Natalie is 6 Months Old!!

Our baby girl is getting so big!  She continues to be a very happy baby, even despite the teething that she's going through.  Her two bottom teeth have broken through, and the tops are on their way.  And despite the fact that her teeth are coming in, she still isn't much of a solid food eater.  And despite the fact that she doesn't eat solid food, she's still a whopping 17.8 lbs!!!  Mommy's milk must be loaded with nutrients!!!  :)

Natalie's favorite song is the ABCs.  (It has been for a while, I just never blogged about it.)  Her favorite family member is her sister, except when she's hungry, then it's mommy.  (Sorry daddy!!)

She's currently wearing 9 month clothes, but might move up to 12 month for PJ's soon because of her big feet and chunky thighs.  (Yes, her toes are tight in the footies, and mommy has a hard time zipping up the sleepers through the thigh area.  hahaha)  She is consistently wearing bibs now, mostly because if we don't put one on her, she soaks her shirts down to her belly button in a matter of an hour with all her drool!!!

She enjoys trees, especially when they blow in the wind - that makes her laugh out loud.  It's the cutest thing watching her laugh at a tree!!

Here are some pictures we took on Friday, her actual 6 month birthday.  Sunglasses and headband courtesy of Alli, who found them in a drawer and decided Natalie *must* wear them!

The Plan

Alli loves making plans.  Sometimes her plans are negotiations for things that we suggest, and other times she just makes up plans.  These are usually plans of what we are going to do in the near future, like for the day, or after dinner, etc.  So last night, she asked if she could have candy for dessert.  And we said no.  She didn't eat a good dinner, she was out of sorts all day long, and she had had lots and lots of sweets since we went to three different Easter Egg hunts over the weekend.  Well, she didn't like that answer so she came up with another plan (which of course got her candy).  And we said no.  Now typically, her negotiations work because she comes up with a plan that's reasonable and we will except them, or part of them.  But last night, no matter what the plan, the answer to getting candy was no.  She was pissed, but finally gave up and watched a bit of a movie before bed time.

I went to go nurse Natalie to sleep and I told Alli (and Kim) that in 10 minutes, the movie was to go off and she needed to brush teeth and go to bed.  Both said okay.  I nursed Nat, who went down quickly and then came out to remind the two that it was time to get Alli ready for bed.  And Alli said "I want a pear for dessert".  And we said no.  Not because that was a bad idea, we would have been happy giving her a pear for dessert - the hour before, but not right at bed time.  So she tried to negotiate again and offered up apple sauce.  No.  No, no, no.  We weren't budging.

The "I HATE YOU"s went flying.  We were horrible parents.  And there was crying - lots and lots of crying and begging.  Kim tried to reason with her and told her that if we gave her her way because she cried, it would just make her think she could cry and get her way all the time.  Ok.  She understood that.  So then she tried to butter him up!  (Smart girl.)  Unfortunately, the answer was still no.  But she was starving!  No.

This went on for a while, but Kim finally got her calmed down again and she went to bed.  Whew.  What a rough night.

Well, at 3:30am, she started whimpering from her bed.  We thought "crap, she had an accident".  I got up to go check on her.  I felt her butt but nothing was wet.  I asked what was wrong.  And do you know what that little stinker said?  "Mom, I have a plan...  If you give me apple sauce before everyone wakes up, everything will be okay."  Are you kidding me?  3:30am for a plan!?!?!  ARGH!!!  I told her we do not make plans in the middle of the night and to just go to sleep.  I couldn't believe it!!!  She wasn't very happy when she woke up either, because she realized that she did not succeed with any of her plans, but that sadness got turned around with the promise of candy that night if she was good and pleasant all day.  :)


Speaking of plans, my plan is to keep getting up in the middle of the night and pumping extra milk until Natalie starts decreasing her milk consumption and increasing her solid food consumption.  The problem is, that little punk won't eat solids!!!  Every time we try, she just pushes all the food out with her tongue.  She's just not ready.  I think she's in cahoots with her sister to make sure mommy stays extra tired for more months!!!  ;)

Alli's Bum

Alli has an unusual reaction for food allergies.  Her little bum turns fire engine red and itches.  This is typically a reaction to dairy, but it seems like it's getting worse.  Yesterday, she ate a little chocolate that she had gotten from school.  An hour or so later, she was jumping in the bathtub for a "butt bath" because her back butt itched so much.  Apparently, milk chocolate has enough milk in it to set her off now.  Poor thing.  Good thing I bought dark chocolate easter bunnies for the girls!

Nat's Teething Update

We have teeth!  Two little teeth on the bottom have made a hint of appearance.  And I definitely notice when she is using my finger as a teether - ouch!

We have also upgraded to 9 month clothes.  Pretty big for someone shy of 6 months!

Family Dinner

You know when you live a part of your life that seems very stressful but if you tell anyone else about it, or look back on it years later, you just laugh?  That's our family dinners...

Natalie sits with us at the table.  We arm her tray with toys that she can grab.  Right now, she is teething like a fiend, and *everything* goes into her mouth.  Well, apparently she isn't very good at the aim sometimes, because lately, she keeps whacking herself in the head with the hard plastic toys and then she starts crying.  Of course, this in itself isn't that funny, but to watch her cry and then do it again, and again, and again until we take the toys from her is humorous in a way.  (She actually has a small black eye right now from doing this.)

