Our Little Bit turned 6 months old last Friday!
Mackenzie now weighs 16 lbs. 12 oz, and is 25.5″ long. Her two bottom front teeth are coming in (I was finally able to see them as of Friday), and I suspect some more are on their way. She is fussy at times for no apparent reason, and gnaws on anything she can get her hands on. Getting a few pictures where she was not chewing on the giant #6 was very challenging! She is a sweetie, and LOVES her bink (and truthfully, is fairly fond of her thumb as well).
But she will let it go when she is busy chatting or being charming…
Developmental stuff includes:
*sitting up by herself (though I won’t let her do it without surrounding her with pillows or some other soft surface as she is very wobbly)
*started solid food (cereal mixed with milk)
*rolls over tummy to back almost as soon as you put her on her tummy
*rolls over back to tummy (at least twice at home, but does not do it regularly)
*likes to sleep on her left side, and often puts her thumb in her mouth when on her side
*loves to splash in the pool and bathtub
*falls asleep in the swing by 9PM, gets fed and put in crib by 11PM, generally sleeps until 4-6:30 before eating again, and generally wakes up for the day by 7-8
*will grab her morning nap whenever she needs it wherever she is (prefers the car seat, swing, or carrier)
*will take a 2-3.5 hour nap each afternoon!
*grabs everything (one handed, two handed, whatever it takes)
*is starting to try to grab things with her fingers
*makes all kinds of sounds: ahh, ooh, oh, ga, ka, da, ba (will sometimes repeat sounds back to us)
*screeches (sometimes in happiness, and sometimes in aggravation) – Jason says she sounds like a pterodactyl
*generally prefers Mommy, and gets super irritated when I walk right by wherever she is without picking her up or snuggling with her
*eats every 3 hours when awake, but will happily sleep through a feeding at times
*wakes up happy and chatty; will generally just hang out for a bit and amuse herself
*has super sharp and super strong fingernails and toenails that grow like crazy
*loves to play with her feet
*supports her own weight while standing if we are helping with balance (truthfully, always has)
*loves to bang toys
*reaches for things she can’t see that are out of reach
*blows raspberries a lot (very cute and very funny)
I put together the next collage because I just could not make up my mind which pictures to put on the blog. I LOVE all her different facial expressions in this one – it truly represents her little personality (and the fact that she chatters a lot).
Brianna may not be interested in me taking HER picture, but she doesn’t seem to mind it at all when I want to take her picture with Mackenzie. She is a fantastic big sister – she shows patience with Mackenzie that she rarely shows with anything or anyone else, and she loves to do silly things and make silly sounds just to see if she can get Mackenzie to smile. It has paid off, too – Mackenzie is endlessly fascinated by Brianna.
This cute Gator cheer-leading outfit used to be Brianna’s. It did not come with any cute little underpants, so I got some ruffled bottoms. Gotta love the ruffle but!!
We are definitely ready for football around here! Until then, we will root for the Gator Olympians – GO GATORS!
M has had a huge week! This past Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty miserable for everyone – she went on a sleep strike during the day and was generally (and uncharacteristically) fussy all day long. She would basically fuss (with brief intermittent periods of happiness) until she exhausted herself to sleep.
But, during all that awake time, spent some fun time sitting in her high chair (a huge relief for me at least for a few minutes because up until that point, she wanted me, then more me, then more me…). She spent a good 20 minutes in the high chair just playing – very happy as you can see!
AND, she rolled over from back to front all by herself at school on Wednesday! I hear she was very proud of herself. She has not yet done it for us, but she has come close (about 4/5 the way over). I hope see it and get video of it soon.
Then sometime late Thursday early Friday an explanation for all that fussiness exposed itself – her first tooth! B never fussed while teething so we really didn’t have any experience with that aspect, and M has been drooling like crazy for about 3 months. You can’t really see the tooth yet, but you sure can feel it (and it actually feels like there are two poking through).
All that fussiness derailed our goal of getting her into her crib, but we finally got our chance on Saturday. We had put it off because we were having lots of trouble getting the temperature of that room under control, especially during the day. It is still not great, but it is workable. And, as you can see here, she really is too big for the cradle anymore (this was taken her last night in the cradle).
Saturday afternoon we put her down for a nap in there. The first go around lasted only 10 minutes. But then after a little cuddling and a little reassurance (who likes being alone in a strange room anyway?), she took a GREAT nap (>2 hours). The happy baby after her lovely nap:
Then, last night we put her in there at night. Truthfully, we could have and should have done that much sooner, but the roughest part of B’s babyhood was the cradle to crib nighttime transition. We were not anxious to go through that again. I don’t know how it will go in the coming weeks, but last night went MUCH better than expected – she slept until 2ish, and then after getting her bink and a little reassurance, she stayed asleep until 7!!!! For some perspective, note that between 5 and 6:30 was her normal wake-up time for that first feeding of the day. She is now up there again taking her afternoon nap, and has been up there over 2 hours. Amazing!
Not to be outdone, B has made huge strides in the pool. She has only had two lessons with Miss Nikki, but the progress is remarkable. She will put her face in the water, float on her back (even briefly without any help), swim a bit on her tummy while someone is supporting her the length of the pool, jump in the pool with her swim ring, and push away from the wall (with no help) to be caught by Miss Nikki. Trying any of these things would have been unheard of before her lessons started. Even more amazing is that B went to Miss Nikki right away – Yay B!
Oh, and B told me today all her hair broke off, so she needed to wear her wig…
B was so excited to FINALLY get to feed M last week. She now feeds her most nights, a “chore” she just loves to do. 
Pretending to sleep while M finishes up.
We had a fantastic 4th, visiting with Tatie Kat, spending time at the pool, and playing with friends. The girls had more than one days worth of festive outfits, so we started on the 3rd with one set of outfits. Notice the bright orange headband? What? You didn’t know that bright orange headbands go with EVERYTHING?
And then on the 4th, the girls wore their other outfits. The cute pony tails and hair bows lasted all of about 10 minutes (pretty much as long as she would let me take pictures).
Sweet Sisters.
After naps (both Hawke and B took very good naps, thanks to the morning pool time!), Hawke and his family came over for some hot dogs and fireworks. B LOVED the “snaps”.
Both kids had great fun playing with the sparklers (had to pull B’s hair back for that one!).
Can’t wait to take her to see some real fireworks next year!
