Six Month Old Alivia

Wow!  I think that four to six months is probably one of the biggest changes for a baby.  I can't believe how much Alivia's grown and how different she is from just two months ago!!  Oh, it just makes me sad.  I can't believe we're already halfway through her year of being a baby.  Here are Alivia's stats at her six month appointment:

Weight: 14 lbs 14 oz.  27%

Height: 25 1/2 inches  40%

Head: 16 5/8 inches 47%

 One of the first changes we started to see was that she began to smile and giggle so much easier and more frequently. In fact, the majority of the videos that are on my phone are of the girl's making Alivia laugh at one thing or another.

Here she is making me laugh, because that hat I found is so gosh darn hilarious

Next, she spent a lot more time on her tummy working on those rolls.  She started to actually not mind the tummy so much.

 And other times it still made her tired

 In fact, for awhile there, if I didn't get her in her bed right at the two hour mark (after being awake), she'd just fall asleep wherever she was.  This phase didn't last long.  She now pretty much doesn't sleep unless she's in her bed.

When Alivia did start rolling it was always when I wasn't looking.  I'd have her on her tummy and I'd come back and she'd be on her back.  Or vice versa.  I swear, she'd wait for me to look away or go out of the room to roll over.  It was crazy.  I'd ask the girls if they turned her over or I'd question my sanity thinking that I must've not had her turned the opposite way.  In this picture, I'd left her on her tummy a foot or two above where she is now.  I was so confused as to how she got to where she was, which is why I took the picture. (How long was I gone??)

 So during her fourth month, she did start rolling over both ways but it was sporadically (and in secret, behind mama's back).  Then right around five months, she had one day where she rolled over like five times from her tummy to her back.  Then the next day, I'd lay her on her tummy and she would scream and scream, but if she was on her back she'd roll over to her tummy.  She did that for the next couple of weeks.  She got the back to tummy roll down before the tummy to back (except for that one crazy day).  Now she is a rolling machine, very mobile, moving and rolling all over the place.  In fact, in her fifth month she started doing this strange backwards push crawl thing.  She'd be lying on her back and then dig her heels into the floor and push backwards moving her body up.  She'd often look in the direction she was going to and arch her back.  It was so strange.  She'd push and scoot herself into all kinds of things and since she was going head first, she'd always start screaming because it hurt to bonk her head.  We were also concerned that she was rubbing all the hair off the back of her head too (where it had just started growing back in!)

She digs those heels in

 Arch and push

 Dig the heels in again

She always wants what's behind her for some reason

Here she bonked into some furniture. Ouch!  I think she gets mad when she can't go anymore too.  She makes up a lot of ground this way.  So strange.  Something I've never seen a baby do before.

She also started to use her hands more to explore.  She loves to explore faces (and scratch the heck out of them!)  Aivree was nice enough to let her touch her face

Here is her first (of I'm sure many) experiences with bubbles!  "Why can't I grab onto those things?  I want to eat them!"

She also started sucking on her thumb occasionally; give that pointer finger a break

Feeding herself a bottle (not that she gets them very often.  It takes more time to pump and give her a bottle, then to just nurse)  She looks so cute though

This getting bigger stuff has opened up a whole new world of toys and fun things to do

 She loves spending time in her Exersaucer

And finally, probably one of the biggest changes, is that Alivia started eating solids!  This was no small feat, I tell ya.  She did not like this idea.  I was quite worried for awhile there that she would never eat anything besides breastmilk.  I started off with avocado and homemade rice cereal and she seemed to just hate those, so I bought store bought rice cereal and there was no change.  So I just had to be persistent.  I'd bought the rice cereal, so I figured I'd stick with that and see if I could convince her to like it.

One of her first feedings..

 A few days later...

 A week later....

 I'm a terrible mother, I know.  To torture my child in such a way.  I eventually added a little banana to her cereal and that seemed to make her happier (after a few tries).  But, our major saving grace was this little puppy...

Sweet Potatoes!!

 Sweet pototoes are the one food I have given her that she did not make a horrible face as soon as it touched her lips.  The one and only!!  I was so grateful too because I had bought about 20 pounds of sweet potatoes on a pre-Thanksgiving sale just crossing my fingers that she'd like it.  I've now got at least a year's supply (maybe less at the rate she eats it) in my freezer.

 My little sweet potato.  I can't spoon it in fast enough.

 She now has tried apples, carrots, peaches, white potato and recently I started giving her the little puffs (sweet potato flavor of course).  She really does not like the applesauce or peaches.  I know...huh?  Her sweet tooth must not have grown in yet.  She did however have another tooth grow in!!  Just a few days after her six month appointment she was chewing on my finger and I felt a little tooth peeking up through her gums.  My other girls never got teeth this early, so we're pretty excited.

I think when she was teething she started to get a stuffy nose or something.  She started to do this funny sniff thing and she also started snorting when she laughed!  Oh it was so hilarious and so darn cute!  She doesn't do that as much anymore, so I'm thinking it was just when she was stuffy.

Oh I am just crazy about this girl!

We just love love love our Alivia