But then add Alli.  So, we have one crying kid.  Then we have the big sister wanting to get her way factor.  Natalie will play with toys and some end up on the floor.  Alli *insists* on picking them up.  Tonight at dinner, she went to get one of the toys and hurt herself (this is also not uncommon for Alli).  So she was crying and trying to put ice on herself.  Natalie was crying (for one of several reasons) and Kim and I were just staring at each other like "is this for real??"  Of course, as soon as Natalie dropped another toy on the floor, Alli stopped crying, started giggling, and then hopped off her chair to go pick it up.  And the cycle continues.

We finally told Alli she couldn't leave her seat anymore and that was another round of crying.  But the funniest I thought was Alli.  Kim scolded her "Sit down and eat your food" and smacked her hand lightly for standing up on her chair and reaching across the table for one of Natalie's toys.  Alli started crying, claiming that Kim hurt her finger, so we told her to ice it (cause we already had the ice pack at the table!)  And then Alli says through tears "but then how can I eat my beans?"  I couldn't contain my laugh.  Luckily, that didn't piss her off this time.  :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And what a day it has been!  With absolutely nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day!  :)

Today, Natalie tried her first solid foods - rice cereal with breast milk.  She hated it.  Nothing went down.  Her face contorted when we put it in her mouth and her tongue just pushed everything out.  Ok.  Not ready for solids.  Got it.  So stop grabbing my silverware and cups every time I go to eat and drink my own stuff!!!  ;)

Alli had quite a victory with the bicycle.  Ok, it's actually a balance bike, which is a bicycle without pedals.  The kids just scoot with their feet and then learn the balancing part of riding a bike.  Well, she figured out how to balance and she was going back and forth across the driveway for quite a bit of time this afternoon.  Actually, until she decided to get daring and be like daddy, and instead lost control and caught herself right before she hit a cactus - almost.  We found out 5 minutes after we pulled her out of the wreckage that part of her foot really did hit the cactus and Kim had to pull thorns out of her toes.  Bike riding was done for the day.  Oops!

Kim and I toasted with some Irish whiskey - Redbreast.  It was a good day for the fam.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Roll Nat Roll!!

Yesterday at work I got a text from Molly saying that Natalie must be rolling over now.  Apparently 3 times throughout the day she would have her on the floor only to look at her again and she was on her belly.  Finally, she stared at her until she saw it happen.  And she did this with video running!  (Nice job Molly!!)  Now Nat is all proud of herself and all over the "rolling onto belly and back onto back" thing.  Usually, it starts with her sucking her toes though.  Funny, huh?

Look out!  Baby on the move!!

Old Man Bagheera

When a big dog gets close to his 13th birthday, you tend to see some old man things creep up.  Well, this is definitely Bagheera's old man year.  About a month ago, he hurt his back jumping out of bed.  We had the vet out, iced it, etc.  Things got better after a couple of days, but the vet said it might be good to not let him jump out of bed.  Ok.  Fair enough.  But Bagheera didn't like waiting for us, so he would jump...  Then a couple of weeks after, he was limping again.  Front paw.  Big knot on the top of it.  Ugh.  We assumed it was from jumping out of bed again, so we put forth a similar protocol.  And then we went sledding.  When we got back from the cold, you could tell Bagheera was just stiff and sore.  We felt bad for him, but we also knew that getting up and down from the bed wasn't going to work well.  We borrowed a dog bed from the neighbors, and he slept there for a while.  Then he was better again, and wanted back up.  Kim abliged by lifting him up to the bed and down in the morning.  This time, he would wait for Kim to get him down.  But after a week or so of this, Kim's back was destroyed.  He said putting him down gently really was what killed, but that was the part Bagheera needed the most.  So, we decided dog bed...  Bagheera is not a fan of sleeping on a dog bed.  He's a people!  And he sleeps in bed, with a pillow, right next to mommy.  He has for over 12 years, so changing that is *not* a fun thing for him.  Luckily, he has relented because we just won't pick him up to the bed.

And I know he's not a fan, because when I get up in the middle of the night to pump, Bagheera now gets up and walks around with me.  He never used to budge when he was in bed.  Poor thing.

Last night though, when I got up to pump, he was sound asleep on the dog bed, having a dream and running in his sleep.  I hope that means he's getting used to it.  I still feel badly that he has to change where he sleeps, but I need a husband that can move!  :)

Our Little Easter Bunnies

Our neighbor Tammy decided to give the girls some bunny ears for Easter.  Surprisingly, Natalie has no problem wearing them.  Not surprisingly, Alli loves pretending to be a bunny.

Here's a cute pic right after finding the ears:

And here's the girls showing off to Molly (our nanny):

5 Month Checkup - Teeth - Toes - Oh My!

I can't believe Natalie is already 5 months old.  Wasn't she just born yesterday??  :)

She's still a very happy baby, despite the fact that she is definitely teething!  One of the top teeth broke through the gum just a bit, but pretty high up.  We aren't sure what that's about - we'll be keeping an eye on it.  But the only symptom we see from her for all that teething is lots and lots of drool.

Today when changing her diaper I noticed she found her toes.  She was hanging on them for dear life!  Even tried to get her toes in her mouth.  (Everything goes in her mouth.)  And she almost made it!  Crazy girl!!

To honor her 5 months, we decided to weigh her.  16-1/2 lbs!  Way to go Nat!  I am absolutely amazed by her growth, especially since she really doesn't eat that much.  She only takes 4-5 nursings a day, and at that only about 5 oz at a time.  That just doesn't seem like very much.


Alli still gets great smiles from her, especially when she says goodbye to her in the mornings before school.  One of these days, I will video that encounter, cause it's WAY cute!!