Six Month Stats

I almost forgot...

Happy Half-Birthday, Anna!

At 6 months, you:

weigh 17 lbs, 12 oz (85th percentile)
are 26 3/4 inches long (also 85th percentile)
can sit unassisted for LONG periods of time
laugh, coo, babble, scream and smile
can roll from tummy to back, but don't do it very often
roll from your back to your side, but not onto your tummy (probably because you don't really like to be on your tummy...)
stand with support (usually mommy or daddy, but you can hold on to toys for short periods of time)
ride quietly in your carseat (for the most part...)
take two or (usually) three naps each day
rub your ear when you get sleepy (this is new!)
still wake up several times at night to nurse (I blame mommy's illness-prone autumn...)

but mostly, you...
fill our hearts with love!

Wonder what Adele was doing at 6 months?
It's almost uncanny how similar they are in size at 6 months, isn't it?

Date with Daddy!

Last night Daddy took Adele on a date to see Beauty and the Beast at his work. Adele got to wear her Belle dress, and got all dolled up (makeup, hairspray, perfume, etc!) for the evening! It was pretty cute (and pretty hard to watch them leave too!)

We got Adele dressed up, and took some pictures:

Then Daddy snuck outside so that he could come to the door, ring the doorbell, and present Adele with a rose:

I almost could have cried watching them walk out to the truck!

She was SO excited to see the play!


While they lived it up, I stayed at home, put Anna to bed and then brushed Cookie:
YUCK!

Anyhow...Daddy and Adele only stayed for the first act. Adele was getting tired, and she had a pretty bad case of the sniffles. Daddy said she was just an angel while watching the play, though. She definitely paid attention, because as soon as they got home she started telling me ALL about it! Right down to the colors the different characters were wearing! Her first statement when she walked inside was that her favorite part was "Be Our Guest!"

I'm so glad that Adele and Daddy got to have their special little date! I hope Adele remembers it for a long time!

Sweet Stuff

Despite being sick, I just can't get enough of my two sweeties lately! It was SO nice to have Memaw come and stay with us while I recovered! Sadly, Daddy is now fighting a nasty sinus infection, as well as an infected knee. We've both remained in good spirits, which hasn't been too difficult, considering what sweethearts we have for daughters!

Adele with Daddy's hat and drumsticks:


After a *healthy* snack of graham crackers with frosting and chocolate chips:

I took Adele on a "date" to see Mickey's Magic Live downtown at Conseco Fieldhouse. She absolutely LOVED the show, and sat like a little princess the whole time! (This was day 3 of my "migraine" but we toughed it out together!) I caved and spent $10 on cotton candy because it came with the Mickey hat...who could resist that? I'm glad I did, because now when she talks about our "date" she remembers the cotton candy.

Silly little girl! She was pretending her marker was makeup...

Anna got to try some "biscuits" while Memaw was here...she thought it was some serious stuff!



Anna is a little ham. (Adele always was too, I guess...) She WAS "reading" along with Memaw and Adele...until she saw that I had the camera!

"Conductor Anna" on the train Adele built for her (it started with Adele putting the pillows behind Anna "so she didn't fall" but Memaw and I thought it looked like Anna was on a train or something)

Adele helped make pizza on Wednesday night. She put the pepperoni on all by herself (while I ran upstairs to get Anna up from her nap...I told Adele to wait for me, but she just couldn't!) She made "Elmo" with eyebrows, a "boogie," cheeks and some other "extra" facial features, I think!

I discovered a new blog called bento mama, which is all about the lunches a mom makes for her children. It's pretty cute, so I decided to try my hand at it in order to get Adele to eat something healthy with her "Elmo" pizza. It worked!

Cheese!

Update

Well, I'm finally on the upswing, after discovering that I had a sinus infection, NOT a migraine. I should've known better...well, I kind of did, but the nurse practitioner didn't agree with me.

Oh well. We all survived.

Anna never really did take a bottle (and got pretty dehydrated-as in woke-up-with-a-dry-diaper-dehydrated, but we kept our eyes on her, and she did eventually take a couple of ounces of watered down juice). Fortunately, something else positive happened which I believe was directly related to not being able to nurse her (all.night.long). Not telling what, though.

Adele napped the day I wrote that blog, but hasn't since.

Yesterday, I was still completely miserable, and getting worse again. We had a playdate at the neighbors, and I seriously considered asking her to drive us home...all the way down the street. I was that miserable. So, I called Memaw and asked her to come help out. Then I went back to the doctor and got antibiotics. I was anticipating another shot of toradol, and more bottles for Anna to reject, but the (different) nurse practitioner decided to treat my sinus infection first. She actually looked at me and said, "Do you know you have a sinus infection?" or something to that extent.

I have lots of cute pictures to post, but I'm off to bed for now...

Let's Talk Turkey...

It's November, so it seems appropriate to talk about turkey...but the "turkey" I want to talk about is COLD TURKEY (And I don't mean leftovers). We've been making a lot of "cold turkey" changes around here lately...and not all are for the better, but life goes on. Hopefully we'll be back to some sort of normal by the time Turkey Day rolls around (so we can travel...to a different time zone, nonetheless, and mess things all up again, right?)

Anyhow, here's what's been going on:

Adele quit napping last Tuesday. She just won't nap anymore. Thankfully she still rests...somewhat quietly...in her room, and her "destructive/climbing" phase has yet to resurface (knock on wood!) I'm not entirely thrilled, but that's because I've been battling a migraine since last Thursday. Read on.

