A month later...

Yes, yes I should have finished and published this post long ago...say one MONTH when El started sitting up really well and eating solids...but such is life and my lack of blogging so here we are catching up yet again!

The day El turned 5 months old (December 29th) she sat up all by herself for NINE minutes before toppling over! She was watching Signing Time and was mesmerized with it...as she always is. During Signing Time is when she would sit the longest without falling over starting with 9 minutes and progressing to 12 minutes and all the way up to 30 minutes.

Initially I surrounded her with a buffer zone of pillows for that inevitable "timber" as we call it. Now she's become stellar at sitting. She'll still have those occasional falls...but they are few and far between now. She doesn't really like her tummy any more. Tummy time has ended because whenever I put her on her tummy she just rolls over. She only rolls over her left arm onto her back. She can't go the other way. Occasionally she rolls from her back to her stomach, but that is very rare. She definitely prefers sitting up and seeing what's going on. Since she has started sitting up she's sat facing forward in her stroller for walks and LOVES it! It's a whole new world when you face forward!! She isn't showing any signs of crawling. No scooting, reaching, rolling over and over to get somewhere. For now she's content to sit on her blanket and chew and slobber on whatever toys are around her. If you look back at the first picture you'll notice her playing with the TAG of her elephant. She LOVES tags...much more than the actual toy for sure. Tags, paper, magazines, letters...anything that makes a crumpling sound that she shouldn't be playing with...she wants. I'm amazed at her attention to detail lately. Her little fingers have great dexterity and they grasp and pick up small things. She notices and stares at things like my wedding ring, ear rings, clickers on pens, buttons, etc and tried to grab them and pick them up. It is such a DELIGHT to watch her learn and grow!!!

Christmas day El had her first rice cereal added to breast milk in her bottle and she LOVED it. One week later on New Years Day she had the real deal...rice cereal and she LOVED it. In fact once she got the first bit off the spoon and in her mouth she was lurching toward the spoon after more. (Is lurching a word? I can't think of a way to describe her body movement toward the spoon. Hopefully you get the idea.) She couldn't get enough! It was really cute and very funny. So we've gone from this...




To this...sitting up enjoying solid food

The only problem we had with transitioning to solids was a BAD diaper rash. I haven't been making enough milk for El for quite some time. A growth spurt I never caught up to I guess. So when she started solids I think I gave her a little too much too fast trying to compensate for lack of milk on my end. That led to lots of frequent small hard poops. And with all those diaper changes and Walmart brand desitin...we had a BAD diaper rash. For all those moms and moms to be out there here is my advice...don't worry about saving $2. Even though the ingredients are exactly the same in Desitin and Equate diaper cream....they are NOT CREATED EQUALLY!!!! Name brand is the only way to go when it comes to little baby bum skin!

Ellie is now 6 months old. She weighs 15 lbs 12 oz and is 26.9 inches long. She's growing fast and I can't believe that it's been 6 months already. At this time last year (first of February) we announced we were pregnant and now she's half of a year! CRAZY how time flies! She loves to growl...it is here latest sound of choice. She use to do more babbles and coos but growling takes the cake now. She pulls at her ears when she's tired and trying to fall asleep. She also rubs her eyes just like her dad does when he's tired. It is super cute! She is still a 30 minute cat napper but sometimes we get hour naps so I'm hopeful that she'll grow into more of those long naps. She smiles all the time...but you'd never guess that by the pictures of her...cause her smiles always turn into curious blank expressions when the camera comes out. She giggles a lot...but only her dad can get her rolling and giggling like crazy. Ellie LOVES her daddy. I love to watch her little eyes follow him around and watch his every move. She has a special bond with her daddy. She has started clapping and she moves her arms up and down like she's trying to fly. She'll even move her arms and hit her chest or hit things around her like she's playing the drums. She also has a fetish with cups. She is so much fun and we can't get enough of her!


WE LOVE YOU ELLIE!!!