As some of you may know, I LOVE Halloween! This is how Brianna began her first Halloween. The adorable bow in her hair was a gift from Mimi, and the fabulous bib was a gift from Tatie Kat, two other Halloween co-conspirators in this family.
The hat and onsie I found at a local store..
One of my favorite parts about Halloween are all the little ones in their costumes. This evening, one delightful “puppy” tried to move in with us. Needless to say, Mom & Dad, were somewhat flabbergasted. I thought it was cute. Too bad I couldn’t say as much — I have had a rather nasty case of laryngitis all day! As for our little one, can you guess who she is? I know the one on the left is a little fuzzy, but her little face was too cute. I had to include it!
Poor thing — by the time she participated in the Halloween parade at school, she was all worn out. Happy Halloween everyone!
Brianna is sitting up very well right now. I don’t even have to be particularly careful when I sit her down anymore. It is as if a switch went off in her brain a couple of days ago that made her realize she could sit up if she wanted to. I still tend to only sit her down in the pack-n-play or the middle of the bed since she still tends to throw herself backwards unexpectedly from time to time. Those hardwood floors are, well, hard! I took the above picture last Saturday before UF pounded UK. Hopefully, the good luck of her cheerleader outfit will continue through the rest of the season (especially this weekend against UGA!). I took the picture below on Tuesday while she played in her pack-n-play. She was too busy to smile, and in fact, seemed a little annoyed that I kept asking for a smile while she was clearly busy playing!
We started Brianna on sweet potatoes this past weekend. As you can see, she really likes them!
She also likes to “experience” her sweet potatoes with more than just her mouth. Hmmm… how do sweet potatoes feel on my face (commonly occurs when fingers enter the mouth right after the food, followed by fingers rubbing the face, eyes, nose, etc.)? If you look closely, you can see them on her cheeks, eyelids, and eyebrows.
How do sweet potatoes taste with my socks?
I think we will need to strip her for a while when she eats…bibs only help with the front of her. They have absolutely no impact on her sleeves or any part of her clothing that she can reach after sticking her fingers or feet in her mouth.
This past Tuesday, we took Brianna to the State Fair. My company graciously treats all of its employees and their families to fair tickets along with ride tickets and/or food money each year. So, Jason took a couple hours off work Tuesday afternoon (to minimize the crowds) and off we went. It was a perfect fall day — lots of sunshine and mild temperatures. She had a great time looking at all the lights and all the people. Obviously, she is a bit small for the rides, but we took her on the merry-go-round (one of my favorite rides). All in all, we think she had a great time!
Brianna was quite the wiggly one this past weekend. It is interesting how her movements don’t seem to change much over time, and then wham! All of a sudden she does a bunch of things. The fun began Saturday night when she started fussing shortly after we put her to bed. Jason went to check on her and immediately called me upstairs. This is the sight that greeted us:
Our little sweet pea had rolled over onto her tummy and didn’t really care for it. Apparently, the fact that she could roll herself right back over onto her back was lost on her. We had been told that she had done this once or twice a week or two ago, but this was the first time we actually witnessed it. Anyway, after we played a few games of roll-Brianna-back-over-onto-her-back-so-she-can-roll-right-back-over-onto-her-tummy, she finally fell asleep on her tummy. We repeated this game a few times at 5 AM when she woke up to eat. Other than that, she slept really good that night! Interestingly, she hasn’t tried to sleep (or even roll over) on her tummy since then.
She has also been sitting up more. I don’t really let her do it by herself yet unless she is on a nice padded surface (e.g., a bed or thick pad) because she tends to lurch backwards unexpectedly and hasn’t quite figured out how to correct her balance before she falls onto her back. Anyway, Sunday afternoon she decided she was tired of leaning back in her beloved bouncy seat. Not only can she sit up now, but she can pull herself up from a reclined position and maintain her balance. While it is a little hard to tell, in the top picture below she is sitting up in her bouncy seat while gnawing enthusiastically on Gina’s head — poor Gina. She also leans over the side of her bouncy seat now to try to get at her toys (see bottom picture). The bouncy seat safety buckle has suddenly become very important!
Today, she did even better. I don’t have a picture, but I personally witnessed her sitting up completely unassisted for at least 15 minutes while she happily played with various toys in front of her. She still lurches backwards unexpectedly, so she still has a ways to go, but I believe the days of her staying where I put her are numbered!
