ask for better friends!

They clean up nicely!

Aunt Kilah and Roo came to Lincoln to pick you up the day that we flew out and they took you back to Cambridge to stay with Grandpa and Grandpa for the weekend.

Roo posted this picture on facebook the day that we left with
the caption: "This little peanut gets to stay with me all week.
So much fun! Love her!" Made my mama heart
happy to read that under this picture.

I'm pretty sure you had so much fun that you didn't miss us one bit. I'm not sure who had more fun, you or your Roo. Here are the pictures that Roo texted me while we were away:

**Photos will be updated shortly!

Aunt Roo - I owe you my life. I absolutely cannot thank you enough for loving on our girl for the week. Someday I hope that I can return the favor to you and love on your littles as you have mine. The best way to show a mama that you love her is to love her child, and you have more than done that for me. My heart was full knowing that she was with you. I knew that what LA had with you was special, but I want you to know how much it meant to me to find out that the exact list of songs that I sing to peanut, you sang to her while I was gone. No one else in this world would have happened to do that.

Well 5 months came and went before I could get anything written about it. Things just haven't slowed down at all around here, and in the evenings I much prefer cuddling or playing with the babe over blogging. Six months is probably a good time to get caught up.

Half a year old already? How is that even possible? I would say that you've been changing faster than you ever have, but really I don't know if that's possible. You've been changing by the day since we first met you. You are, however, starting to become more and more fun every day. Here are some fun facts:

You are starting to interact with us more and more everyday. Starting at about 5 months, and then even more so at 5 1/2 months. You will grab at things that we dangle in front of you, and you are quick to bring them to your mouth. You are also very easy going. You have been out with us at 1:00 in the morning and smiling and laughing at people, and weren't even a bear the next day. You do really well in the car (after we start moving and you forget you're mad about being strapped in your carseat). The only bummer is that when we are on the go you don't eat much. You're kinda like your Dad in that sense - his priorities are not eating when there is socializing to be done.

You smile constantly, and it is not hard to get a good laugh out of you. You even smile at strangers. That's one of the things that people almost always comment about you...how happy of a baby you are. That makes my heart swoon, really. You think Mommy is more funny than Daddy right now, which is a fun change from what it has been for several months in the past. :) I think that bothers your Daddy just a little bit, but I am quick to remind him that you change your mind quite often. You will laugh at us when we aren't even looking at you. I can be looking at the computer and hear you laughing, only to look at you across the room cracking up. Saying "tsss, tsss, tsss" to you is a sure way to get a smile and laugh out of you every.single.time. You think that is HILARIOUS! Your laugh sounds like a little dolphin squeak - you somehow mostly laugh when you are inhaling so it sounds really funny. Can't get enough of that!

You are extremely ticklish. You squirm all over the place when I try to rub your back, and get even more ticklish under your arms and around the back of your neck. A sure way to get a big ole' belly laugh!

You will suck on anything you can get in your mouth when your binky isn't put in front of you to grab. You have only found your thumb a couple of times, but most commonly it is your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers that you suck on. Usually all 3 of them at a time. Even in the middle of the night.

You pass gas as fiercely as your Dad. I can always tell when you are waking up in the mornings because I can hear you in your crib all the way in the other room just ripping em....quite hilarious. Girlfriend packs a punch! You also passed some good ones in church a couple weeks ago when Daddy was standing holding you in the back during the service, and it was so loud that the lady in the back pew turned around and gave Daddy a funny look...probably thinking it was him!

You soil your clothes nearly every time you have a bowel movement. Not sure if it's the diaper or if you just have a great force for the expulsion but for some reason you do that religiously. We usually give you just enough time to get your usual "3 squirts" in and then you're off for a diaper change.

We FINALLY started to get a routine at about 5 1/2 months. I have been praying that this day would come eventually. I didn't know we would have to be so patient about it! Here is what a typical day looks like: wake up around 6:15, eat about 4-6 ounces, play for a couple hours, mid morning nap around 10-11 for a couple hours, wake up and eat 4-6 ounces. When you get home from daycare you are usually ravenous and will eat anywhere from 4-10 ounces and then it's not too long before you're ready for a nap again. You usually sleep from about 6-8:00 and then we wake you up for a bath and another bottle. Bedtime has gotten a bit earlier and is anywhere from 8:30-9:30 usually.