I had a migraine that lasted from last Thursday until Monday when I said, "enough is enough" and went to the doctor. I had tried all of the "safe for nursing" medicines I could, and none worked. My head hurt so bad that I literally couldn't fall asleep two of those nights, and I spent one morning throwing up from nausea from my headache. It was bad. So, on Monday, I went to the doctor for some more powerful meds. Here's where our next little turkey shows up. No nursing for Anna...for 2 days. Let me just say that she's not exactly a fan of bottles. She's probably taken a total of 5 ounces out of a bottle in her entire life...and she's been offered bottles quite a few times (although, not THAT many times, because it's a bit frustrating...and until this headache situation, I had no *real* need to give her a bottle).

I was positive about this situation for two reasons: 1. It was a chance for her to really *need* to take a bottle, since I couldn't cave, no matter what, and 2. I thought it would help her with sleeping through the night (since she is back to waking up an average of 4 times to "snack" each night)

So far, in the 34 hours since she last nursed she's taken about an ounce and a half of juice from a bottle. No formula. Forget about trying to mix formula with her solid foodss, even...she just makes an awful face and clenches her little lips (and gums) together as tight as possible while screaming.

Fortunately, the screaming doesn't last long. She gets upset with us (well...usually me, since I'm the one home with her) and eventually decides she'll let me give her a paci, and she falls asleep. Her naps haven't been terribly long, but they're pretty frequent, poor baby!

She slept from about 8 until 4 before she woke up last night, so that's progress (Both girls were up for the day around 6:30, though...ugh!)

I'm very worried about her getting dehydrated, as she hasn't had a wet diaper since before 2:00 this afternoon, but the girl is just so stubborn, there's not much I can do.

This worrying is not exactly great for my head, which is feeling better, but not 100%...so I'm just hoping I don't have to go in for ANOTHER shot anytime soon!

Lastly, I was hoping to be able to post that we have a positive cold turkey to talk about, but unfortunately, that one is still in the works, but I will say that Adele spent 2 nights in just underwear, no pull-ups this week (on a whim...I decided that since pull ups actually worked AGAINST us during daytime potty training, they might be working against us at night too. She keeps her pull up dry on and off, but some mornings it seems like she actually pees in it AFTER she wakes up, but BEFORE she goes on the toilet, even though the "emergency" toilet in her room has been "used" at least once during the night)...Unfortunately, thanks to my headache and having to change wet sheets on the second pull-up free night, she's back the pull-up for now...if she's ready to stay dry all night long, she can wait until I'm feeling 100% (or at least 90%!) before proving it to us!!!!

Now, will somebody pass the tryptophan, I need a nap!

Sign Language

(for Aunt Jenny...)

Thanks to two recent trips by Aunt Jenny, Adele has rediscovered sign language. We used it quite a bit when she was smaller, and then when her vocabulary took off, we got out of the habit. I've been signing some with Anna, but not as much as I probably should, since she's still a bit too small to make the signs herself.

As I was looking at pictures from Anna's baptism weekend, I couldn't help but snicker at how "appropriate" this picture is:
(This is Aunt Jenny, holding Anna, who "appears" to be signing "cute"...pretty...cute, eh?)

Aww...Anna's first sign language!

Which got me thinking...did I remember Adele's first sign?

Oh yeah.
(no translation needed.)

And that pretty much sums up the differences in the first (almost) six months of their lives as well!


(Sorry Adele.)

Halloween 2010!

What can I say, we're blessed EVERYDAY with a princess and a doll for daughters....on Halloween they just got to dress up so that everyone else could see what a princess and a little doll they truly are!

Trying on her hat/wig:
(and yes, that dress matches the one Adele wore to the baptism (thanks, Memaw!)-too bad I didn't get a picture of them in their "twin" dresses!)

She's not nearly as thrilled about the dress though (too many sleeves to put on...she's not a fan of sleeves):


"Okay, maybe this isn't so bad..."

"Wait a minute..."


Adele was originally going to be Belle for Halloween. However, I guess we made too much fuss over Miss Anna's Raggedy Ann costume, because as soon as it was time for Adele to put on HER costume, she started to throw a fit. SHE wanted to be Raggedy Ann TOO. Oops. Talk about feeling terrible (but, in all of our defense, Anna was BEYOND cute in her costume!) Fortunately, I was quick on my feet and pulled out Adele's Cinderella dress. I gave her a choice of being Cinderella or Belle and she chose Cinderella without a passing glance. Tantrum avoided. Phew! (And as a bonus for Mommy, one less time I'll have to "fix" the Belle dress before she wears it to Beauty and the Beast with Daddy later this month!)




It took Adele an hour to go to about 10 houses on the two cul-de-sacs next to our house, and by that point we (the grown-ups) were done!

Sorting our "loot" (And checking for peanuts, of course!)


At one house, the lady passing out candy (what IS the name for those who stay behind hand out the candy?) held the bowl down for Adele to choose her "treat". It was full of Reeses' cups, Snickers, Hershey bars and Smarties. Our little Smarty chose a roll of Smarties, and the lady instantly shoved a peanut butter cup into her hand as well. She made a comment about how "conservative" Adele was in her choosing-I couldn't help but be proud of my little girl for knowing JUST what treat to pick! I'm sure it wasn't quite a fluke...she has never tasted candy in an orange package like the peanut butter cup came in, but she HAS eaten Smarties...but it did make me wonder if there was some sort of "peanut-allergic-instinct" that helped her to choose the treat she'd actually be able to eat! (Bapa enjoyed the Reeses' cup after Miss Adele went to bed, if you must know...) At other houses, I was right next to Adele, and would "suggest" which candy she should pick if there were peanut/peanut-free options in the same bowl. While I was secretly hoping for a trick-or-treat evening full of Baby Ruth's and other peanut-y goodies, the ONE lonely Snickers bar Bapa didn't eat is still sitting on a shelf in the kitchen....I'm almost afraid (for Anna's sake...) to eat it!