A Letter to Elise at 6 Months

My sweet, little sunshiny girl you are now half a year old! Time has been flying by so fast, but thankfully I'm not all emotional about you having your first birthday. I think I have staying home with you to thank for that. You are the best and sweetest little baby. People still stop me to tell me what a happy baby you are and you will smile at anyone who makes eye contact with you. You will even stare at people until they notice you and then you smile at them. You did that the other day when we met daddy for lunch. You looked at the men eating next to us until they looked at you and said "hi".

This month has been so much fun as we are getting to see your personality more and more. You are also able to do so much more. It has been a lot of fun to play with you at the park while Carter plays. You like to grab rubber mulch and go down slides. Your favorite thing to do is watch your brother. You grab toys to play with and can pass your toys from one hand to the other. You will also roll over to reach toys. You can roll both tummy to back and back to tummy, but tummy to back is more difficult for you. You actually like tummy time quite a bit, especially if I prop you up on a pillow. You like to straighten your arms and lift your head so you can really look around. Your favorite is when I do that for you on daddy and my bed so you can watch me get dressed. If you get tired of tummy time you just start sucking your thumb and go to sleep, no fussing! You rarely fuss and if you do it's because you are tired. You don't fuss when you are hungry maybe because I notice your hunger cues pretty quickly. Usually you just start dive bombing my chest.

Unfortunately I only have myself to blame that you like to sleep on your tummy. I'm a hardcore tummy sleeper! I'll lay you down on your back and you'll roll to your tummy in your sleep. I don't like it because of the risk of SIDS so I always go in and roll you back over. One night I nursed you in the middle of the night and when I checked you on the monitor when I got back in bed, I always do that just to make sure you're asleep, you had rolled to your tummy so I had to get back up to go flip you over! You are getting so close to sitting up on your own and want to do it so badly! You can sit up if I hold one of your hands to help balance you. If I just let you go you either fall over or slowly bend forward. Carter thinks it's hilarious when I prop you up so you can practice sitting. What's impressive to me is if you bend forward you can pull yourself back up to sit upright. Talk about serious ab muscles! You are also getting pretty wild with the bouncing in your jumperoo which is hilarious because you lean back about as far as you can go!

Sitting with some help.

Typical Elise look right there!

You love your afghan Oma made you and it is a huge soother for you. I let you sleep with it when you first go down for a nap and you crack me up because you'll immediately pull it up over your face. Once you're asleep I sneak in and pull it out of your crib. This month you started randomly sleeping longer stretches. Pretty much every night you have one really long stretch of 7-9 hours. Your best night was on September 15th. You went almost 12 hours between feelings, from 7 pm to 6:30 am! Earlier in the month we thought maybe you needed food because you started waking 3-4 times at night again. We hoped food would help you sleep longer because other than a few bites here and there we really haven't been giving you any. We tried it but you didn't sleep any better. Then later you started sleeping longer stretches on your own so the multiple wakings must've just been due to a growth spurt.

On August 29th you tried rice cereal for the first time and liked it quite a bit. That's the only new food we introduced this month. You like food okay but don't have much interest in eating it so we decided to wait a little longer to feed you consistently. We want to go with the baby led weaning approach and you're not quite there with picking up food and feeding yourself. You do prefer to sit in your high chair at the table with us at mealtime over being in your jumperoo or on your activity gym. It's so nice to have you at the table with us and you look so sweet sitting with us. Carter gets excited and wants to feed you off his plate, that says a lot because the boy loves his food!

As time has gone on you've slowly started disliking your pacifier more and more. This month you started flat out refusing it. The minute we put it in your mouth you spit it right back out. I'm fine with that but along with the dislike of your paci has come an increase in sucking your fingers. You are unique in that you don't just suck your thumb. You suck your ring finger and pinky together or your index and middle finger. I've even seen you suck your index and ring finger together! You do seem to prefer your thumb though. You mostly only suck your fingers when you are tired although you've started chewing them and drooling a lot so I think we may have a tooth in the near future. Your brother got his first 2 teeth in at the same time when he was around 7.5 months old so I wouldn't be surprised if it's another month or so until we see yours.

Another typical Elise surprised look!