Last weekend we tried solid food in the form of various cereals. We tried baby rice cereal. We tried ground up steel cut oats (cooked and mixed with formula). We tried ground up regular oatmeal (cooked and mixed with formula). No go on any of it. She even decided she didn’t like her spoon anymore. So, Monday night we started over. After she woke up from her post-daycare nap (that issue is a whole other story), I gave her the spoon to play with while I held her. After a few minutes, I dipped the spoon in formula and tried to “feed” it to her while I held her. She opened her mouth right up. Then, I put a little prepared baby rice cereal on the spoon and tried to feed it to her while I held her. Success! After that I put her in her Bumbo seat and proceeded to feed her the rest of the rice cereal.
Throughout the rest of the week, I continued with the rice cereal until Thursday. Of course, she always manages to wear a goodly portion, but she seems to like it and opens her mouth nice an wide for each bite. She tends to make a mess when she feels she just HAS to say something as that spoon enters her mouth and/or when she dips her head at the last second (see above). Even covered in rice cereal, isn’t that face adorable??
On Thursday, I tried oatmeal again (ground up regular oatmeal cooked in water and mixed with formula). She still made a face, but was willing to eat it if I alternated oatmeal with rice cereal. I still believed it was a texture thing (you just can’t get real oatmeal to be super smooth no matter what you do). So, I bought some whole grain cereal for babies and tried some of that Friday night. She ate it right up and has already had a couple of servings today. Each time I make it a little thicker so she will get used to different textures. All in all, I am declaring victory!
Pictures in the months to come will provide a much better comparison between our baby pictures and Brianna, but here is the best we have for six months.
This next one may not quite be fair to Jason since Brianna and I are both in dresses and posed somewhat the same, but it is what it is!
Today we tried solid food for the first time and it was certainly NOT a success, as you can see for yourself! It started out well enough. She opened her mouth right up and couldn’t wait…until that oatmeal hit her tongue. Then her face scrunched all up and she basically spit the little bit in her mouth out.
I ground up steel cut oats (that is the kind of oatmeal I like, plus it is supposed to be better for you) and made some oatmeal for her. But I think it would be fair to say I didn’t grind it up enough. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. My little cuisinart just couldn’t do it. You probably need a coffee grinder or something (of course one that has never ground coffee). Either that or I need to grind it again after it is cooked. We also tried smoother cereals, but that didn’t fly either. We will try again tomorrow.
Today we went to the pediatrician for Brianna’s 6 month checkup. She now weighs 13 lbs, 8.5 oz (25%) and she is 24.75″ long (25%). She got the last of her DTaP and Rotavirus vaccines, for which she is profoundly grateful. She will go back in a month to get the last of her HiB and Pc vaccines. I figured I should go ahead and take some pictures of her in this dress (this in one of my baby dresses) since the doctor said to start her on solid foods. Those yellow and orange veggies will not flatter this adorable dress. Don’t you just love those “butt” ruffles! 
The bottom picture is quite representative of her priorities — feet are great for nibbling, aren’t they?
Yesterday was my birthday, and Brianna celebrated by being a complete angel! Of course, she is usually pretty good, so I don’t know that I can honestly say she did it all for me. That said, who is going to argue with me? I did have a doctor’s appointment, which generally is not my idea of fun, but when you ask for a particular doctor and you are only available Tuesdays and Thursdays, you take what you can get. On the plus side, Dr. T and all the nurses were very excited to see Brianna. They all gushed over her and repeatedly told her she was “just the cutest thing” and “like a doll” and “so adorable, they could just eat her up”! Brianna took it all in and managed to not get too big headed about it. After we got home, my friend Jennifer and her kids (Corinne & Jack) came over to wish me a happy birthday. They brought me homemade cards (I love kid art!) and homemade brownies. YUM! This was especially good since Jason was unable to get my cake. Our favorite bakery has apparently significantly reduced its hours and he is having trouble getting in touch with them.
After Jason and Brianna took me out to dinner, Jason gave Brianna her bedtime bottle. Over the past month or so, she has been touching her bottle during a feeding, and occasionally she holds it for a bit, but for the most part she is just content to let him hold it. She is too busy eating to bother with that sort of thing! Yesterday, however, she took the initiative and grabbed that bottle. In the first picture Jason is still helping, but mostly because he wasn’t sure she had it. As you can clearly see by the second picture, she had it and did not need any help — bottoms up!
