I'm not one to celebrate half birthdays, mainly because each 6-month period gets me that much closer to turning the dirty 30, but someone else in our house sure appreciates a mid-year party.
What better way to ring in a half birthday than with half a set of Jazz Hands?
Bob Fosse is spinning in his grave right now because he never had a chance to work with such amazing, jazzy digits.
Measurements
At today's appointment, Charlotte weighed 14 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 26.75 inches, putting her in the 81st and 18th percentiles for weight and length. Although she grew more than two inches since her 4-month check-up, she gained less than a pound, but the pediatrician said that a drop in weight around this time is normal. Charlotte still wears size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothing with no signs of outgrowing either very soon. With all the anxiety I have about clothing choices, it's a good thing she doesn't need anything new right now. Babies 'R Us turns me into a goddamn basket case.
Milestones & Abilities
By far, this month was the busiest of Charlotte's young life. She's like the iPhone of babies right now; a new version comes out every other day. Sometimes I push a button on her, and Siri tells me funny jokes and reminds me to get my teeth cleaned.
A bullet point guide to all of the new tricks Charlotte learned at obedience school this month:
- Sitting up independently and playing for a while without falling over
- Standing against furniture unassisted for a short period of time when propped up
- Eating tons of new foods
- Rolling over in both directions
- Using her feet to propel herself around the living room so much so that she looks like this:
GIFSoup
Likes & Dislikes
With all of the moving around and exploring she's been doing, Charlotte rarely sits still anymore, unless we're reading books, which she adores. She'll grab the pages and gnaw on the corners and scratch her fingers on the the "quiet old lady whispering hush."
Sidebar Rant: Anyone else's kids love the Karen Katz books? The ones that are titled things like, "Where's Baby's Mommy?" and "Grandma and Me". If so, are you also wondering how that woman is a successful children's author? I've never seen such boring prose or terrible grammar. Sure, it's kids' literature, but lines like "These are my flip-flops, sunglasses, and green hat!" just kill me.
When she's not sticking her nose in Gone With the Wind and War and Peace, Charlotte's found something else to love: food. Definitely a child of mine, Charlotte loves to eat. Besides the obligatory rice and oatmeal cereals, she's tasted sweet potatoes, pears, bananas, squash, peaches, and peas and liked them all, with the exception of the peas which I had to swirl into the squash a la Jerry Seinfeld's wife (the one that stole those ideas for sneaking veggies into kids' cupcakes and stuff). Sorry for that run-on sentence.
We've also tried a few snacks for fun, including a regular banana in a mesh feeder and a banana flavored Baby Mum-Mum which I bought for the silly name. In another life, Charlotte was a stereotypical primate of some type.
Currently, Charlotte eats two meals a day - breakfast and dinner - with plans to add in a lunch soon, per the pediatrician. Breakfast is typically oatmeal and some fruit; dinner features a veggie and a Mum-Mum. We started out with prepared purees for simplicity's sake; also, I didn't want to spend hours making baby food to only find out she didn't like something. Going forward, we'll keep some jarred stuff on hand, but I'm going to try to mash up, steam up, Magic Bullet up whatever I can to keep it easy.
Amy, a fellow new-mom friend of mine, invited me to join her next week to make and split baby food. I think it's a great idea to team up with someone and divvy up the proceeds so no baby's stuck with too much of one food. (#FirstWorldBabyProblems)
Month Six Moment
Kevin and Charlotte going for her first dip in the lake that Kevin grew up on.
Month Six By the Numbers
0: number of teeth poking through her gums despite everyone and their mom saying she's getting some soon
30: minutes that her sound machine will stay on when she goes to bed
9.79: cost, in dollar and cents, of the Baby Aveeno eczema cream we picked up at CVS to help soothe some of the dry patches on her elbows
3: naps per day she takes (1-1.5 hours each)
For fun...
-What is your kids' favorite bedtime book?
-No kiddos? What was your favorite childhood book?
I loved "William, Where Are You?", a silly tale about a kid whose parents have to track him down before he'll go to bed.