Bath time is pretty hilarious. You used to bathe with Carter but since we moved your bedtime up to 7:00 you bathe alone and your daddy normally does the honors. You are so funny, splashing and doing normal baby stuff. But you also like to drink the water. You spend pretty much your entire bath time trying to turn your head to the side so you can drink out of the tub. We put our hand there to keep you from it. If something happens and you are able to get your head turned you quickly stick out your tongue to lick up some water. Then you look at us victoriously with the biggest open mouthed grin as if to say, "Ha, I did it!!!"

For the first time on September 4th you reached for me while someone else was holding you. Then you lunged for me when I didn't take you right away. You've done it a few other times and, of course, I think it is sweet. But you generally are fine being with anyone. You don't have to have me, which is nice. We went to visit daddy's Aunt Brenda. When you saw her you reached for her and wanted her to hold you. You've never reached for someone else when I was holding you so that was a special moment for her!

Your nursing sessions during the day have stretched out to 4 hours on average. On occasion you'll want to eat again after only 2 hours, but for the most part you go longer. I used to immediately feed you after you woke up from a nap but now I can wait until you start asking by dive bombing my chest. It's nice to have longer between feedings. We have always made it out and about just fine because I don't mind nursing with a cover up on but it has gotten easier to make it places with longer stretches between feedings. Now if you wake up right as we are getting ready to leave I don't have to feed you right away. That way we can get somewhere and let Carter start playing before I feed you. The trade off is that you don't nap on the go very well anymore. I can get you to nap in the baby carrier or in the stroller if it's constantly moving but even then it's not a full nap. Since you've started consolidating your naps it works out best to stay home for your morning nap before heading anywhere. Unfortunately some of our play dates are earlier and I have to try to get you to nap while out and about.

Your next doctor's appointment is in the beginning of October so I weighed and measure you myself. You are 14.3 pounds and 26 inches. You wear 6 month and 6-9 month clothes with some 9 month clothes thrown in there. Your 9 month onesies are a little long in the sleeves which means you suck on them. I've been surprised that most of your 9 month pants fit really well both in length and around the waist and legs. You are just a trim little girl so I guess that helps!

Man do you love your brother. If he's around you typically have eyes for no one else! You love to get a hold of his hair or really any part of his body. You also like to rest your hand on him. He's very sweet about it and doesn't mind unless you need your nails clipped. Then he gets upset because you accidentally scratch him. It's so cute because he calls you Baby Leeleese. Even when people ask what his sister's name is, he responds with, Baby Leeleese. Like baby is part of your name. He loves playing with you and helping me with you. He also likes to make you smile and laugh. He laughs so hard any time he makes you smiles! Just today he looked at you and said, "I love you so, baby!" 

Yesterday you woke up from your nap while I was still cleaning house so daddy went to get you. He needed to get ready for a birthday party we were going to so he just carried you around while he was getting ready. I went down the hall while vacuuming and saw daddy holding you while he was shaving. It was the cutest! You were reaching for the cord of his clippers which made it difficult for him to do what he needed. When I finished and went to get you I noticed tiny little hairs all over your back that had gotten on you while he was shaving. Daddy has started calling you sissapea which I think is adorable! It's catching on and I've been calling you sissapea and Carter, bruvycarrot. Daddy was just telling me the age you are at is the age that makes him want another baby. It's his sweet spot, he loves it. And man does he love you!

Elise, you are the sweetest little girl. I feel so lucky to have you. You make me so happy. I couldn't love you any more. Thank you for being such a cheerful baby! Going in to get you up from naps is always such a treat because I'm greeted by your smile. I love you, darling girl!

Now on to daddy:

So Happy little girl! It amazes me that when you wake up, you quietly play, coo, and talk until someone comes and gets you. You also go down for naps so well, just not as much for bed time! I guess you just don't want the party to end.

You get so many compliments from strangers in public because you always have a smile on your face and everyone comments on it and it really seems to brighten their day. But you save your biggest and best smiles for when you brother is around. You really do love him and are always looking for him and listening for his voice.

It is getting exciting watching you move and roll over, especially when you're sleeping. You have been giving your mom fits because you will roll onto your tummy in the first couple hours of sleep so she has to go in there and roll you over. You are still too young to be sleeping on your tummy little girl!

Here are some pictures without a headband on Elise for the Great Grandmas: