Grace - Six Months Old

My baby girl is already halfway to her first birthday! If I had to describe her personality thus far in two words they would be 'calm' and 'observant.' Grace spends most of her days soaking up every little detail of the world around her - the sight of a ceiling fan whirring, the intricacy of the folksy elephant pattern on her nursery curtains, the sound of sausage sizzling on the grill, the motion of the fridge being opened and closed, Daddy's path across the room. You name it, she observes it.

Since Grace is so busy watching and listening, she stays quite calm and still. Though, she'll occasionally burst into one of her babbling spells. A typical Grace sentence goes something like this, "Waawaawaa. Guhgaa. Aaaaaa. Yaamaamaawaabaabaa. *razz* Maawaa."

A normal day involves two or three naps, two meals & six nursing sessions (Her size shows for it!), lots of reading books and playing with toys, and an outing or two to the grocery store, the library, church, a friend's house, the park, or Yogurtland. She sleeps about eleven hours a night, including an early morning feeding.

Here's my week by week breakdown...

18 weeks - Grace started playing with her feet. Including sticking them in her mouth and sucking on them.

19 weeks - Babies normally begin rolling from front to back. Grace began rolling the opposite way. She would get herself stuck on her stomach, get frustrated, start screaming, and we'd have to roll her back over. Over and over. Before going to sleep and after her early morning feeding, we would check on Grace to make sure she wasn't sleeping on her stomach since that position increases the risk of suffocation and SIDS. She often was, so we would flip her over, praying that she wouldn't wake up. She sometimes did and would cry until she fell back asleep. Ugh.

20 weeks - This girl has lived with her tongue sticking out since birth, so it only makes sense that she became obsessed with razzing. It was her primary means of social interaction for a couple of weeks.

21 weeks - Grace has been teething for a long time, but it has never been too difficult. Except for this week, we had five days of teething nightmare that reminded us of her acid reflux days. Cranky, fussy, inconsolable baby. Horrible. But, then there was this:

22 weeks - She learned to roll from front to back. Yay! We also started her on rice cereal. She really enjoys eating, though being on a rice and milk diet made her constipated. She'd grunt, strain until her face turned bright red, and even let out some primal screams. I laughed a lot those days.

25 weeks - My sister, Andrea, was on a break from PT school and flew out to visit for a few days. My dad was also in town for business, so we saw him here and there. Unfortunately, Grace's acid reflux decided to flare up around the same time, so she wasn't quite her usual happy baby self. The doctor upped her baby Zantac dosage and now she's back to normal. She also had veggies (green beans) for the first time and cried from the experience. Since we eat like rabbits over here, I really hope she learns to like green food.

Happy Half Birthday to You, Grace!