You usually sleep anywhere from 9-12 hours each night now (YAY!!!!!). We give you a bottle and then lay you down in your crib and most of the time you don't even make a peep and just fall asleep. I never thought I would actually have one of "those babies" who just put themselves to sleep. I think you have only cried for just a couple minutes maybe 2 times. And your Daddy was ready to go in there to get you after about 1 minute...I had to assure him that you would be just fine as it had only been a minute. Seriously. He is so far wrapped around your little finger...it's pretty cute. Probably half of the time I have to wake you up to get you ready for daycare, and the other half of the time you're up around 6 and ready to hang out.

You can roll over, you just choose not to most of the time. You still throw a fit when we put you on your belly most of the time, and usually you get so mad that you forget you even know how to roll over. I'm thinking you'll be learning to walk at about 4 years old at this rate...haha! Speaking of what you can do and just usually don't - you can hold your bottle, you just usually don't. You like to look at everything in the room while you eat so your head is usually on a swivel which makes feeding difficult...I can't wait until you will finally hold your own bottle continuously.

At about 5 months we started taking you to a different pediatrician (actually a medical school friend/classmate of your Grandpa's) and I wish we would have started going to her sooner. I just didn't think about it I guess. Neither of us were terribly happy with the one we were going to, and it was just time to find someone different. I also wanted a second opinion on some things. She wasn't terribly concerned about your weight and petite size, but wanted us to just use a little less water for every 2 scoops of formula that we had been doing. So we are now doing 2 scoops for every 3.5 ounces of water just to increase your calorie content a bit more. ((We will see if we are going to increase that more when we have your 6 month check.)) She also recommended not starting any fruits or veggies yet so that we don't make you full on those filler foods and instead things that we know exactly what calorie content you're getting. She wasn't worried about your flat spot on the back of your head at all, and just said to keep doing what we've been doing and that you would outgrow it.

Daddy did take you back to the follow up appointment for your flat spot, and they did more measurements and this time he said that your head had grown quite a bit and your ears were only 1/8" off (as opposed to 1/4" the month before). So no helmet yet, since things have been improving which is a huge weight off my chest, for now anyways.

Songs we sing to you include Big Girls Don't Cry, Boom Boom Pow, "but the one little duck with the feather on his back, he led the others with a quack-quack-quack" (not sure the name??), My God is So Big, Itsy Bitsy Spider, other nursery rhymes/kids praise songs.

Your still get called Peanut and Baby Peanut quite often. That wasn't ever a name that was supposed to stick - but it just kinda has. You also get an LA quite often, too.

You are still tiny. It seems like everywhere we go people are asking if you are 2 or 3 months old and are shocked when we tell them you are 5 or 6. I've finally stopped telling people and started just going with whatever they think you are. I also think it is hilarious how people comment about how small they thought their kid was until they saw you, and their kid is nothing short of obese. People say the dumbest things. You are just a petite little peanut, and I'm guessing one of these days you are going to have a huge growth spurt.

You still spit up quite a bit, and vomit often. We have done Zantac, omeprazole, and now Prevacid as well as weekly chiropractor appointments. I'm still not convinced that the medications are doing anything for you. We took a break from the chiropractor for awhile and quickly figured out that it really was working (despite the pessimism from Mommy) so we have made it a weekly thing now. I think we will just stop at the chiropractor on the way home from the hospital with the next kid ;)

All but 2 people, ever, have said that you look like your Daddy - and 1 of the 2 was Grandpa Doc so that may or may not count.

At just over 6 months old, Mommy and Daddy had their first trip away from you. We went to Fort Myers, Florida with the Reynolds', Michaelis', Upton's, Rogge's, and Wehr's for Tiff and TJ's 10th wedding anniversary. You got to spend a whole week back in Cambridge/McCook with Roo, Kilah, Uncle J, and Grandpa and Grandpa.

At SIX MONTHS, you:

Weigh 12 pounds, 14 1/2 ounces (5th percentile)

Are 25 1/2" long (30th percentile)
Head circumference is 16 3/4" (50th percentile)

Your hair is thinning and turning more blonde by the day

Still love your bath and love to get ready for it

Wake up so happy

Are still wearing size 1 diapers

Are wearing mostly 3 month clothes (no 6 months at all yet)

Have the most beautiful eyelashes - the second comment that everyone makes about you

Have been really healthy despite being at daycare - no major colds or anything since starting daycare

Have not had any solid foods yet - doctor wanted us to wait on that since we are a bit tiny