Brianna is Six Months Old!

Six months ago right now Chris and I were {not so} patiently waiting to meet our little girl. I was in labor, but things were moving slowly. We had only barely decided that she would be named Brianna, and we had no idea how amazing she was going to be.

Our {rapidly} growing girl has recently graduated to size 3 diapers, and is fitting in some of her 6-9 month clothing, although she mostly still wears 3-6 month size. Here is Brianna's six month photo this morning with Baby Kelly:

"Mmmmm, Baby Kelly... a tasty treat!"

It seems like little B is doing something new every day. This month has been full of firsts and changes! One of the many firsts is that Brianna now sits in a high chair when we eat. I know that it seems like a small thing, but it makes meals completely different. Another first seen in this photo: PIGTAILS!!!

Brianna is such a happy baby! She laughs and coos and "talks" constantly. We get so much attention when we go in public because she will fix her eyes on people and just smile at them. She charms everyone at church with her little squeal/laugh.

Her current favorite things include:

the excersaucer (she plays in this every day... jumping up and down and up and down),

bathtime (this has become increasingly messy as B now loves to splash and kick in the water),

and Daddy!

All of the above are sure to bring a smile to her little face! When we hear our garage door open in the afternoons, I will look at her and say, "Daddy's home!" and she will get so excited while she watches the door for him to walk in. She has a little photo book that my friend's mom bought her, and she loves to look at the photo of Daddy and talk to him and laugh throughout the day.

While Brianna has no teeth yet, her chewing and drool output has definitely increased this month. We expect to see a tooth pop through any day now.

Brianna is sitting up on her own like a pro now. She can sit and play for extended periods of time without toppling over. Once she does topple over, she like to scoot and push herself across the floor to get to whatever she wants... which is everything these days! She is very grabby and tries to get her hands on anything within her reach. It has been so fun to watch her explore textures. The other day, she was in the sink (taking a quick bath) and the faucet was running. She kept trying to grab the stream of water and just didn't understand why her hands would go through it. I also let her play with frosting while I was decorating the cake for the birthday party we had last weekend. She kept putting her hands together and pulling them apart, just trying to figure out what was going on. So cute!

I started weaning Brianna this month, and that has gone well for the most part (I did mention one rough day in a previous post). She is completely day weaned. She still nurses before bed and early (like 5:00) in the morning. We are going to drop the 5:00am nursing next week. She only takes 2 bottles of formula a day since I have a lot of milk stored up for her, so I'm glad about that. She is also eating oatmeal cereal every morning, rice cereal before bed, and baby food at lunch. So far she her favorites are squash, sweet potatoes, and peas. She doesn't really like green beans or carrots, but will eat them. She has also tried bananas, apples, and pears, but doesn't seem crazy about any of them yet.

I am THRILLED to report that we are FINALLY making some progress in the sleep department! For the first time, she actually slept through the night about 3 nights ago! WHOOO-HOOO!!! While she had certainly slept for 7 or 8 hour spans several times before, it was always between like 8:00pm and 3:00am or 1:00am and 9:00am. This time, she actually slept from 9:00pm to 5:30am WITHOUT WAKING! I was so happy! She no longer eats at all during the night, but she will still wake at least once and we'll have to sooth her back to sleep. However, I think I can finally see an end to broken sleep!

Another thing that B is doing more nowadays is mimicking Chris and me. When we blow air out of our mouths, she will do it, too. The other day, I was moving my tongue in and out at her, and she was doing it back to me. She watches our mouths very closely and will sometimes try to form her mouth like ours. She also loves to watch our mouths while we read to her (and she still loves books!).

Happy half birthday, baby Brianna! We love you so much!